What is demurrage? Demurrage charges and detention explained

Demurrage is the daily fee a shipping line charges when a container stays inside the port terminal after its free time has run out. It is charged per container, per day, on a rising scale, and it runs until the box leaves the terminal gate. Once the container is outside with you, the charge for keeping it is called detention instead.

On perishable cargo the clock is short. A reefer of avocados is discharged on the Thursday before a bank holiday, with three days of free time. By the time anyone is back at a desk the meter has been running for a day, and it keeps running, at a rate that escalates, until someone collects the box.

The difference is the gate #

Demurrage is charged while the container is still inside the port terminal, past your free time. You are paying for yard space.

Detention is charged once it has left the terminal and is with you. You are paying for the line’s equipment — every reefer you hold is one it cannot load onto the next vessel.

One shipment routinely incurs both: demurrage while customs clearance runs, then detention while the box waits to be stripped at your warehouse.

That last cell is the one that costs money quietly. Detention runs until the empty goes back, not until you unload — a stripped container in your yard is still on hire.

They are separate clocks with separate allowances, which is why a contract quoting them combined catches people out. Seven combined days sounds generous until clearance eats five and you are on detention from the moment the box leaves the gate.

Both are charged per container per day on a rising scale — roughly €40–75 a day at first, several times that beyond ten days. The escalation means a week’s delay costs far more than twice a three-day delay, and it is per box, so a twenty-container consignment multiplies every number.

Why perishables run out of days first #

Free time on a reefer is typically 2–4 days against 5–7 for dry cargo, at a higher daily rate once it runs out. The cargo least able to wait is on the shortest clock — not by accident, but because reefer equipment is scarce and short free time is how a line forces it to turn.

And the invoice is the smallest part of the bill. Three days in a terminal is also three days of shelf life, and shelf life is what you sold. Fruit arriving with a week left instead of ten days goes to a different buyer at a different price, or to a claim. A dry-goods importer facing the same three days pays only the first line of that.

Trackberry runs both clocks on each of your containers, from the recorded discharge and gate-out. Once your free days are saved, it warns your team two days before demurrage free time runs out and again on the last free day. How the free-time clock works has the detail.

Demurrage and detention: how importers lose money on free time covers where the days actually go and what prevents it.

FAQ #

What is a demurrage fee? #

It is the daily charge for leaving a loaded container in the port terminal beyond the free days in your contract. The line bills it per container and per day, and the rate usually rises the longer the box stays. Demurrage charges stop when the container is gated out, and the detention clock starts from that moment.

What is the difference between demurrage and detention? #

The terminal gate. Demurrage is charged while the container is inside the terminal; detention while it is outside, with you. Both are daily charges from the same line, and one shipment can incur both on the same journey.

When does the clock start? #

Demurrage starts at discharge from the vessel — not at the ETA and not at arrival notice. A vessel berthing two days early gives you two fewer days, and nobody sends a correction. Detention starts at gate-out and stops when the empty is returned to the depot.

Can demurrage or detention be waived? #

Sometimes, for delays caused by the line itself — a late berth, a mis-stowed container. Almost never for a document that was not ready. Ask while the container is still in the yard; once the invoice has been issued, a waiver is much harder to get, and harder again once it is paid.