An importer called us in July asking why demurrage hit on day 4 when their bill of lading said 5 free days. The tariff did say 5 days. It also said free time starts at vessel discharge, not at container availability. Two-day gap between those dates, and nobody told them until the invoice showed up.
Why the Tariff, Not the BOL
Your bill of lading lists free time as a number. Five days, seven days, whatever the carrier grants. That number means nothing without the tariff behind it, because the tariff defines the rules the number operates under: when the clock starts, which days count, and what triggers exceptions.
Carriers publish these tariffs separately from the bill of lading. Maersk, MSC, CMA CGM, and every other steamship line maintain their own local tariff filed with the FMC, and each one differs slightly on the details that determine whether you owe $0 or $175 a day starting tomorrow.
Where the Clock Actually Starts
Three possible start points show up across carrier tariffs, and importers often assume the wrong one.
Check the arrival notice first. If it states a last free day directly, use that date and stop guessing. If it only states a number of free days, find the carrier's local tariff to confirm which trigger applies to your shipment.
Calendar Days vs. Working Days
Free time runs on calendar days at nearly every carrier and terminal in South Florida. Saturday and Sunday count. A five-day free time window that starts Thursday burns two of its five days over the weekend before your warehouse crew even shows up Monday.
This trips up shippers used to business-day thinking from trucking or warehousing contracts. Demurrage tariffs don't work that way. Plan pickup around the calendar, not the workweek.
PortMiami vs. Port Everglades Differences
The terminal operator layers its own storage tariff on top of the carrier's demurrage tariff, and these are two separate charges most importers lump together as one bill.
A container can clear its carrier free time with no demurrage owed and still rack up terminal storage charges on a different schedule. Pull both tariffs, not just one, before you calculate what a delay actually costs.
Reading the Per Diem Rate Table
Once free time expires, per diem rates in most carrier tariffs escalate in tiers rather than staying flat.
A typical structure charges one rate for days 1-5 past free time, a higher rate for days 6-10, and a third tier beyond that. We've seen day-11-plus rates run double the day-1 rate on the same container. The tariff table shows these tiers as a simple grid, but importers who only check the first-tier rate get blindsided by the escalation if the container sits.
Find the full tier table, not just the headline rate quoted verbally by a carrier rep. Verbal quotes tend to reference the lowest tier.
Weekends, Holidays, and Exceptions
Federal holidays sometimes extend free time by a day at the terminal's discretion, but this is not automatic and not guaranteed in the tariff language. Some tariffs explicitly exclude Sundays and federal holidays from the free time count; most don't.
Hurricane closures create a separate exception process. When PortMiami or Port Everglades shuts down for a storm, carriers typically issue a general notice extending free time for affected containers, but you have to request it — it rarely applies automatically to every container on the yard.
Getting an Extension
Carriers grant free time extensions before the clock expires, almost never after. Call your carrier's local documentation desk or your customs broker the moment you know a container will sit past free time — a chassis shortage, a CBP exam hold, a warehouse appointment three days out.
Extensions typically run 2-3 additional free days and require a reason: customs hold, terminal congestion, or a documented equipment shortage. A one-line email request after the fact rarely works. Ask before the deadline, with a specific reason attached.
The Checklist
Before you assume you know your free time, confirm these four things: the exact start trigger (discharge, availability, or stated last free day), whether the count runs calendar or working days, whether carrier demurrage and terminal storage run on separate clocks, and the full tiered rate table beyond day one.
At One A Trucks, we pull the carrier tariff and cross-check it against the terminal's storage schedule before we ever schedule a pickup, because a two-day miscalculation on either side turns a $0 move into a few hundred dollars nobody budgeted for.