One import container at LA/Long Beach can produce several bills that use the same words. This page is organized by the bill in your hand: what it is, who sends it, and which document sets the number.
Demurrage, detention, storage and per diem are not one charge with three nicknames. They can overlap in ordinary speech, and federal rules group container per diem with demurrage and detention, but each invoice still comes from its own contract and its own clock.
The loaded container is still at the marine terminal after free time. In the ordinary course at LA/Long Beach, this charge is paid before the terminal releases the container and the trucking company can pick it up. At LBCT, line demurrage amounts must be paid before a container may leave the terminal yard unless demurrage is guaranteed by the relevant carrier. At TTI, demurrage must be paid before release. That is not the bill that arrives after the empty comes back.
The steamship line's container is outside the terminal after its free time, until the empty is returned to the place the line names. Wan Hai's billing procedure, revised May 28, 2024, bills import detention to the consignee after the empty return. That after-return charge is detention. It is not demurrage.
Under the Uniform Intermodal Interchange and Facilities Access Agreement, the equipment provider invoices the motor carrier when equipment is not returned by the end of free time. Section E.6 sets that framework. The daily rate and the free days are in the provider's addendum, not in E.6 itself.
The UIIA is the standard agreement between equipment providers and motor carriers for taking a container or chassis out and bringing it back. The text used here is the agreement effective June 18, 2026.
Chassis use charges can appear in an addendum. Federal demurrage and detention billing rules in 46 CFR Part 541 cover container per diem. They do not cover chassis per diem. This page does not quote chassis rates.
An addendum is the equipment provider's own schedule attached to the UIIA. It is the document that states free time, which days count, and the daily amounts billed to the motor carrier. The UIIA points to it. It does not replace it.
IANA's compilation of equipment-provider free days and per diem, last updated October 6, 2026, is a convenient copy of those addenda for participants. A later addendum notice can post before the compilation's cover date. MSC, Evergreen and Yang Ming pages in that compilation print revision dates after October 6, 2026. Those dates are shown as printed. They are not confirmed here as already in effect.
A service contract or tariff between the steamship line and the shipper can grant different free time than the addendum. Several addenda apply their per diem terms in the absence of another written agreement. Ask which document governs the bill of lading before comparing a number to the compilation.
The compilation used for these notes covers thirteen LA/Long Beach carriers. If a combination is not stated, do not borrow a rate from another row. Use the service-contract term or the newer addendum you have in hand.
A line tariff or service contract sets the line's demurrage and detention. The patterns below are how to read one. They are not a second copy of every rate table. The working figures and the source line for each carrier are in that carrier's tariff or service contract.
Free time is the period before the daily charge. The last free day is the end of that period. Day 1 of the charge is the next day the tariff says is chargeable. A rule that says free time expires on the fifth day is a statement about free time, not automatically a statement that the fifth calendar day is the first paid day.
Some tariffs charge every calendar day after free time, including a closed weekend. Others charge only a day the gate is open, and they skip a day the terminal is closed. If the rule is gate-open days and no one has the terminal's actual open calendar, an every-day total is an upper bound. It is not an exact bill.
A tier such as days 1 to 4, then 5 to 8, is usually counted in chargeable days after free time. Confirm that in the rule before you line the tiers up with dates on a calendar. A service contract can replace the published free time.
SM Line tariff SMLM-700, rule 23-F, amendment 5, effective July 26, 2024, is the demurrage rule re-read on November 5, 2026. At Long Beach and Los Angeles, free time starts at 03:00 on the first business day after discharge and expires on the fifth day. Saturday, Sunday and holidays are excluded from the free-time calculation. When the container yard or facility is open for the interchange of empty and/or full containers on Saturdays and Sundays, those days count, and a partial or shift closure is considered a full working day. A partial or shift closure still counts as a full working day. That wording is a four-free-day model. It is not a different guess about what the fifth day means.
After free time, dry demurrage is $245, $290 and $335 per container per calendar day, for up to the 4th chargeable day, from the 5th through the 8th, and from the 9th. The e-Service Basic Tariff page shows two weekend rows, yard closed and yard open, and does not itself print that effective date.
HMM tariff HDMU-040, rule 101, effective May 22, 2026, charges demurrage on working days, meaning any day the gate is open from Monday through Sunday, and does not assess demurrage when the terminal is closed. Rule 101-1, effective August 1, 2026, sets the dry dollar table. Outside TTI, SSA Terminal A, APM and WBT, dry demurrage after 4 working days free is $270 per container per day for days 1 through 3, $341 for days 4 through 7, and $524 from day 8 on. At TTI, SSA Terminal A, APM and WBT, dry demurrage after 4 working days free is $210 for days 1 through 3, $220 for days 4 through 7, and $280 from day 8 on. At SSA and TTI Terminals in Long Beach, and at APM and WBT Terminals in Los Angeles, the merchant pays terminal storage to the terminal in addition to HMM demurrage. Both rules expire November 30, 2026. Re-read them after that date. A count that includes days the terminal is closed would be higher than this rule, which charges only days the gate is open. Source: HMM tariff HDMU-040 rules 101 and 101-1, read from HMM's public US tariff page (opens in a new tab) on November 9, 2026; rule 101-1 is effective August 1, 2026 and expires November 30, 2026.
The marine terminal can bill for the space the container occupies under the port tariff and the terminal's own schedule. That bill can sit beside the steamship line's demurrage, or the line's demurrage can already include terminal storage. Read the line's rule before you add the two.
Do not copy one line's terminal treatment onto every other line. Evergreen's tariff, for example, says terminal charges can be in addition to the line's charges. MSC says each terminal bills its own demurrage. Another line's rule may say the opposite.
Two verified cases use the same dollar tiers for charges that are not the same bill. One case looks similar and is not confirmed. None of these rows is a made-up sample tariff.
| Wan Hai, verified on the documents in hand | The UIIA addendum revised June 5, 2023 bills the motor carrier Pacific Coast dry per diem of $135, then $175, after 5 working days that include the pickup day. The Wan Hai U.S. demurrage and detention tariff effective May 1, 2026, the PDF on file, lists LA/Long Beach import dry detention at $155, then $205, also with 5 working days including the pickup day, billed to the consignee after the empty return. Import demurrage in that PDF is a different clock: 4 working days, then calendar-day amounts, collected by the terminal before or at pickup. The May 2026 detention figures are detention, not demurrage. A newer live PDF was not re-verified on November 5, 2026. The motor-carrier amounts in the addendum are the ones cited here, not the May 2026 consignee detention amounts. |
|---|---|
| MSC, verified on the schedule and the addendum | MSC's demurrage and detention schedule, section 2.1, prices in-terminal import detention for dry containers at 4 working days, then $200, $240 and $270. The UIIA per diem addendum, revised October 22, 2026, uses those same dollar tiers for equipment outside the terminal, billed to the motor carrier, with free time that includes the pickup day and the return day. The terminal bills its own demurrage. Same dollars, different charge, different clock, different billed party. |
| Maersk, not confirmed | The UIIA addendum revised March 20, 2026 labels dry per diem at $300, $345 and $395. Those figures match Maersk's U.S. import demurrage table effective June 20, 2026. They do not match the U.S. import detention table effective the same day, which is $210, $260 and $290 per calendar day, assessed to the shipper or consignee. No public Maersk document states which table is used on a per diem invoice to a motor carrier. The addendum's labeled figures are the ones cited here. They are not the detention tariff. Do not use one table to fill in the other. |
This is the note for November 5, 2026. A shorter version is on the explainer and on the dispute checklist.
Two billing tracks are common. They are not the same legal rule, and neither one is the only pattern a steamship line uses.
| Line tariff or service contract | The steamship line, or an NVOCC passing on the line's charge, bills demurrage or detention under the tariff or the contract. Since 2022, invoices reviewed for this guide have typically gone to the shipper, consignee or customer. That is observed practice. It is not a universal legal rule, and it is not evidence that every line bills that way. |
|---|---|
| UIIA addendum | The equipment provider invoices the motor carrier for per diem under section E.6 and the addendum. The motor carrier may then pass a warehouse-caused late return through to its customer at cost plus an administrative fee. That pass-through is a commercial agreement. Federal law does not require it, and the UIIA does not require the markup. A trucking company's bill to its customer is not automatically subject to the federal carrier invoicing rules. |
| Terminal schedule | The marine terminal bills wharf demurrage, storage or a dwell fee under the port tariff and its schedule. Demurrage of this kind is, in ordinary practice, paid before the trucker is allowed to pick the container up. |
The Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 directed the Federal Maritime Commission to determine which parties may appropriately be billed for demurrage and detention. The 2024 billing rule, 46 CFR Part 541, included section 541.4. From May 28, 2024 until September 23, 2025, that section limited a properly issued invoice to the person for whose account the billing party provided ocean transportation or storage and who contracted with the billing party, or to the consignee. It said a billing party could not invoice any other person.
On September 23, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in World Shipping Council v. FMC, set section 541.4 aside and left the rest of the rule in effect. The court described the section as confining properly billed parties to contracting shippers or consignees. The FMC removed the section effective December 29, 2025, in 90 FR 60579. The removal notice says, "Per the court's decision, section 541.4 has no legal effect," and, "The other provisions of the rule remain in effect."
As of November 5, 2026, section 541.4 no longer imposes those categorical billed-party restrictions. That is not the same as saying no federal law constrains who can be billed. The contract or tariff has to cover the party who is invoiced, and other Shipping Act obligations still apply. The FMC's May 26, 2026 release describes a $1,900,000 compromise with Maersk over allegations that detention was assessed against third parties who had not consented to be bound by Maersk's bill of lading, service contract or tariff. Maersk did not admit a violation. The release is about consent. It is not a rule that per diem may go only to a shipper or consignee, and it is not a rule that a trucking company can never be invoiced.
Start with which party sent it. Then match the dates and the rate to that party's document, not to a similarly named charge from someone else.
Rates on this page come from the tariff, addendum, or Federal Register text cited with them. A combination that is not stated is not filled in from another row.
Line demurrage and terminal demurrage while one container is at an LA/Long Beach terminal, day by day after the last free day you enter. SM Line charge days are calendar days under rule 23-F. HMM charge days are gate-open days, shown as an every-day upper bound, and rules 101 and 101-1 expire November 30, 2026. Pier A with SM Line, and TraPac or YTI with HMM, carry an open-question flag, and the combined total on those pairs stays a dash.
UIIA addendum free time and per diem for thirteen carriers, from the compilation last updated October 6, 2026. Equipment the addendum does not state produces a dash, not a borrowed rate. Maersk's $300, $345 and $395 figures are the addendum's labeled per diem, not a confirmed motor-carrier reading of the detention tariff. Wan Hai uses the addendum's motor-carrier amounts. The May 2026 consignee detention tariff is described, not substituted.
Evidence from the out-gate through a written dispute, with the UIIA deadlines and the Part 541 deadlines kept on their own scope. One line records that section 541.4 no longer names the billed party.
Any dollar example on this page is taken from the tariff, addendum or Federal Register text cited with it. It is not a sample invoice and not a rate this brokerage sets. Whisk Freight Brokerage arranges drayage. It does not assess demurrage, detention or per diem.
The terminal, the steamship line and the equipment provider can each bill under a different document. Demurrage at the terminal, detention after gate-out, and UIIA per diem to the motor carrier are the three to separate first.
No. Section E.6 sets the framework, including the provider's invoice to the motor carrier and the 60-day invoice period. Free time and the daily amounts are in the provider's addendum.
No. On the billing procedure revised May 28, 2024, import demurrage is collected before or at pickup, and import detention is billed to the consignee after the empty is returned. The after-return charge is detention.
Not under current federal rules. Former 46 CFR 541.4, which limited who could receive an in-scope invoice, was set aside on September 23, 2025 and removed on December 29, 2025. Contract, tariff and consent still matter.
They apply where the invoice falls under Part 541. The FMC has said a carrier-trucker contract outside a through bill of lading would likely be outside the rule. That point is unsettled. The UIIA's own 60-day period is not automatically illegal.
It is not confirmed in a public Maersk document. The addendum's labeled per diem tiers match import demurrage, $300, $345 and $395. Import detention is $210, $260 and $290. Those amounts are not the same charge.
Reviewed by Ray Wisniewski Jr., Founder and President. Updated November 5, 2026.
Primary documents, read through November 5, 2026. A tariff or addendum can change. The current document controls. This page is general information, not legal advice.
For a specific container, send the shipment details. Whisk Freight Brokerage arranges container drayage at LA/Long Beach.
Request a quote online, or call or email our team.
