What it costs
Demurrage, per diem and detention: who charges what, and how much
Three different companies run three different clocks on the same container, and the bills are not interchangeable. The terminal charges demurrage because the box is still on its ground. The shipping line charges per diem because its container is still out in the world. The carrier charges detention because a driver is waiting at a dock. Knowing which party sent the bill tells you what could have stopped it, and two of the three are largely preventable.
Three clocks, three companies
Demurrage is the marine terminal's charge. Your container is occupying ground inside its gate past the free time, and the daily charge is the pressure the terminal applies to get the ground back. It stops the moment the box leaves the terminal, and nothing else stops it.
Per diem is the shipping line's charge. The container is the line's asset, and the clock starts when the box gates out and runs until the empty is returned. Not until the box is unloaded, not until it is sitting empty in your lot. Returned.
Detention is the carrier's charge for time, usually a driver waiting at a dock past the free window. It is the only one of the three that is our money, and it is the smallest of the three when the other two are running.
What each clock costs
Demurrage and per diem are daily charges that escalate the longer a box sits, and they escalate: terminal tariffs commonly step the daily rate up in bands the longer a box sits, so day nine is not priced like day four. A container stuck for a week can be accruing both charges at once, because pulling the box stops demurrage and starts per diem in the same moment.
What we do is stop the clocks that are stoppable, which is the next section. The charges themselves belong to the terminal and the line, so a waiver is theirs to grant.
What we can do about each one
Demurrage: a pre-pull. We collect the box before your dock is ready and hold it on our yard, where the first day is free and the daily rate after that is a fraction of what the terminal charges. The table below shows the pre-pull and yard storage lines; set them against a day of demurrage and the arithmetic usually answers itself.
Per diem: return the empty fast. The pre-pull does nothing for per diem, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling. What shortens the per diem window is unloading promptly and getting the empty back to the line, and if the freight is going far inland, transloading out of the box so the empty goes back early.
Detention: our waiting time includes one free hour at the terminal and one free hour at delivery before the clock bills at all. Past that it is a driver and a truck standing still, and the honest fix is on the receiving side: a dock that unloads in an hour pays nothing.
Who to call when the invoice arrives
Read the header before the number. A demurrage invoice comes from the terminal or through the line; the dispute, if there is one, runs through whoever billed it, and federal rules since 2024 give you a defined process and at least 30 days to request mitigation. A per diem invoice comes from the shipping line, and the conversation is with them.
A detention invoice comes from us, and the conversation is with us, which is the easy one. We publish the rate, the free hours, and the trigger, so the only question is whether the clock ran, and both sides had a driver on site who knows.
The harder and more useful question is upstream: which decision made the charge inevitable. Almost every large accessorial bill traces back to a choice made a day too late, and the cheap fix is calling before the last free day, not after the invoice.
The numbers
| Line | From | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-pull | $150 per container | |
| Yard storage | $50 per day | First day free |
| Waiting time | $100 per hour | 1 hour free at the terminal and 1 hour free at delivery |
Every figure above is a starting anchor, not a firm price. The real charges can differ once we see the move, and every rate is confirmed in writing before anything moves.
A live number for your move
Going deeper
The other price questions
The services these numbers belong to
Questions
Straight answers
Can you get my demurrage waived?
We can stop it accruing with a pre-pull, and we walk you through the federal billing rules if the invoice itself looks wrong. The waiver itself is the terminal's to grant, because the money is theirs. The rules since 2024 set deadlines for when a demurrage invoice may be issued and give you at least 30 days to request mitigation.
Does a pre-pull stop per diem too?
No, and this is the most common misunderstanding in the whole subject. A pre-pull stops demurrage and starts per diem in the same moment, because per diem runs from gate-out to empty return. What shortens per diem is unloading fast and returning the empty, or transloading so the empty goes back early.
When does your detention clock start?
After the free hour. Waiting time includes one free hour at the terminal and one free hour at delivery, and only time past that bills at the published rate. A dock that turns the box around inside the hour pays nothing.
A container can really accrue two charges at once?
Yes. A box sitting at the terminal past free time accrues demurrage; once pulled, it accrues per diem until the empty is returned. Miss the last free day by four days and then hold the box a week before returning the empty, and both clocks have billed on the same container.