Guide
Demurrage charged when the delay was not yours
Demurrage is billed by the day and can run to hundreds of dollars per container per day, which makes it the charge where a small error about dates costs the most. It is also the one most often raised when the importer could not have collected the container even if they had wanted to — a customs hold, an appointment system with nothing available, a vessel discharged later than notified.
Three dates decide the whole charge
Demurrage is arithmetic once you have the dates: when free time started, how many free days applied, and when the container actually left the terminal. Every demurrage dispute is really a dispute about one of those three.
None of them is established by the invoice, which states a conclusion. The arrival notice, the discharge record and the gate-out record establish the inputs, and those are the documents to ask for.
What each document settles
- Arrival notice — when the container was available, and when free time was notified to start.
- Discharge or vessel record — when it actually came off the vessel, which is not always the notified date.
- Gate-out or interchange record — when it actually left, which fixes the last chargeable day.
- The tariff or contract page — the daily rate and the free-time allowance the count was made against.
When a hold or a terminal problem caused the delay
A customs examination, a food-safety hold or a terminal system failure can make a container uncollectable through no act of yours. Whether that removes the charge depends on the carrier's tariff and on your contract — some provide for free-time treatment in defined circumstances and some do not.
What is always true is that it cannot be settled without the record of the hold. The examination notice, the release timestamp and the terminal's record of appointment availability are the evidence, and asking for them is an ordinary operational request.
Be precise about what you are asking. "We were held by customs" invites a shrug. "The exam notice shows the hold placed on the 4th and released on the 11th; please confirm how free time was calculated across that period" asks something answerable.
Demurrage and detention are different charges
Demurrage is time the container spends inside the terminal after discharge. Detention is time you keep it outside the terminal before returning it empty. They carry separate free-time allowances and separate daily rates, and they are regularly billed under whichever word a provider's system uses.
That matters because the evidence differs. Demurrage is settled by terminal records; detention is settled by the empty-return receipt. A charge labelled one way but counted the other is a real and common error, and it is visible on the face of the documents once the dates are laid out.
US shipments: the billing itself has requirements
For shipments into the United States, the Federal Maritime Commission has rules about what a demurrage or detention invoice must contain and who may be billed. An invoice missing required information is something you can raise on its own terms, separately from whether the days were counted correctly.
That is a citation, not advice on how it applies to your shipment. If it bears on a substantial charge, take it to someone who practises in the area.
Common questions
Can I dispute demurrage caused by a customs hold?
You can raise it, and the outcome depends on the carrier's tariff and your contract. Some provide for free-time treatment during a hold and some do not. Either way the conversation needs the examination notice and the release timestamp, because without them there is no agreed set of dates to reason about.
What is the difference between demurrage and detention?
Demurrage covers time the container sits inside the terminal after discharge. Detention covers time you hold it outside the terminal before returning it empty. Separate free time, separate rates, and different documents settle each.
How do I check whether the day count is right?
Lay the three dates side by side — free time start, free days allowed, gate-out — and count. Then check each date against the document that establishes it rather than against the invoice. Most day-count errors are a start date taken from the wrong event, or a free day not applied.
The container was available but no appointment existed. Does that count?
It is common and genuinely difficult, and the answer sits in the carrier's tariff rather than in general principle. Ask the terminal for its record of appointment availability across the period; whether or not it changes the charge, it establishes what actually happened.
A note on what this is
This guide describes how freight charges are commonly evidenced. It is general information, not legal advice, and it does not describe the terms of your particular agreement with your provider.