Demurrage and detention routinely exceed the drayage rate on the containers they attach to, and for years the most common shipper complaint was not the amount but the opacity: an invoice would arrive weeks after the fact, for a period the shipper could not reconstruct, from a party the shipper had no contract with, with no explanation of how the number was reached. Since May 2024, a federal rule has addressed a large part of that, and the provisions with the sharpest teeth are still fully in force.
Under the Federal Maritime Commission rule at 46 CFR Part 541, an invoice must contain specific minimum information and must be issued within a defined window, and failure on either count eliminates the billed party’s obligation to pay the charge. That is an unusually strong remedy, and it is underused, largely because shippers do not know it exists or cannot produce the record needed to invoke it. In September 2025, a federal appeals court set aside one section of the rule, which changed the picture on who may be invoiced while leaving the invoice content and timing requirements untouched. This guide covers what the rule requires today, what the court decision changed, how the dispute clocks work, and what a dispute-ready record looks like.
This guide is general information about regulatory requirements and operational practice. It is not legal advice, and specific disputes should be reviewed with qualified counsel.
The Federal Maritime Commission’s Demurrage and Detention Billing Requirements rule, codified at 46 CFR Part 541 and effective May 28, 2024 under the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022, governs how demurrage and detention are billed. Vessel-operating common carriers and marine terminal operators must issue invoices within 30 calendar days from the date the charge was last incurred. Non-vessel-operating common carriers must issue within 30 calendar days of receiving the invoice they are passing through. The billed party must be given at least 30 calendar days from invoice issuance to request mitigation, refund, or waiver, and the billing party must attempt to resolve a timely request within 30 calendar days unless both parties agree to a longer. Critically, failure to include the required minimum information on the invoice, or failure to issue it within the 30-day window, eliminates the billed party’s obligation to pay that charge. On September 23, 2025, the D.C. Circuit decided World Shipping Council v. FMC and set aside section 541.4, which had limited who could be invoiced; the FMC removed that section from the Code of Federal Regulations effective December 29, 2025, so there is currently no federal rule dictating which parties may be billed, and the rest of Part 541 remains fully in effect. BookYourCargo is a national drayage company that helps importers prevent these charges and maintain the record needed to challenge them.
What this guide helps you control
- Whether an invoice you received is compliant, and what follows if it is not.
- The three separate 30-day clocks that govern issuance, dispute, and resolution.
- What the September 2025 court decision changed and what it did not.
- The contemporaneous record that makes a dispute supportable rather than arguable.
- The operational disciplines that prevent the charge from forming at all.
1. What demurrage and detention actually are
The two terms are frequently used interchangeably and are not the same thing, which matters because they attach to different assets and stop for different reasons.
- Demurrage generally applies to cargo that remains inside the terminal past the allotted free time. It is a charge for occupying terminal space, and it stops when the container leaves the terminal.
- Detention generally applies to equipment held outside the terminal past the allotted free time, meaning the container and often the chassis while they sit at a facility or on the street. It stops when the equipment is returned.
They can run consecutively on the same container. A container that sits on terminal, is then pulled, and then waits at a consignee before return can generate demurrage and then detention on the same box.
Rail storage is a separate clock again. At inland ramps, the railroad applies its own storage charges from notification of availability, which can run alongside steamship line charges, a dynamic covered in the analysis of rail drayage.
The FMC rule uses demurrage and detention together as a single regulated category rather than defining them separately, so the billing requirements described below apply to both.
2. The rule, and the part of it that was struck down
The Federal Maritime Commission issued the Demurrage and Detention Billing Requirements final rule in February 2024 under a mandate from the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022. Codified at 46 CFR Part 541, it took effect on May 28, 2024, and it does three things: it specifies minimum information that must appear on an invoice, it sets timeframes for issuing invoices and resolving disputes, and, originally, it limited which parties could be invoiced.
What the court changed?
On September 23, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decided World Shipping Council v. Federal Maritime Commission and set aside section 541.4, the provision that had limited invoicing to either the party that contracted with the billing party for ocean transportation or storage, or the consignee. The court found the provision arbitrary and capricious because the framework was internally inconsistent: it excluded motor carriers even where they held a contract with the ocean carrier, while including consignees who need not have any contractual relationship at all. The FMC subsequently removed section 541.4 from the Code of Federal Regulations effective December 29, 2025.
What survived?
The FMC has stated plainly that apart from section 541.4, the rest of Part 541 remains fully applicable, and that common carriers and marine terminal operators must continue to follow those requirements when invoicing or risk being found in violation of the Shipping Act. The invoice content requirements and the 30-day issuance deadline, which carry the remedy that eliminates the obligation to pay, were left intact. The FMC has also noted the decision does not prevent it from addressing who may be invoiced in a future rulemaking, and the court indicated the Commission could retain the same policy with a fuller explanation.
3. The three 30-day clocks
The timing framework is the most immediately usable part of the rule, and it involves three distinct 30-day periods that are easy to confuse.
Clock one: issuance
A vessel-operating common carrier or marine terminal operator must issue a demurrage or detention invoice within 30 calendar days from the date the charge was last incurred. If it is not issued within that window, the billed party is not required to pay it. A billing party may reissue an invoice that was originally misdirected to the wrong person, but only if the reissue still falls inside the same 30-day window from the last incurred charge.
Clock two: the pass-through window for NVOCCs
A non-vessel-operating common carrier passing a charge through must issue its own invoice within 30 calendar days of the date it received the invoice from the other party. Where an NVOCC is both a billed party and a billing party on the same charge, it can communicate a disputed charge upstream on behalf of its customer, and the underlying billing party must allow the NVOCC an additional 30 calendar days to dispute the charge it received.
Clock three: dispute and resolution
The billing party must give the billed party at least 30 calendar days from the invoice issuance date to request mitigation, refund, or waiver of the charge. If such a request is filed within that period, the billing party must attempt to resolve it within 30 calendar days, unless both parties agree to a longer timeframe. The practical consequence is that a dispute raised late loses the protection of the process, so the invoice review has to happen on receipt rather than at month end.
| Clock | Requirement | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice issuance | Within 30 calendar days of the last incurred charge for VOCCs and MTOs | A late invoice eliminates the obligation to pay that charge |
| NVOCC pass-through | Within 30 calendar days of receiving the invoice being passed through | Adds a checkable date when charges arrive through an intermediary |
| Your dispute window | At least 30 calendar days from invoice issuance to request mitigation, refund, or waiver | Review on receipt; a late request forfeits the process protection |
| Resolution | Billing party must attempt resolution within 30 calendar days of a timely request | Gives you a defined timeframe rather than an open-ended wait |
| Invoice contents | Required minimum information must appear on the invoice | Omission eliminates the obligation to pay that charge |
4. The record that makes a dispute supportable
A dispute succeeds or fails on evidence, and the evidence has to be contemporaneous. Reconstructing a timeline from memory six weeks after the fact is the most common reason a defensible position is abandoned. The record worth keeping on every container:
- Availability and notification timestamps. When the container was discharged, when it was made available, and when notification was received, since the free time clock runs from a specific event rather than from arrival.
- Appointment attempts and outcomes. When appointments were sought, which were offered, which were secured, and where none were available, because appointment scarcity is a documented cause rather than an excuse.
- Holds and their release. Customs, terminal, line, or other holds with the times they were placed and lifted, since a container under hold could not lawfully move.
- Terminal disruption records. Gate closures, weather suspensions, or operational stoppages with start and end times, and any terminal or carrier advisory issued at the time.
- Return attempts and restrictions. For detention, when return was attempted, which locations were tried, and any restriction communicated, because an equipment return that was refused is materially different from one that was not attempted.
- The invoice itself, checked against the requirements. Issuance date, the date the charge was last incurred, and whether the required information is present, which is where live visibility across the container lifecycle turns into a usable evidentiary record rather than a status screen.
5. Preventing the charge is still cheaper than winning the dispute
Every dispute costs staff time even when it succeeds, and the rule is a backstop rather than a strategy. The operational disciplines that keep charges from forming are the same ones that make a drayage program work generally:
- Plan pickup from vessel arrival and railroad notification. Dispatch queued against the event that starts the clock, rather than against a customer instruction that arrives later, is the single highest-leverage practice available.
- Capture appointments against release windows. Monitoring slot release across terminal systems, rather than requesting a slot once a container is ready, is what keeps appointment scarcity from consuming free time.
- Track return availability before it becomes a problem. Knowing which empties are being accepted where, by carrier and terminal, prevents the detention that forms when a return is refused at the gate.
- Hold yard and transload options. When a consignee cannot receive, moving cargo into transload or warehousing converts equipment exposure into controlled dwell and frees the container to be returned.
- Surface exposure with time to act. Notification that a container is approaching Last Free Day, delivered while something can still be done about it, is the difference between prevention and a dispute, which is the discipline set out in No-Surprises Drayage.
6. Invoice review checklist
A working sequence for reviewing a demurrage or detention invoice on receipt.
| Check | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Issuance timing | Was the invoice issued within 30 calendar days of the date the charge was last incurred, or for a pass-through, within 30 days of the intermediary receiving it? |
| Required contents | Does the invoice contain the minimum information the rule requires, including the information needed to identify the charge and how it was calculated? |
| Free time calculation | Does the free time period start from the correct event, and does the charged period match your own availability and notification records? |
| Holds and closures | Does the charged period overlap a hold, gate closure, or operational suspension during which the container could not have moved? |
| Appointment availability | Do your records show appointments were sought during the charged period and were unavailable? |
| Return refusal | For detention, do your records show return was attempted and refused or restricted? |
| Dispute deadline | Is the request for mitigation, refund, or waiver being filed inside the window from the invoice issuance date? |
7. How BookYourCargo supports prevention and documentation
BookYourCargo is a national drayage company with vetted carrier capacity across every major U.S. and Canadian port and rail ramp. On demurrage and detention specifically, the operating model is built to keep charges from forming and to leave a usable record when they do:
- Arrival-driven and notification-driven dispatch. Planning queued from vessel arrival at marine terminals and from railroad notification at inland ramps, so containers move early in the free time window rather than against the last free day.
- Appointment and return management. Slot release monitored across terminal systems and secured ahead of delivery commitments, with empty return availability tracked by carrier and terminal so refusals are anticipated rather than discovered.
- Exposure surfaced with time to act. Free time, hold status, and equipment exposure monitored and communicated while action is still possible, delivered through API and EDI integration on the BYC drayage technology platform.
- Yard and transload alternatives. Transload and warehousing capacity so a consignee receiving constraint does not become an equipment charge.
- Shipment-level records. Availability, notification, appointment, hold, and return activity captured at shipment level, so the timeline behind a charge can be produced rather than reconstructed.
Coverage spans port drayage, rail drayage, and national drayage, with first-party rate context published monthly in the BYC Drayage Index going back to 2022. Inc. 5000-recognized, BBB A+ rated, IANA Member, NCBFAA Member, and WOSB-certified through the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Frequently asked questions
Review the invoice, then fix the operation
The federal framework gives importers a stronger position on demurrage and detention than most of them use, and the reason it goes unused is almost always the same: the record needed to invoke it was never kept. Reviewing invoices on receipt and running an operation that documents availability, appointments, holds, and returns as they happen turns a recurring cost into a controllable one. If you want to talk to BYC about reducing demurrage and detention exposure across your container program, request a quote.
