Demurrage is a fee attached to cargo that has overstayed its time at a terminal. These fees can be enforced by port officials. Depending on the vendor, terminal, warehouse or container station, fees and policies can vary.
The amount of time you must pick up your cargo without being charged varies from vendor to vendor. Typically, cargo arriving by sea has four to seven days without being charged. However, less time is given to open top or special containers. Demurrage charges result when a container remains unpacked in the terminal beyond these free days, known as “laytime”.
Demurrage is sometimes confused with ‘detention’ however, detention charges are assessed on containers outside a port rather than inside the port. Therefore, the period of detention free days is generally longer than the period of demurrage free days.
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