Since 1918
Four generations close to the work.
Most drayage companies say family-run. Ours starts with a horse named — well, nobody wrote the horse's name down. But the year was 1918, the man was Joseph Essenfeld, and the family never left the freight.
Since 1918
Horse, cart, then trucks
Four generations
One family at the port
Port + rail
Every NY / NJ gate
Direct line
Real dispatch
- Hooves
1918
Joseph Essenfeld, a horse, a cart.
- Diesel
The truck era
The horse retires. The name of the trade stays.
- Boxes
1956
The container is born — at our home port.
- Software
Today
The operation moves onto Conterminal.
The line
- 1918
A horse and a cart
Joseph Essenfeld starts hauling freight with a horse and a cart. The word "drayage" literally means the work of a dray — a low, sturdy cart pulled by a horse. We have been in drayage since drayage had hooves.
- The truck era
The horse retires
The cart gives way to trucks; the trade keeps its name and its nature. The freight still has to be picked up, moved across a crowded waterfront, and delivered by someone who knows every street between the docks and the customers.
- 1956
The container is born — at our port
The Ideal X sails from Port Newark carrying the world's first shipped containers. The family is already 38 years into the trucking business when the box that would remake global trade leaves a berth in our backyard. We were here before the container was.
- The port decades
Generations two and three
The second and third generations carry the business through containerization — as the harbor's freight moves into steel boxes and the work becomes terminals, chassis, and gate hours. The company grows up alongside the port itself.
- Today
A Joseph started it. A Joe runs it.
Joe Essenfeld — Joseph Essenfeld's great-grandson — runs the operation today from 1201 Corbin Street in Elizabeth, next door to Maher Terminals. The whole operation runs on Conterminal, the container-intelligence platform that watches every box, gate, and clock in this port. The horse became a truck; the clipboard became an operating system.
Why it matters to your freight
A century of showing up is the service.
Companies that survive four generations at one waterfront do it a single way: the freight moves, the phone answers, and the customer hears the truth early. Everything modern about us — the operating platform, the appointment automation, the status board — exists to industrialize those three habits, not replace them.
When you call, you reach dispatch — and dispatch sits close enough to the family that promises mean something.
Ready when you are
Put a century of port habit on your freight.
Human-reviewed quotes back within 20 minutes, 7am–7pm ET weekdays.