When the Import Entry Is Prepared After the Vessel Arrives
Free time runs from discharge, not from the arrival of documents, so an entry prepared after the vessel berths puts demurrage on the clock from day one.
Representative scenario, not a specific client engagement. This page describes how a shipment of this kind is genuinely handled — the constraints, the approach, and where it commonly goes wrong. It does not name or describe a real Transeasy customer. Our two documented project moves are the Mexico container move and the India overweight cargo delivery.
The situation
A North American importer receives its document pack from the supplier when the supplier is ready to send it, which is often after the vessel has sailed and sometimes after it has berthed. The broker then begins work: classification, valuation, bond check, entry preparation. Free time at the terminal, commonly in the region of three to five calendar days, has already been running from the moment the container was discharged.
From there the arithmetic is unkind. Demurrage accrues daily on the container while it sits inside the terminal, usually on a rising scale, and detention starts once the equipment leaves but is not returned. A single unresolved classification question or one missing certificate can turn a routine import into an invoice where the accessorial charges exceed the ocean freight.
What made it difficult
- Free time is measured from discharge or availability at the terminal, not from the day a complete document set reaches the broker.
- The Importer Security Filing is due 24 hours before loading at origin, so origin-side data discipline determines whether an early entry is even possible.
- Terminal appointment systems, chassis supply and drayage capacity cap how many containers can physically be collected in a day, regardless of customs status.
- Goods flagged for a partner government agency may attract holds or examinations that cannot be compressed, whatever the state of the entry.
How it is approached
The document cycle has to be bound to the booking rather than to the arrival. Commercial invoice, packing list, classification, bond confirmation and ISF data should all be complete at cargo-ready, which is weeks before discharge. Classification in particular belongs in a maintained product master, decided once per part number and reused, rather than researched again under time pressure on every shipment.
With a complete pack, the entry can be prepared and submitted before arrival so that release aligns with discharge rather than following it. This is also the point at which partner government agency flags surface, while there is still time to obtain a missing registration or certificate. An entry filed on the day of arrival has already surrendered most of the free time.
Clearance alone does not move a box. The collection has to be planned against the ETA with the same seriousness: terminal appointments booked, chassis secured, drayage allocated and the receiving warehouse unloading windows confirmed. Free time is consumed by whichever of these fails first, and a cleared container waiting for a delivery slot accrues exactly the same charges as an uncleared one.
Where a lane has a predictable profile, extended free time is negotiable at the point of booking and costs less than paying the charge afterwards. Beyond that, the discipline is measurement: days from arrival to entry filing, days from availability to gate-out, and demurrage per container tracked by cause. Treated as a monitored metric rather than an unavoidable cost, it falls.
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Takeaways
- Demurrage is a symptom of document timing, and it is decided at origin rather than at the port.
- An entry can be filed before the vessel arrives, and a lane where it routinely is not has a supplier data problem rather than a customs problem.
- Clearing a container and collecting it are separate problems, and free time is lost to whichever of the two is slower.
- Demurrage that is measured by cause per container almost always falls; demurrage treated as a cost of doing business does not.
Frequently asked
Free time is set by the terminal tariff and the carrier's conditions rather than by regulation, and it commonly falls in the region of three to five calendar days from discharge, with weekends and holidays sometimes counted and sometimes not. Longer free time can be negotiated at booking. Always confirm the applicable figure in writing for the specific port and carrier.
Demurrage is charged for the use of terminal space when a container stays inside the port beyond free time. Detention is charged for the use of the carrier's equipment once the container has left the terminal and has not been returned empty within the allowed period. The two run on separate clocks at separate rates, and one shipment can incur both.
Yes. US entries are routinely prepared and submitted in advance so that release is granted at or shortly after arrival, provided classification, valuation, bond and any agency data are already settled. The limiting factor is almost never the filing itself; it is whether the supplier's documents and the product classification were finished early enough to support it.