Florida Keys Drayage

The Florida Keys are the most logistically constrained delivery region in the state. There is exactly one road in and out — US-1, the Overseas Highway — running 113 miles from Florida City through Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon, and the Lower Keys to Key West. Forty-two bridges connect the islands, including the Seven Mile Bridge, with weight, height, and width restrictions that rule out a meaningful share of project freight without permits and escort coordination. The freight profile is dominated by hospitality and F&B (the Keys economy is overwhelmingly tourism), construction and remodel materials for the constant rebuild cycle from storm damage, fuel and propane, and consumer goods for the small year-round resident population. Almost all of it originates in Miami-Dade and runs south on US-1.

Ritehaul has been delivering into the Florida Keys for years, and the operational pattern is unlike anywhere else we run. The single biggest discipline is appointment timing: receivers in Key West, Marathon, and Islamorada have narrow daytime delivery windows because back-of-house space is limited and US-1 itself becomes the de facto staging area. We dispatch Keys runs early — typically gate-out from Port Miami by 7 AM so the driver hits Key Largo before the late-morning tourist traffic on US-1 builds. The Seven Mile Bridge has a published weight limit and posted height clearances that we honor strictly; tri-axle overweight equipment is allowed with a Florida permit but we coordinate the routing in advance and we will not promise an oversized move without verifying the routing first.

Equipment for Keys moves includes 20-foot, 40-foot, and 45-foot ocean chassis (most common), tri-axle overweight chassis with permits, genset-equipped reefer chassis (heavy hospitality F&B demand), and box trucks and straight trucks for receivers in Key West and the Lower Keys whose back-of-house cannot accommodate a 53-foot trailer. We deliver to Key Largo, Tavernier, Islamorada, Long Key, Marathon, Big Pine Key, Cudjoe, Sugarloaf, Stock Island, and Key West. Hurricane season demands a particularly honest conversation here — the Keys are evacuated under named storm warnings and US-1 closes, so we do not commit to delivery windows during active tropical-weather windows and we will tell you what the next viable delivery day looks like as soon as the road reopens.