A street turn is the practice of taking a container that has just been emptied from an import delivery and reusing it directly for an export load — matching it with a nearby exporter — rather than hauling the empty back to the terminal and then dispatching another truck to fetch an empty for the export.
Done right, a street turn eliminates two trips to the port: the empty return and the empty pickup. That saves miles, driver hours, chassis per-diem days, and terminal congestion, and it is one of the highest-leverage efficiency moves in drayage. It requires the ocean carrier's approval, because the same carrier's box must be reused and re-tracked.
The main constraints are timing and matching: an import empty and an export booking for the same ocean carrier and equipment type must line up in the same area within the free-time window. When they do, a street turn is a win for the trucker, the shipper, and the port alike.
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