30 agosto 2026
Pre-pull or leave it: the arithmetic that decides
A pre-pull means collecting the container from the terminal before you are ready for it, and holding it on a yard until you are. It exists for one reason: demurrage stops when the box leaves the terminal. The question is never whether a pre-pull is good, it is whether terminal storage for the days you need costs more than yard storage for the same days plus the extra move. Usually it does. Sometimes it does not, and knowing which is which is the whole skill.
The comparison, stated plainly
On one side: terminal demurrage per day, for however many days pass between your last free day and the day you can actually receive the freight. Terminal storage escalates. Tariffs commonly step the daily rate up in bands the longer a box stays, so day nine is not priced like day four.
On the other side: one extra move to get the box out, plus yard storage per day, which does not usually escalate the same way.
So the arithmetic is a fixed cost plus a flat daily against a rising daily. The longer the delay, the more decisively the pre-pull wins. For a delay of one day it may not be worth it. For a week it almost always is.
What a pre-pull does not do
It does not stop per diem. The shipping line's clock on its container starts when the box leaves the terminal, so a pre-pull starts the per diem clock at the same moment it stops the demurrage one.
This is the single most common misunderstanding about pre-pulls and it is worth being blunt about, because a pre-pull sold as stopping all charges is a pre-pull sold dishonestly. What it stops is the terminal's escalating storage. The line's equipment charge keeps running until the empty goes back.
If the delay is long and the freight is going a long way inland, the answer that stops both clocks is a transload: cargo out of the box onto a trailer, empty returned early, and the inland leg runs without the line's container attached to it.
When leaving it is the right call
When your dock genuinely opens inside the free time, and nothing upstream is at risk. Moving a box twice to solve a problem you do not have is just a cost.
When the container is under a hold you cannot clear. Pulling a box you are not allowed to move is not an option, and the pre-pull conversation is the wrong conversation until the hold is answered. Customs, freight release and line release are the usual three.
When the arithmetic is genuinely close and the appointment is not. A pre-pull needs a terminal appointment like any other pull, and a marginal saving is not worth burning a slot you will want later that week.
What decides it in practice
Three facts and you have your answer: the last free day, the first day your dock can receive, and whether the container is clear to move today.
If the gap between the first two is more than a day or two and the third is yes, pre-pull. If the gap is zero, do not. If the third is no, fix that first, because everything else is downstream of it.
Send those three facts with the request rather than after it. Almost every expensive week in this business began with a decision that was made a day later than it could have been.
Pre-pull · Demurrage · Storage · Per diem · Decisions
Where to act on this
Altro dal piazzale
Domande
Risposte dirette
What is a pre-pull?
Collecting the container from the terminal before you are ready for it, and holding it on a yard until you are. It exists for one reason: demurrage stops when the box leaves the terminal. On one side of the comparison sits terminal storage, which escalates, since tariffs commonly step the daily rate up in bands the longer a box stays. On the other sits one extra move plus a yard daily that does not usually escalate the same way.
Does a pre-pull stop per diem?
No, and a pre-pull sold as stopping all charges is sold dishonestly. The shipping line's clock on its container starts when the box leaves the terminal, so a pre-pull starts the per diem clock at the very moment it stops the demurrage one. What it stops is the terminal's escalating storage. If the delay is long and the freight is going a long way inland, the answer that stops both clocks is a transload.
When is a pre-pull not worth it?
Three situations. When your dock genuinely opens inside the free time and nothing upstream is at risk, since moving a box twice to solve a problem you do not have is just a cost. When the container is under a hold you cannot clear, because pulling a box you are not allowed to move is not an option. And when the arithmetic is close but the appointment is not, since a marginal saving is not worth burning a slot.
How do I decide whether to pre-pull my container?
Three facts give you the answer: the last free day, the first day your dock can receive, and whether the container is clear to move today. If the gap between the first two is more than a day or two and the third is yes, pre-pull. If the gap is zero, do not. If the third is no, fix that first, because everything else is downstream of it. Send those three facts with the request rather than after it.
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