Most port drayage guides assume the cargo arrives in a box. At the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore, a great deal of it arrives on wheels or tracks. In 2025, Baltimore handled 887,513 tons of roll-on/roll-off farm and construction equipment, the highest of any U.S. port and a 6 percent increase over the prior year, along with 728,225 autos and light trucks, second in the country and the thirteenth consecutive year above 700,000 units. It also moved 1.1 million tons of forest products, rolled paper and wood pulp, first among all American ports. Of roughly 50 million tons of total cargo, about 11.1 million tons crossed the public terminals managed by the Maryland Port Administration, the third-largest figure in the port’s history.
That cargo mix makes Baltimore a different drayage problem than a container-dominated gateway. A combine, an excavator, a transformer, or a bundle of rolled paper does not move on a standard chassis, does not fit a standard appointment, and frequently does not fit a standard lane. This guide is designed for automotive, agricultural equipment, construction machinery, project, and breakbulk shippers moving cargo through Baltimore in 2026, as well as container importers using Seagirt. It covers the terminals and what each actually handles, how wheeled and oversize cargo moves inland, the container side at Seagirt with its two 50-foot berths and on-dock rail connection, the Mid-Atlantic reach that makes Baltimore attractive, and the disciplines that keep heavy and awkward freight moving cleanly.
The Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore is the leading U.S. port for roll-on/roll-off farm and construction equipment, handling 887,513 tons in 2025, and ranked second nationally for autos and light trucks at 728,225 units, its thirteenth consecutive year above 700,000. It also ranks first among U.S. ports for forest products, moving 1.1 million tons of rolled paper and wood pulp in 2025. Public terminals are managed by the Maryland Port Administration and include Dundalk Marine Terminal, the primary ro/ro, auto, and heavy machinery facility with 13 berths and on-site auto processors, and Seagirt Marine Terminal, the container facility operated under a public-private partnership by Ports America Chesapeake, spanning 320 acres with four berths, two of them 50 feet deep, roughly 1.5 million TEU annual capacity, 350 reefer outlets, and a direct connection to the adjacent CSX Intermodal Container Transfer Facility. Drayage at Baltimore spans standard container moves, wheeled and tracked ro/ro cargo, oversize machinery requiring permits and specialized trailers, and breakbulk, with highway access via I-70, I-81, I-83, I-95, I-97, and I-895. BookYourCargo is a national drayage company that handles container, heavy, and specialized freight at the Port of Baltimore.
What this guide helps you control
- Oversize and overweight machinery moves that need permits, route planning, and specialized trailers rather than a chassis.
- Ro/ro and wheeled cargo coordination with terminal processing and inland delivery.
- Breakbulk and forest products handling, where the unit is a bundle or a piece rather than a container.
- Container drayage at Seagirt, including free time, chassis, and the on-dock rail connection.
- Mid-Atlantic inland routing across the interstate network serving the port.
1. Why Baltimore is a rolling and heavy cargo port
Baltimore’s inland location on the Chesapeake places the port closer to many Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley, and Midwest destinations than coastal gateways farther north or south. For high-value wheeled and heavy cargo, where the inland leg is expensive and the equipment is awkward to move, that shorter inland distance can matter more than a day of ocean transit. The port has built its specialty around exactly that advantage.
- Leading U.S. ro/ro machinery gateway. Baltimore handled 887,513 tons of roll-on/roll-off farm and construction equipment in 2025, the highest of any U.S. port, up 6 percent year over year.
- Second nationally for autos. The port moved 728,225 autos and light trucks in 2025, its thirteenth straight year above 700,000 units, supported by four auto processors operating on the Dundalk terminal itself.
- First in forest products. Baltimore moved 1.1 million tons of rolled paper and wood pulp in 2025, first among all U.S. ports, a classic breakbulk commodity requiring careful handling rather than container equipment.
- Ocean carrier coverage for rolling stock. All of the major roll-on/roll-off ocean carriers call Baltimore, which gives shippers of vehicles and heavy machinery genuine service choice at a single gateway.
The cargo profile means a drayage provider serving Baltimore has to be able to move more than containers. This is the specialized capability set covered in the analysis of overweight and out-of-gauge drayage, applied to a gateway where oversize and wheeled cargo is the core business rather than the exception.
2. The Baltimore terminals and what each handles
The port’s public terminals are managed by the Maryland Port Administration, and unlike a single-purpose container port, each facility here serves a distinct cargo type. Knowing which terminal a shipment lands at determines the equipment and the plan.
Dundalk Marine Terminal
The nation’s leading facility for handling vehicles and heavy farm and construction equipment. Dundalk operates 13 berths, with drafts of 34 feet at four berths, 42 feet at seven, and 50 feet at two, and handles containers, breakbulk, wood pulp, ro/ro, autos, project cargo, and farm and construction equipment. It offers four 40-long-ton container cranes, ten sheds totaling roughly 790,000 square feet of inside storage, direct-to-rail capability, and four auto processors operating on site. A quay project has been fortifying the roll-on/roll-off berths specifically because agricultural and construction machinery keeps getting larger and heavier.
Seagirt Marine Terminal
The port’s primary container facility, operated under a public-private partnership by Ports America Chesapeake, occupying 320 acres with four berths. Berths 1 and 2 run 1,377 linear feet at 45 feet of depth, handling vessels up to roughly 9,200 TEU, while berths 3 and 4 run 2,975 linear feet at 50 feet of depth. Bringing a second 50-foot berth into service allows the port to work two megacontainerships simultaneously. The terminal is rated at roughly 1.5 million TEU of annual capacity, with neo-Panamax and super post-Panamax cranes, 22 rubber-tired gantry cranes plus 15 hybrid electric RTGs, 350 reefer outlets, and 134 acres of outside storage. Its most useful feature for inland cargo is direct access to the adjacent CSX Intermodal Container Transfer Facility, or ICTF, which brings the railhead to within roughly 1,000 feet of the bulkhead.
The other public terminals
North and South Locust Point and the Fairfield and Masonville terminals round out the public facilities, handling autos, breakbulk, forest products, and specialized cargo. For a shipper, the practical point is that Baltimore is a multi-terminal port where the cargo type, not just the carrier, determines the berth, and a drayage provider has to be credentialed and equipped at more than the container gate.
3. Moving wheeled, tracked, and oversize cargo inland
Once a combine, excavator, or transformer comes off the vessel, the inland move is a different discipline from container drayage in almost every respect. Four factors govern it:
- Dimensions before weight. Agricultural and construction machinery is frequently over-width, over-height, or over-length before it is overweight, and each dimension carries its own permit implications. The move has to be measured accurately at the terminal rather than estimated from a booking.
- Permits and route planning. Oversize loads require state permits that define a legal route, and the route is constrained by bridge clearances, overhead structures, and turn geometry. Baltimore’s interstate access via I-70, I-81, I-83, I-95, I-97, and I-895 gives real routing options, but oversize routing is a planning exercise, not a default.
- Specialized trailers. Wheeled and tracked machinery moves on lowboy, step-deck, or flatbed equipment depending on height and weight, sometimes with escorts. A carrier network limited to chassis cannot perform these moves at all.
- Securement and handling. Machinery, rolled paper, and breakbulk pieces each have their own securement requirements, and improper securement is both a safety exposure and a cargo damage claim waiting to happen.
4. The container side: Seagirt and the rail connection
Baltimore is not only a rolling cargo port. Seagirt handles substantial container volume, and for container importers the operating characteristics are favorable relative to the larger gateways to the north and south.
With roughly 1.5 million TEU of annual capacity across 320 acres and 134 acres of outside storage, Seagirt is built for high-throughput container handling and can be an efficient alternative for shippers evaluating Mid-Atlantic gateways, with two 50-foot berths that let it work large vessels without draft restrictions. Its 350 reefer outlets support refrigerated volume, and the modern RTG fleet, including 15 hybrid electric units, supports yard density.
The Intermodal Container Transfer Facility adjacent to the terminal, served by CSX, is what makes Baltimore work for inland container cargo, placing the railhead roughly 1,000 feet from the bulkhead so inland-bound boxes avoid a long origin drayage leg. The completed Howard Street Tunnel modernization now provides full double-stack clearance through Baltimore, with double-stack rail service beginning in June 2026 following the $495 million project, removing a long-standing constraint on container rail growth and strengthening the port’s access to inland markets. For an importer, this is the same intermodal structure described in the analysis of rail drayage, with an unusually short origin leg.
5. Mid-Atlantic reach and the inland case for Baltimore
Baltimore’s inland position is the reason shippers choose it, and it shapes how a drayage program should be built around it.
- Closer to the interior. Sitting farther up the Chesapeake than other East Coast ports puts Baltimore nearer to Midwest and Ohio Valley destinations, which shortens the expensive inland leg on heavy and high-value cargo.
- Dense interstate access. Major east-west and north-south corridors, including I-70, I-81, I-83, I-95, I-97, and I-895, are within minutes of the terminals, giving both standard and permitted oversize moves genuine route choice.
- Regional distribution and warehousing. The Baltimore and Mid-Atlantic corridor supports substantial warehousing capacity, allowing importers to position inventory near the port rather than immediately trucking it long distances after discharge.
- An alternative Mid-Atlantic gateway. For shippers whose landed cost suffers from congestion at larger neighboring gateways, Baltimore can offer an alternative where port capacity, inland distance, and terminal conditions may improve schedule predictability for specific cargo programs, which matters most when the cargo is oversize and each move is expensive.
6. Cost and compliance checklist for Baltimore drayage
A practical scoreboard for automotive, machinery, breakbulk, and container shippers moving cargo through the Port of Baltimore. Each line is a place where a move most often goes wrong here, and the action that prevents it.
| Risk | What it costs if mismanaged | Action that prevents it |
|---|---|---|
| Dimensions estimated, not measured | Wrong trailer dispatched, move fails at the terminal | Confirm actual width, height, length, and weight before dispatch |
| Missing or wrong oversize permit | Illegal move, fines, and a stalled machine on the terminal | Secure the permit with a compliant route before the truck is scheduled |
| Chassis-only carrier network | Wheeled and tracked cargo cannot be moved at all | Use a provider with lowboy, step-deck, and flatbed capability |
| Improper securement on machinery or rolls | Cargo damage claims and safety exposure | Match securement to the commodity, verify before departure |
| Terminal mismatch in planning | Equipment sent to the wrong facility | Confirm which terminal the cargo lands at, since cargo type drives the berth |
| Container free time overrun at Seagirt | Demurrage and chassis per diem | Plan pickup from vessel arrival, use the ICTF rail connection for inland boxes |
| No visibility on a multi-leg heavy move | Exceptions surfacing late on expensive cargo | Track the move end to end from discharge through final delivery |
7. How BookYourCargo handles Baltimore container and heavy cargo
BookYourCargo is a national drayage company with vetted carrier capacity at the Port of Baltimore and across every major U.S. and Canadian port and rail ramp. For automotive, machinery, breakbulk, and container shippers, the operating model spans both the box and the pieces that will never fit in one:
- Container drayage at Seagirt. Vetted carrier capacity for container pickups, with pickup planned from vessel arrival to protect free time and coordination with the adjacent CSX Intermodal Container Transfer Facility for inland-bound boxes.
- Wheeled, tracked, and oversize moves. Lowboy, step-deck, and flatbed capability for agricultural and construction machinery, project pieces, and vehicles moving off Dundalk, with dimensions verified and equipment matched before dispatch.
- Permitting and route planning. Oversize and overweight permitting handled as part of the service, with compliant routes planned across the interstate network serving the port and escorts arranged where the load requires them.
- Breakbulk and forest products handling. Equipment and securement appropriate to rolled paper, wood pulp, steel, and other breakbulk commodities that move as pieces rather than containers.
- Mid-Atlantic delivery and visibility. Regional delivery and warehousing support across the Mid-Atlantic and into the Ohio Valley, with live tracking across the full move and API and EDI integration into the shipper or forwarder operating system.
This connects to BYC’s broader overweight and tri-axle drayage, national drayage, and port drayage capabilities, execution runs on the BYC drayage technology platform, and first-party East Coast rate context lives in the monthly BYC Drayage Index, published going back to 2022. Inc. 5000-recognized, BBB A+ rated, IANA Member, NCBFAA Member, and WOSB-certified through the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Frequently asked questions about drayage at the Port of Baltimore
Move Baltimore cargo with equipment that matches the freight
Baltimore is the country’s leading gateway for machinery and rolling cargo and a capable container port at the same time, which means it rewards a drayage company that can measure a machine, pull the permit, put it on the right trailer, and still handle the boxes at Seagirt. If you are an automotive, machinery, breakbulk, or container shipper moving cargo through the Port of Baltimore in 2026 and want to talk to BYC about how your freight would execute, request a quote.
