Containers
How to avoid demurrage at the Port of Vancouver
Most container charges that surprise importers are not freight costs at all. They are time costs, and almost all of them can be avoided.
When your container lands at a Port of Vancouver terminal such as Deltaport or Centerm, a clock starts. You get a set amount of free time to collect the box and to return it empty. Miss either deadline and the charges begin, every day, until the problem is fixed.
The three charges, in plain words
- Demurrage is charged while the full container sits at the terminal past its free time.
- Per diem, also called detention, is charged while the container is out of the terminal past its free time, until it is returned empty.
- Terminal storage is charged by some terminals for the space the box takes up.
The free time and the daily rates depend on your shipping line, your contract and the terminal. Your arrival notice or your forwarder will give you the numbers. The one date that matters most is the last free day.
Why containers get stuck
- Customs release is late. The container cannot leave the terminal until CBSA releases it, and your broker cannot get that release without your commercial invoice and other documents.
- Nobody booked the pickup. Drayage trucks need a booked time at the terminal, and busy weeks fill up.
- There is nowhere to unload it. If the receiving warehouse is full, the container waits on a chassis and per diem keeps running.
- The empty goes back late. The box is unloaded, then forgotten in a yard.
How to get your container out on time
- Send your customs broker the documents before the ship arrives, not after.
- Write down the last free day as soon as you get the arrival notice.
- Book the drayage as soon as the container is released and available.
- Have the unload planned before the box leaves the port.
- Get the empty returned as soon as it is unloaded.
A day of planning before the ship arrives is cheaper than a week of demurrage after it.
How Signal handles it
Send us the container number, the terminal and the last free day when you book. We coordinate the drayage to our Surrey dock, plan the unload around your free time, and our own crew devans the container so the empty can go back. Your freight is then cross-docked onto our trucks, or stored if it is not ready to move. Read more about our container transload service.