How 2 Free Days Became 2 Weeks of Demurrage Charges

A container of bananas arrives in Rotterdam. It sailed from Guayaquil, Ecuador — a routine shipment. No customs problems, no missing documents, nothing out of the ordinary.

The importer has two free days to collect the cargo. They contact the shipping line straight away and ask for the invoices needed to release the containers. Standard procedure. Should be quick.

That’s when things go sideways.

Friday After 5 PM: “We Need to Create an Account for You”

The shipping line responds with a request nobody expected: they need to set up a customer account before they can issue anything.

Strange — because the receiver’s details were submitted with the booking a month ago. But fine. The information is sent again.

The weekend passes. Monday comes.

“We need to verify your VAT number.”

More days go by.

“We’re waiting for another office to approve the SAP code creation.”

The importer follows up every single day. The bananas, meanwhile, don’t wait. They sit in a container at the port, quietly using up their shelf life — one day at a time.

Two Weeks Later, on a Friday Evening Again

The shipping line finally confirms: the SAP code is ready.

Then comes the invoice. Two weeks of demurrage. Two weeks of storage. Two weeks of plug-in charges (the electrical connection keeping the refrigerated container running). All due before the cargo can be released.

The importer now faces a choice that should never exist: Pay first and hope to recover the money later. Or let the bananas rot.

Everyone in shipping knows how this usually ends.

Who Is Actually Responsible Here?

Here’s the legal reality: free time is supposed to start when cargo is available for release. Not when it arrives at the port — when the importer can actually get it out.

If the shipping line spent two weeks failing to set up a customer account for someone they already had on file, the cargo was not available for release. The importer didn’t cause the delay. They chased it every single day.

But the bill still landed in their inbox.

This is not a rare story. It happens regularly with perishable cargo — fruit, vegetables, any goods with a limited shelf life. The importer is put in an impossible position: pay charges they don’t owe, or lose the shipment entirely.

The good news is that these charges can be disputed. And the outcome often depends on one thing: the email trail.

When you try to negotiate waiver requests on local charges, the question to ask is simple: was the cargo unavailable for release because of something the importer did — or because the shipping line couldn’t complete basic administrative steps for a customer they already knew?

The answer is almost always sitting quietly in the inbox.

If you ship or receive perishable cargo, these steps won’t prevent every problem — but they will put you in a much stronger position when something goes wrong.

1. Confirm release requirements before cargo arrives.

Once the shipment leaves the port of origin, email the destination agent and ask them to confirm — in writing — exactly what’s needed to release the containers. Don’t assume the process is standard.

2. Send a follow-up the moment you receive the Arrival Notice.

Use it as a trigger. Remind the agent that you need invoices promptly and ask if anything is missing on their end.

3. Don’t wait for free time to run out.

Request release invoices as soon as possible — ideally before the ship docks. Every day you wait is a day you can’t afford to lose.

4. Make sure receiver details are complete at the time of booking.

Company name, address, VAT number — all of it. The more complete the information upfront, the less ammunition the shipping line has to ask for it later.

5. Document everything.

Every email. Every follow-up. Every delay. Every excuse. This is your evidence. If you end up in a dispute over charges, the difference between a successful waiver and a lost case often comes down to whether you can show a clear timeline of who was responsible for what — and when.

If You’ve Already Been Hit With These Charges

Don’t just pay and move on.

If the delay that caused the charges was the shipping line’s fault — account setup issues, slow invoice processing, internal approvals — you have grounds to dispute. A well-documented claim submitted promptly can recover a significant portion of those costs.