Your container cleared JAXPORT.
Now someone has to keep it moving.
Once your container is available, someone has to actually move it—fast, before the charges start. That's Armor Freight.
- 904-902-3950
Serving: Blount Island – Dames Point – Talleyrand
We don’t own the port. We don’t clear customs. We don’t control the steamship lines.
No drayage provider controls vessel schedules, customs exams, or terminal congestion. What we control is how fast the inland move happens once your container’s available — and when something changes, you’re not the one figuring out who to call. We already are.
Imports rarely fail because a company does its job poorly.
They fail because nobody owns what happens between companies.
That’s the gap Armor fills — one call, not five.
01 - Vessel Discharge
Most import delays don't happen on the ocean. They happen after the container reaches Jacksonville. The vessel arriving isn't the moment that matters to you — it just starts the clock. Here's how a routine week goes sideways when nobody's coordinating the pieces:
Customs releases the shipment at 2 PM.
The dray carrier can’t pick it up until tomorrow.
The warehouse has no appointment open.
Nobody scheduled the receiver.
The empty sits another two days.
Now the costs start.
None of those companies did anything wrong. They just weren’t coordinated. Costs begin accumulating the moment the shipment stops moving — not only detention and per diem, but missed appointments, rescheduled labor, and a production line waiting on parts.
02 — Customs Release
Before you can touch the box, it has to clear. Customs release is between you, your customs broker, and CBP — it's the one stage where Armor genuinely can't act on your behalf, and we won't pretend otherwise.
What we do is watch for it. The moment your broker confirms release, the inland move is already staged to go, so free time doesn’t burn while a truck gets arranged from scratch. Where we can’t control, we prepare.
Stall Point
Why Am I Being Charged Detention or Per Diem?
Detention, per diem, and demurrage run on the same idea – a daily charge that climbs the longer your container sits. Knowing which clock is running tells you how to stop it.
Demurrage is charged while the container is still inside the terminal, past its last free day.
Detention (per diem) is charged once you’ve taken the box out and held it too long before returning it empty.
And the chassis is the third clock most importers miss – it keeps billing every day you hold the equipment, separate from the container itself.
Terminology varies by steamship line – some use “per diem” broadly for equipment use.
03 — Container Available: Now What?
A container can't roll off the terminal the moment you want it. It has to be available, customs-released, with an appointment booked, a chassis under it when required, and a receiving dock ready to take it. Miss one piece and the truck doesn't move — while the clock keeps running.
Before a truck ever shows up, all of this has to be true:
- ✓ Container available
- ✓ Customs released
- ✓ Terminal appointment secured
- ✓ Chassis confirmed (when required)
- ✓ Receiver ready
- ✓ Delivery scheduled
04 — Pickup
Once the container's available and released, this is where coordination earns its keep. What we run:
You see “picked up” and “delivered.” Everything between is ours to handle. What you’re really buying isn’t a truck — plenty of companies have trucks. It’s certainty: no surprises, no port to learn, no vendor stack to chase.
→ For the mechanics of the terminal pull itself, see Port Drayage Services.
05 — Should It Stay in the Container, or Come Out?
The decision that shapes the rest of the move — and where it goes next. Delivering the full container straight to its destination is sometimes the right call: one consignee, a live unload, done. But holding the ocean box isn't free — per diem and chassis run for as long as you keep it, and it can only go where a container can go. When freight is splitting to multiple stops, moving as LTL, or racing a per diem clock, taking it out usually wins. Here's what that means:
Direct Delivery
The full container goes straight to one destination and is unloaded there: live off the truck, or dropped for the consignee to unload on their own time. The right call for one consignee with immediate unloading — just remember the box stays yours until it’s back, so per diem and chassis keep running the whole time.
Transloading
Freight moves out of the ocean box onto a domestic trailer (like a 53′ van). The box goes straight back — per diem and chassis stop — and it runs as standard over-the-road full truckload or partial truckload. Usually the single biggest cost lever on an import move.
Cross-Docking
One inbound container, five customers, five appointments. Freight is separated by destination and rebuilt into efficient multi-stop routes — moving straight from inbound to outbound with little or no storage in between.
Short-Term Storage & Staging
Not a default step. When freight lands before there’s space or an appointment to receive it, palletized inventory is held securely until the timing lines up — then released.
→ Unloading, transloading, and cross-docking run through our warehousing operation.
Then It Ships... However it leaves the port, we move it to its destination.
Coverage extends throughout Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee, with Northeast support through our Allentown, PA operation. We handle receiver appointments, routing, and final-mile coordination so your freight arrives on schedule.
A QUICK EXAMPLE:
A retailer has one container arriving Tuesday: two pallets for Orlando, five for Atlanta, eight staying in Jacksonville until Friday. Instead of paying to hold the ocean container while all that gets sorted, we unload it, separate the freight by destination, return the empty, and coordinate each shipment on its own timeline. Different freight, different stops, one coordinated move.
06 — The Empty Return (The Stage Everyone Forgets)
This is the stage most competitors' copy skips — and it's the one that actually stops the clock. Returning the empty on time (to whatever depot the steamship line designates — sometimes not where it was picked up) and terminating the chassis stops both the per diem and the daily chassis charge. Two clocks, not one.
We drop the chassis with the empty and close both out. The move isn’t done when your freight is delivered; it’s done when the equipment is back and the billing has stopped.
FREIGHT FORWARDERS
Move freight through Jacksonville for your own customers?
Pickup from the Terminal
Transloading & Cross-Docking
Warehousing & Staging
Final Distribution to any Destination
Your Customers Stay Yours
We're your local execution arm after the terminal.
WHY JACKSONVILLE WORKS
98 M
Consumers within a day's drive.
Deepwater Container Port
Direct vessel service to major global trade lanes.
Connected
Direct access to I-95, I-10, I-75, and Class I rail.
Already have a container at JAXPORT?
Send us three things:
- The Container Number
- The Terminal
- Your Last Free Day
and we’ll build the plan and run it, from release to the empty coming back. One shipment, one team, one point of contact.
