Airlift USA Inc. Blog

So in the last blog, we tried making sense of demurrage and detention. But why should an exporter or an importer know about them? Can demurrage and detention really hurt your bottom line? The answer is YES. With rates varying from country to country and charges being calculated per day and per container, these penalties can blow up quickly and leave a dent in your profits. In some cases, the charges run so high that the shippers/importers are forced to abandon the cargo. To help you avoid facing such circumstances, here are 6 tips that you can follow.  1. Plan in advance: Time is money literally in logistics, and it's vital you use it to your advantage. Plan ahead always. By working out a mechanism to execute the loading and unloading of your cargo, arranging for pick-up and return, informing third parties well in advance etc., you can ensure smooth execution of all processes. Pre-planning also wins you the time to focus on unexpected problems that might crop up

Often times, most of us in the shipping industry find ourselves struggling to understand what exactly are demurrage and detention. Given the confusing similarities between these two concepts, it gets difficult to distinguish one from the other. However, there exists a line of difference, the understanding of which is imperative for all those involved with containerized shipping. So what's demurrage? It's a fee charged by the shipping line to the importers when they don't pick up a full container from the port, within the free period fixed by the shipping line. This free period starts from the day the container is unloaded and typically lasts for 3-5 days (varies from carrier to carrier). Demurrage is calculated from the expiry of the last free day, up till the day the container is moved out of the terminal. Also, these charges vary from carrier to carrier and country to country. And detention? It's a fee charged by the shipping line to the im