Demurrage and per-diem detention fees at gridlocked U.S. ports have turned into a multimillion-dollar hot potato. Cargo interests, truckers, ocean carriers and marine terminals are locked in noisy, seemingly nonstop argument over responsibility for the fees. It’s a complex problem with no easy solution — but plenty of finger-pointing.
Curtis Whalen, executive director of the American Trucking Associations’ intermodal council, said, “Truckers are stuck in the middle. They’re billed demurrage for failure to pick up a container, and detention when they can’t return it before free time expires — and all of this is triggered by things beyond their control.”
Whalen said terminals and ocean carriers are using the charges as a profit center. “They have created a revenue stream that cushions them from the impacts of the problems they have created and does not incentivize them to become more efficient,” he told The Journal of Commerce.
