Detention and demurrage petition gains more support

Additional shippers and logistics companies have expressed support on a call for the Federal Maritime Commission to provide guidelines on detention and demurrage charges.    Additional shippers and logistics companies have expressed support on a call for the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) to provide guidelines on detention and demurrage charges.
   In December, a group of 25 shippers and logistics companies, called the Coalition for Fair Port Practices, asked the FMC to address fees imposed on shippers when they can’t pick-up and return cargo, containers and chassis for reasons beyond their control.
   The FMC has invited comments to be submitted by Feb. 28, and has been posting them on the docket website. The FMC has released several more of those comments.
   Jon Miller, director of the export division of Northwest Grains International in Minneapolis, said in his letter that he has witnessed carriers “nickel and diming” shippers and truckers more each year.
   “The FMC is supposed to maintain a fair shipping industry for shippers, truckers/other vendors and shipping lines,” Miller said. “Although, the SSL (steamship lines) and their legal department have found loopholes in the FMC guidelines to abuse customers by putting them in hostage ‘have to pay’ situations.
   “In many situations, we will have more expenses for demurrage and other penalties than actually hauling or loading cargo,” he said, adding that his company is not asking the FMC to eliminate demurrage but to use its “authority to prevent carriers from using this to charge companies and use the situation to coerce payment even if it’s unwarranted.”
   Peter Goggi, president of the Tea Association of the U.S.A. Inc., said many of his members “have experienced instances of delays, demurrage and excessive charges driven by situations that are completely out of their control. This has occurred at U.S. ports on both East and West Coasts.
   “Whether those incident involved weather, labor contract negotiations or other disruptions, the port delays were beyond our members’ control,” he said.
   The Maryland Motor Truck Association said, “Our Intermodal Council members have experienced repeated incidents of sever congestion at the Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore and other ports on the East Coast.”
   Suzanne Tilley, compliance and assets manager for the MacMillan Piper, which operates four container freight stations at the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, said, “To support our normal volume of business, trucks leased to us need to each move an average of eight containers a day through the ports. This was not possible during much of 2014 and 2015, during which time trucks often had no more than two moves per day.”