Demurrage management software for container free time
Demurrage management software connects a container’s applicable free-time terms, movement milestones, pickup and empty-return deadlines, assigned actions and charge evidence. Importers, exporters and logistics teams need to see which deadline requires action and why it was calculated that way. Codeblix develops custom software around your container workflow, commercial rules, operational approvals and confirmed data sources.
Turn a free-time limit into an owned action.
A vessel arrival, a released container, a booked truck and a completed empty return are different facts. A useful deadline view shows the evidence behind each one.
Explain the last free date
Match the shipment to the effective carrier agreement and equipment category. Show the start event, counting calendar, permitted days and extensions beside the resulting deadline.
Coordinate pickup and return
Assign the next action to a named operations role. Track release holds, truck arrangements, depot instructions and acknowledgement so an alert leads to a practical response.
Preserve the charge trail
Retain milestone sources, rule versions and exception documents. Keep estimated exposure, received invoices and approved adjustments separate while the responsible reviewer resolves a difference.
The handoffs behind a container deadline
Shipment terms, collection arrangements and return receipts connect the commercial clock to the physical movement.
Define which clock your team manages
This page concerns ocean freight containers and their free-time deadlines. Charter-party laytime, vessel demurrage and road-driver waiting time require different rules. For containers, decide whether the agreement uses separate terminal and outside-terminal periods or one combined period. Keep terminal storage as its own charge source when applicable.
Compare appointment and receiving capacity planningGive evidence and approvals different permissions
Operations staff update action status and attach movement evidence; commercial reviewers approve term changes; data owners resolve duplicate or conflicting events; finance approves invoice decisions. Restrict partner access to the shipments and documents they are authorized to see. Retain who changed a deadline, the reason and the earlier value.
Check the local carrier terms before copying a rule
Maersk’s Mauritius reference dated 1 April 2026 describes combined demurrage and detention using working days from discharge through empty return, with port storage payable separately. Use it as a reason to verify the counting basis for each shipment, alongside the actual booking and agreement. A rule copied from another carrier or port can produce the wrong last free date.
Read Maersk’s Mauritius import and D&D referencesConnect the invoice review without duplicating it
Deadline management coordinates actions before pickup and return. Carrier invoice auditing checks billed amounts against the accepted terms and evidence. Link the container case to that invoice owner so operations can supply a consistent event history while finance retains payment approval.
Explore the carrier invoice audit workflowFollow one container from discharge to empty return
Run the demonstration through a changed free-time allowance, a release hold and a late return receipt. These cases reveal whether the operating team can act on the data.
Match the container and terms
The shipment owner records the booking or bill of lading, container ID, equipment type, carrier, terminal and return depot. The commercial reviewer selects the applicable agreement version, including separate or combined demurrage and detention rules.
Validate movement evidence
Retain reported discharge, availability, gate-out and empty-return events with their source, event time, received time and timezone. Conflicting timestamps go to a data owner; an arrival forecast remains distinguishable from a completed movement.
Calculate and review the deadline
Apply the selected start event, inclusive or exclusive counting, calendar or working days, holidays, free-time allowance and approved extension. Show a calculation trace and record any manually confirmed carrier deadline with its supporting document.
Assign an executable response
Operations reviews approaching deadlines alongside release status and pickup availability. Allocate the truck coordination or depot enquiry, capture acknowledgement, and escalate an unaccepted action through the agreed duty roster.
Confirm pickup and empty return
Attach gate-out evidence to the collection and the depot receipt to the completed return. A booked appointment or attempted delivery remains a separate event. Recalculate the relevant timeline when corrected evidence arrives, retaining the earlier result.
Hand over charge questions
Prepare the rule snapshot, movement history, holds and correspondence for finance or the authorized dispute reviewer. Link the resulting invoice decision and credit reference, then close the operational case with unresolved differences assigned.
Prepare a scope that can be estimated
- An anonymized booking, carrier allowance and tariff version for two representative lanes
- Discharge, gate-out and return receipts with source IDs, timestamps and timezone
- One release hold, extension request and rejected empty-return attempt
- Container volumes, action owners, partner access, support hours and required data-source agreements
Agree delivery and operating boundaries
- Reconcile active containers and pending returns at cutover; compare calculated deadlines with the current operating record
- Confirm each carrier, terminal, depot or TMS interface’s access rights, coverage, refresh frequency and failure handling
- Accept visible stale-data status, duplicate-event control and a manual evidence path when a feed fails
- Define hosting ownership, backups, restoration checks, permission reviews and who maintains calendars and commercial rule changes
Ask the system to explain its deadline.
Take this record model, counting example and acceptance checklist into a vendor demo or Codeblix consultation. The objective is a reproducible deadline and an action your team can complete.
| Record | Example inputs | Required output and control |
|---|---|---|
| Container journey | Container ID · booking/BL · import/export · carrier · equipment · port/terminal · return depot | Separate each journey of a reused container ID. A booking with several containers keeps an individual timeline for each unit. |
| Free-time rule version | Agreement reference · effective date · start/end event · day basis · inclusivity · allowance · rate bands | Record the governing version and scope. Keep combined periods separate from independent demurrage and detention clocks. |
| Sourced milestone | Event ID · event type · occurred time · received time · timezone · source · attachment | Distinguish forecast, reported and confirmed events. Preserve source conflicts and repeated messages without silently changing the record. |
| Deadline and extension | Rule version · start event · counted dates · holiday calendar · last free date · approval | Explain every counted day. An approved extension creates a linked revision; retain the previous deadline and its calculation inputs. |
| Operations action | Container case · pickup/return task · owner · due time · release hold · acknowledgement · next action | An alert, an accepted task and a completed movement have different statuses. Escalate missing acknowledgement and attach completion evidence. |
| Exposure and charge case | Calculation date · charge category · counted excess days · rate source · invoice reference · decision · credit | Keep the estimate separate from the invoice and approval. Supply evidence for a dispute without treating an operational delay as an automatic liability decision. |
Illustrative counting test, not a carrier tariff: discharge occurs on Friday 9 October 2026. The example agreement excludes the discharge date, grants three free days, and includes the final free date. With calendar days, Saturday 10, Sunday 11 and Monday 12 are counted, so Monday 12 is the last free date. With Monday-to-Friday working days and no holidays in this example, Monday 12, Tuesday 13 and Wednesday 14 are counted, so Wednesday 14 is the last free date. If a combined calendar-day period continues through empty return on Thursday 15 and includes that return date, the excess dates are Tuesday 13, Wednesday 14 and Thursday 15. At an illustrative flat USD 60 per excess day, exposure is 3 × USD 60 = USD 180. Gate-out on Monday 12 does not stop this example’s combined clock. Under a separate-clock agreement, recalculate each period from its own events and allowances instead. A carrier-confirmed extension or excluded day changes the result only with its recorded authorization and rule.
Compare deadline monitoring, cost control and custom fit
Read the providers’ own descriptions, then demonstrate your carrier rules and exception cases. Verify current coverage and implementation terms directly with each provider.
| Option | Published focus | Ask in your demo |
|---|---|---|
| BuyCo detention and demurrage | Free-time consumption, cost exposure, deviation evidence and invoice/dispute workflow. | Show a combined clock, a source correction after invoice review and the retained earlier calculation. |
| Dockflow demurrage tracking | Last free dates, lead-time alerts and dwell analysis; its page distinguishes waiting time from charge amounts. | Demonstrate our working-day calendar and a missed action acknowledgement, then explain the handoff to charge review. |
| Cargoo ocean freight control | Ocean freight control connecting shipment visibility, contract context and exception management. | Trace a depot refusal, an approved extension and the final return receipt across operations and finance. |
Choose packaged monitoring when its lane coverage and rule handling fit your operation. Consider your existing TMS if it already holds the required contracts and events. Discuss custom development when action permissions, evidence review or partner handoffs need a specific workflow. Compare the total scope: source access, calendar maintenance, onboarding, hosting and support.
Category reference: Maersk Mauritius: combined D&D reference dated 1 April 2026. Confirm the actual booking terms and carrier instructions before using a date or exposure amount for an operational or finance decision.
Connect the container evidence to freight audit
Use one movement trail for operations and invoice review while keeping the deadline response and finance approval clearly assigned.
Open the related solutionKeep the transport records connected
Map the forwarder, TMS, receiving and finance records that supply or use the container case.
Explore logistics software developmentQuestions before choosing container demurrage software
Clarify the governing clock, source coverage and team responsibilities before requesting an implementation estimate.
What can Codeblix develop for our container workflow?
Discuss custom development for free-time rules, container events, deadline calculations, task assignment, evidence review and finance handoffs. Bring a normal journey and a difficult return case so the quote can define records, permissions, confirmed interfaces and acceptance criteria.
What is the difference between demurrage and detention?
In container workflows, demurrage generally concerns time at the terminal beyond the applicable free period, while detention concerns carrier equipment outside it. Some agreements combine the periods. Use the governing carrier terms to identify the start and end events, allowance and counting method; record terminal storage separately where required.
Does gate-out stop the free-time clock?
It depends on the agreement. Gate-out can end a terminal period and begin an outside-terminal period, while a combined arrangement can continue through empty return. Demonstrate both rule types with the same journey and verify which one applies to each shipment.
How should software handle working days and holidays?
Include the calendar named by the governing terms, timezone, start-date treatment and final-day inclusivity. Test weekends, relevant holidays and corrected start events. Store the counted dates so a reviewer can reproduce the last free date rather than infer the counting method from the total.
What if terminal and carrier events disagree?
Retain both sources, their timestamps and the time each update arrived. Apply the agreed source precedence or route the conflict to an authorized reviewer. Make stale or unresolved evidence visible and retain the earlier deadline when a correction changes it.
Can we connect our carrier, terminal or TMS data?
Review the exact provider coverage, API or file specification, access rights, identifiers and refresh schedule. Include only confirmed interfaces in the scope, with duplicate-message handling, rejection monitoring and a manual evidence route. Validate the representative lanes before committing to automated deadline decisions.
How do we migrate active containers and pending returns?
Reconcile the open journey list, rule versions, known events, confirmed last free dates and outstanding actions. Compare a parallel calculation with the current operating record, then agree cutover responsibility for late events and in-flight extensions. Preserve the source attachments and restoration plan.
What determines the quote and ongoing support?
The number of rule types, lanes, data providers, equipment categories, partners, permission levels and active containers affects development scope. Agree support coverage around the operating deadlines, hosting and restore needs, feed monitoring and responsibility for tariff or calendar updates. Request stages with measurable acceptance cases.