Free time, demurrage and detention: the two meters that bill you
Two meters run on every container you import, and most people discover the difference only when the invoice arrives. One bills you for the box standing still inside the terminal. The other bills you for holding the line’s equipment once it is out. They start at different moments, stop for different reasons, and are driven by completely different parts of your operation — which is exactly why treating them as one thing is expensive. This follows on from getting a container out of the port.
Two meters, not one
| Aspect | Demurrage | Detention |
|---|---|---|
| What is being billed | the full container standing inside the terminal past its free time | the line’s equipment held outside the terminal and not yet returned |
| When it starts | when free time from discharge runs out | the moment the box passes the gate on its way out |
| When it stops | when the container leaves through the gate | when the empty is returned to the line or its depot |
| What actually drives it | the speed of release: customs, the D/O, a truck booked for the right day | the speed of unloading and of getting the empty back |
| Who bills it | the shipping line | the shipping line — the same invoice, a different line item |
Read the last two rows together and the practical lesson appears. Demurrage is about getting the box out fast — clearing customs early, having the release in hand, having a truck booked. Detention is about getting the box back fast — unloading promptly and returning the empty. Two different teams in your company usually control them, and neither knows it.
Where each one starts and stops
Demurrage begins when free time expires after discharge and ends the moment the container passes the gate outbound. Detention begins at that same gate crossing and ends when the empty is handed back to the line or its depot. The handover between them is instantaneous: there is no gap, and nothing pauses while you organise transport.
That is the point people miss. Driving the container out of the terminal does not stop the clock — it swaps one meter for another, and the second one is often the more expensive of the two. A container standing at your warehouse for a week because unloading was not scheduled costs exactly as much as one stuck in the port, and attracts far less attention internally.
Free time is a contract term, not a right
Depending on the trade lane, the carrier and the port, free time commonly runs somewhere between three and seven days. That range is wide on purpose — it is negotiated, not legislated, and it can differ between two bookings with the same line in the same month. Anyone quoting you a universal number is describing their own habit, not your entitlement.
What it costs, and why the bill is late
To give a sense of scale: on the US market, published benchmarks put demurrage around $150 per container per day and detention around $200, with terminal storage climbing higher still. Georgian ports are not the US market and the figures differ, but the shape holds — these are per-day, per-container charges that compound quietly. Industry analysis puts demurrage and detention at roughly 10 to 15% of annual logistics spend for mid-sized and large importers; companies that run a deliberate avoidance programme bring it under 5%.
What actually drives each meter
Demurrage is almost never caused by the terminal. It is caused by a release that came late, a declaration that needed correcting, or a truck that was not booked for the day clearance landed. All three are decided days earlier, usually before the vessel berthed. Which means demurrage is a planning outcome, not a logistics accident.
Detention is different in character: it is caused by your own warehouse. Cargo that arrives without a slot to be unloaded, a receiving bay that only works certain hours, an empty that nobody scheduled a return trip for. The cheapest detention reduction most importers can make is agreeing an unloading window before the container leaves the port, not after it arrives.
What a defensible invoice must show
| What the invoice must show | Why | Practical note |
|---|---|---|
| Bill of lading number | which shipment the invoice belongs to | without it the charge cannot be reconciled against anything |
| Container number | which specific box | one consignment can hold several, each with its own dates |
| The free-time calculation | from which date it was counted and how many days were granted | this is where the error usually is — weekends, holidays, the day the box actually became available |
| Gate timestamps | gate-in and gate-out with date and time | the only objective evidence of when the meter should have stopped |
| The contracting party | who is billed and on what contractual basis | a line should bill the party it actually has a contract with |
US regulation now requires carriers to bill only the party they hold a direct contract with, and to state the bill of lading, container, free-time basis and gate evidence on the invoice. That rule does not apply in Georgia — but it is a perfectly good standard to hold any invoice to. If a charge cannot be reconciled against gate timestamps, it cannot be verified, and an unverifiable charge is one you are entitled to question.
How not to overpay
Most of the saving is in habits, not negotiation. In our experience these six do the work:
- Confirm the release status before the vessel berths — not after, when the meter is already running
- Know your actual free time per booking — read it in the contract rather than assuming the usual number
- Book the truck for the clearance date, not for the day you find out clearance happened
- Agree the unloading slot in advance — this is where detention is won or lost
- Plan the empty return as a leg, with a date, not as something that happens eventually
- Audit the invoice line by line — check the start date, the weekends, and the gate-out timestamp before paying
That last one matters more than it sounds. Reconciliation is manual and dispute windows are short, so invalid charges are very often simply paid rather than challenged.
Development prospects
The trend is toward auditability. Billing transparency rules in the largest markets are pushing carriers to show the free-time basis and gate evidence as standard, and digital customs and terminal systems in Georgia are shortening the release cycle itself — see THC and port charges for how the same disclosure trend is affecting terminal fees. Neither removes the meters. Both make it far harder to bill days that were not actually idle.
How ABU JORJIA helps
We treat free time as a planning input, not a surprise. That means chasing the release before arrival, booking the truck against the clearance date, and — because we run the road leg out of Poti and Batumi ourselves — being able to commit to a collection day rather than hoping one appears. For cargo moving beyond the Caucasus the same logic is what makes transloading the sensible answer, which is a subject of its own.
Summary
Demurrage is the box standing still in the port; detention is the box standing still at your yard. The gate does not stop the clock, it changes which one runs. Free time is contractual and varies, so read yours. And before paying, check the start date and the gate timestamps — because the charge you cannot reconcile is the charge you should not have paid. ABU JORJIA plans the Georgian leg so neither meter gets the chance to run — send us the arrival details.
Plan a shipment without idle days