What are demurrage and detention?
Demurrage and detention are costs carriers charge when containers are held longer than the agreed free periods. Demurrage arises when a container stays in port too long before pickup. Detention arises when a container is not returned to the carrier within the agreed term after unloading. Both are intended to promote fast flow and not to lock up carrier equipment unnecessarily.
For most shippers D&D costs look on the invoice like an ordinary item that simply comes with international transport. Structured audit, however, shows that fifteen to thirty percent of these costs are not justified. These are delays on the carrier side, weather-related port congestion, incorrect calculation of free periods, or accessorials erroneously booked on the D&D invoice.
For shippers with substantial sea freight volumes the recoverable amount quickly rises to tens to hundreds of thousands of euros per year. For some clients during peaks like 2021 and 2022 that was a multiple.
When is D&D recovery relevant?
A structured D&D audit and recovery is sensible on multiple triggers. With substantial sea freight volumes where D&D invoices return structurally. After recent periods of port congestion such as during and after the pandemic. With operational issues at terminals or within your own organization where D&D quickly mounts. And for shippers who have never structurally looked at D&D: that is where the most low-hanging fruit usually sits.
Important: D&D recovery is not just retrieving costs after the fact. The real value of the process lies in the insights you gain about where the costs arise, and the process improvements to structurally prevent them. A good recovery assignment leaves you with lower D&D in the future, not just credit notes for the past.
Our approach
We collect twelve to twenty-four months of D&D invoices and link them to the underlying shipment data. Per case we build a factual narrative: free period, actual duration, cause of overage.
Per case we determine whether the costs are justified, partly disputable or fully disputable. Categories typically include carrier fault, weather-related congestion, calculation error, incorrect application of accessorials.
Per disputable case we build a substantiated dispute package with documentation and argumentation. Disputes are formally filed with the relevant carriers in consultation with your team.
We follow every dispute to final resolution: credit note, partial credit, or rejection with reason. Rejected disputes are escalated where sensible.
Insights from the audit are translated into process improvements to prevent future D&D. Think of better contractual agreements, sharper planning, monitoring of containers in transit and escalation procedures.
What you get
- D&D audit report per case with categorization and dispute potential
- Dispute packages with full substantiation per case
- Dispute administration and follow-up to credit or final resolution
- Process improvement plan to prevent future D&D
- Optional monthly monitoring within Operations & Procurement retainer
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between demurrage and detention?
Demurrage is the cost a carrier charges when a container stays in port longer than the agreed free period. Detention is the cost when a container is not returned to the carrier within the agreed period after unloading. Both are intended to promote fast flow but in practice often add up to substantial amounts.
How much can I typically recover?
For shippers who have not previously looked at this in a structured way we typically find between fifteen and thirty percent disputable costs. These arise for example from carrier delays, weather-related port congestion, or incorrect calculation of free periods. The recoverable percentage varies strongly per situation.
How old D&D costs can I still dispute?
Most carriers maintain a dispute window of sixty to one hundred eighty days, with some outliers to twelve months. Practically this means an audit of the past six months invoices is usually fully disputable, the twelve months before partially, and older costs rarely. We therefore always start with the most recent period.
Do you work on a no-cure-no-pay basis?
No, we work on a fixed project budget or a fixed monthly fee within the Operations & Procurement retainer. This gives you predictable costs and no incentive for us to inflate disputes for our own compensation. Our value lies at least as much in process improvement to prevent future D&D as in one-off recovery.
How do I prevent this in the future?
Prevention typically sits in four corners: better contractual agreements on free periods, better planning of port and hinterland operations, sharper monitoring of containers in transit, and clear escalation procedures when overages threaten. Our projects always also deliver a process improvement plan, not just recoveries.
An audit of your D&D costs?
Schedule a call where we walk through which period fits in scope and what an audit could yield for your situation.