Free guide
Demurrage charges are only one of the three clocks running on your container
A container that stops moving does not cost you one thing, it costs you three, and they come from two different companies who invoice you separately and neither of whom will mention the other. Most importers only work out which charge is which once the accounts are already in front of them and the arguing has to happen backwards.
- Demurrage, detention and storage are three different charges, and knowing which one you are looking at decides who you phone about it.
- Two meters run at the same time on one standing box, so the same day can turn up on more than one invoice without either of them being wrong.
- Your free days are not standard, because they come out of your carrier arrangement rather than out of the port, so the importer next door can have a different number to you.
- The cost curve gets steeper as it goes, so the gap between clearing on day four and clearing on day nine is a great deal more than double.
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Free, and written for importers rather than for freight people.
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Three charges that get called the same thing in the same email
People use demurrage as a catch all for everything a late container costs, which is how the wrong party ends up being blamed and the wrong invoice ends up being paid without question. They are three separate things with three separate owners, and the guide opens by pulling them apart so you know which conversation you are actually in before you start it.
Demurrage
The charge for your container still sitting inside the terminal after your free days have run out. The clock starts once the box comes off the ship and it stops when the box leaves the terminal gate.
Billed by the shipping line, per container, per day.
Detention
The charge for holding onto the line's equipment once it is out of the terminal and standing at your premises. It starts when the full container leaves the terminal and it only stops when the empty is handed back at the depot.
Billed by the shipping line, per container, per day.
Terminal storage
The charge for the ground your container is standing on while it waits, which has nothing to do with the line at all and runs on the terminal's own free period rather than on yours.
Billed by the terminal, per container, per day.
Where the days come from, where the money goes and what you can still do about it
Who owns which clock
The three charges set out side by side, with the party who bills each one, the moment it starts, the moment it stops and the person worth phoning when you want it stopped.
How the free days are counted
Why the terminal counts its free period differently to your carrier, why the two seldom line up and why reefers are treated more harshly than dry boxes.
What a standing week costs
A worked example following one container through the charges as they stack up, so you can see where the curve turns and what the same delay costs a week later.
The reasons boxes stand
The handful of causes behind most standing containers, nearly all of which are decided days before the vessel arrives rather than on the day the charges start.
Rates and free day rules change, so every figure in this guide carries its source and the date it was read. A great deal of the demurrage advice floating around quotes tariffs that were replaced years ago, which is worse than no figure at all because it gets budgeted on. Where a rule varies by carrier or by terminal the guide says so plainly rather than giving you a single number that only holds for somebody else's account.
Built by TSI Central Station, one accountable operator for import, export and domestic freight
across South Africa, in business since 2006 and working at Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Gqeberha
and East London. This guide is general guidance and it is not legal or tariff advice, so check your
own carrier agreement before you rely on a number in it.
+27 (0)11 868-2444 ·
olivia@centralstation.co.za