Container Demurrage and Detention
The container line's free-time charges distinguished from charter-party demurrage: per-diem tariffs, merchant and carrier haulage, and where they fall on a landed-cost sheet.
Container demurrage and detention are time-based charges levied by a container line once free time expires. Demurrage runs while a container sits inside the terminal beyond its free period; detention runs while the box is outside the terminal in the merchant’s possession and has not been returned. Neither is the same charge as charter-party demurrage, which compensates a shipowner for laytime exceeded under a voyage charter.
Both are post-arrival costs. On a CIF-basis import they fall outside the dutiable customs value, provided they are separately identified rather than bundled into an undifferentiated freight figure.
The full article will cover free-time allowances by trade and equipment type, per-diem tariff structures and their escalation, the split between merchant haulage and carrier haulage, the effect of a customs examination or a classification query on accrual, detention exposure on reefer and special equipment, and the regulatory interventions several jurisdictions have made on billing practice.