Most importers treat demurrage and detention invoices as weather — unpleasant, unavoidable, pay it and move on. A meaningful share of those invoices are disputable, and the ones that get reversed are almost always the ones where the importer had documentation ready and asked promptly.
Here is how to actually contest a charge, and how to know when you have a case.
When you probably have a case
The general principle regulators have pushed toward is that these charges exist to incentivise cargo movement. When movement was genuinely impossible, the incentive argument does not hold. Circumstances that commonly support a dispute:
- The terminal was closed — holiday, weather, labour action, or system outage.
- No appointments were available. If the terminal’s appointment system had nothing bookable during your free time, you could not have collected the box.
- The container was not actually available. Discharged is not the same as available. If the terminal had it buried or unreleased, the clock was running against something you could not act on.
- A hold you did not control. Customs exams and other agency holds are frequent sources of disputable demurrage.
- The empty return was refused. If a depot turned your empty away because it was full or not accepting that line’s equipment, detention accrued through no fault of yours.
- Billing errors. Wrong free-time calculation, wrong gate-out date, wrong container. These are more common than people assume.
If you are unclear which charge you are actually disputing, our explainer on demurrage vs. detention vs. per diem identifies who charges what — and you dispute with the party who charged you, not the other one.
When you probably do not
Being busy is not a defence. Neither is a warehouse that was slow to unload, a truck you booked late, or a broker who filed on the last day. Disputes succeed on impossibility, not inconvenience. Filing weak disputes also makes the strong ones harder, because you stop being credible.
The evidence that wins
Assemble this before you write anything:
- The invoice, with the exact days being charged.
- The arrival notice showing the free time you were granted.
- Container availability records — when it was discharged, when it became available, when holds were placed and lifted.
- Appointment system screenshots, dated, showing no availability. This is the single most persuasive artifact and it is impossible to reconstruct after the fact.
- Gate receipts and interchange documents establishing exact in and out times. Our post on interchange receipts covers why these matter well beyond damage claims.
- Written refusals from empty return depots, or dated photos of the queue or closed gate.
- Terminal or carrier notices announcing closures or disruptions.
The pattern is obvious once you see it: everything that wins a dispute is captured at the time, not retrieved afterward. The importers who successfully dispute charges are the ones whose normal process already collects this.
How to write the dispute
Keep it short, factual, and specific.
Identify precisely. Container number, bill of lading, invoice number, and the exact dates you are contesting. Not “this invoice” — “days 4 through 9, 12–17 March.”
State what made pickup or return impossible, in one or two sentences.
Attach the evidence, labelled, and reference each attachment in the text.
Say what you want. A specific waiver amount, not a general complaint.
Skip the outrage. The person reading it did not create the situation, and a factual note gets processed faster than an angry one.
Send it fast. Dispute windows are real and short. A well-evidenced dispute filed after the deadline loses to a weak one filed on time.
If the first answer is no
A first-line rejection is often a default rather than a decision. Ask for the specific basis of the denial and escalate a level. If the amount is significant and you believe the charge was unreasonable, importers do have avenues beyond the carrier — the Federal Maritime Commission handles complaints about ocean carrier and terminal charging practices in U.S. trades. Those processes and their requirements change, so check current guidance or take advice before relying on it.
The cheaper strategy: stop generating them
Disputing is recovery. Prevention is better and the levers are well known: book drayage early rather than on the last free day, use a pre-pull when terminals are tight, confirm empty return locations before unloading, and transload when your warehouse cannot turn a box quickly. Our guide to reducing drayage costs covers the rest.
A carrier with local capacity and its own equipment also reduces exposure, simply because fewer things go wrong. If that is what you are missing, get in touch.
Frequently asked questions
Can demurrage charges be disputed successfully?
Yes, particularly where pickup was genuinely impossible — terminal closures, unavailable appointments, containers not actually released, or holds outside your control. Success depends heavily on contemporaneous documentation and on filing within the dispute window.
Who do I send a demurrage dispute to?
To whoever issued the invoice. Demurrage is charged by the marine terminal or through your ocean carrier; detention and per diem are charged by the steamship line. Sending it to the wrong party wastes the clock.
How long do I have to dispute a charge?
Dispute windows are set by the billing party and are often short. Because they vary and change, check the terms on your invoice as soon as it arrives rather than assuming you have time.