OPERATIONS
Street Turn
An arrangement where a drayage carrier moves an import container to its destination, then picks up an export empty at the same or nearby location — avoiding a trip back to the terminal depot.
A street turn (also called a "grey market container" or "triangulation move") is a drayage arrangement where, instead of a carrier returning an empty container to a terminal depot after delivery, the same empty is immediately repositioned to pick up an export container nearby — without going back to the terminal. For example: a carrier delivers a 40' dry import container to a warehouse in Savannah, GA. Instead of returning the empty to the Garden City Terminal, the empty is swapped to an exporter 2 miles away who needs it for a shipment. This is a street turn.
Street turns reduce truck miles, fuel consumption, and chassis cycling time. They also relieve terminal congestion by reducing the volume of gate transactions. Both the shipping line (who owns the container equipment) and the IEP (who owns the chassis) must authorize the street turn arrangement. Street turns require both carriers involved to be UIIA-registered, and the transaction must be documented through a matching system (DCLI, TRAC, or other IEP portal) to transfer equipment responsibility.
At high-volume ports, street turns are an important tool for managing chassis shortages and reducing per-move cost. Freight forwarders who can coordinate import and export cargo for the same equipment type, at overlapping delivery windows, create street turn opportunities that benefit all parties. Some ports and chassis providers run dedicated street turn matching platforms to facilitate these transactions.