The Federal Maritime Commission confirmed on May 14, 2024 that its new requirements for the contents of demurrage and detention invoices will take effect on May 28. The detailed invoice rules will start alongside the billing and dispute procedures adopted in February. Small importers must be given the information needed to identify the container, check the charge and challenge it. The rule covers charges for using marine terminal space or shipping containers, not the freight charge for transporting the goods. [S1][S2]

An invoice must carry the bill of lading and container numbers, the basis for billing that customer, the allowed free time and its start and end dates, and the specific days charged. For imports, it must also identify the discharge port or ports and the container availability date. Rate information, dispute contacts and certifications are required too. Those details let an importer compare the charge against its shipment records rather than accept an unexplained total. Check the attachments as well: the FMC permits required information to accompany the invoice. Under section 541.5, omission of required minimum information removes the billed party’s obligation to pay that charge on the defective invoice; it does not permanently extinguish the charge, because the carrier may issue a compliant replacement invoice within the applicable deadline. [S1]

The name on the bill matters. Under the rule, the billing party may invoice either the customer for whose account it provided ocean transportation or cargo storage and who contracted for that service, or the consignee—the cargo’s ultimate recipient. The operative rule bars billing both categories for the same charge or choosing another party. The February preamble separately says a consignee may be billed when it contracted for the shipping and is in contractual privity; merely naming it on the bill of lading is not enough. That explanation qualifies the practical consignee question, but is not stated in the operative category definition, and the May 9 correction addressed carrier-trucker contracts—not this consignee passage. A May 9 correction clarified that the February preamble’s discussion of carrier-trucker contracts did not create an exception to these limits. Handling a container does not, by itself, make a business the proper recipient of the bill. [S1][S3]

There are different starting points for the invoice deadline. Generally, the bill must be issued within 30 calendar days of the date the charge was last incurred. For a non-vessel-operating common carrier, or NVOCC, passing on a charge, the deadline instead runs from the issuance date of the upstream invoice it received. It has 30 calendar days from that date to issue its own invoice. Missing the applicable deadline means the billed party is not required to pay the charge. An importer using an intermediary therefore needs the upstream invoice date as well as the dates charged; counting only from the last day of container use can apply the wrong clock. [S1]

A request to reduce, refund or waive a fee has a separate clock. The billing party must allow at least 30 calendar days from its invoice’s issuance date for that request—not from the day the customer opens or receives the bill. The February preamble also says the payment due date must be at least 30 days after issuance. Record when the invoice arrives, but use its issue date to check the request deadline; a late arrival leaves less time to assemble the records. [S1]

Once the billing party receives a request for fee mitigation, refund or waiver, it must attempt to resolve it within 30 calendar days, unless both sides agree to a later date. The rule requires an attempt at resolution, not a settlement or refund within those 30 days. [S1]

Source documents

  1. Demurrage and Detention Billing Requirements — final rulehttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-02-26/html/2024-02926.htm
  2. Demurrage and Detention Billing Requirements — announcement of effective datehttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-05-14/html/2024-10515.htm
  3. Demurrage and Detention Billing Requirements — correctionhttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-05-09/html/2024-10136.htm