Terminal Storage Charge: What It Is and How to Check It

Controllers who audit ocean invoices typically check the freight line against the rate card and the surcharges against the carrier's published table. That catches the charges the contract names. Storage often does not appear as a contracted rate line, so the invoice can arrive with a daily rate and a day count that the reviewer has to trace back to a tariff.

A terminal storage charge is the fee a container terminal levies for a container occupying its yard beyond the free period the terminal or carrier allows. Depending on the tariff and contract, the terminal may bill the carrier, the forwarder or another party, and the amount can be passed to the shipper, sometimes with a margin and sometimes under another name: port storage, quay rent, or Lagergeld Terminal on a German invoice. It pays for space in the container yard, not for the use of the carrier's box, and that decides which tariff the line is checked against.

How is terminal storage calculated?

Terminal storage is typically calculated per container per calendar day, from a trigger date the tariff names, after a stated number of free days, at a rate that steps up in bands the longer the container stays. The tariff can be the terminal's own, the carrier's local charges page, or a table the forwarder incorporates into its terms.

Three parts of the tariff set the amount. The trigger is the day the count starts: discharge in the two tariffs cited below, but other tariffs name availability or, for exports, gate-in, and because the tariff is banded, one extra chargeable day can move a container into a higher daily rate. The free days are the calendar days from that trigger for which nothing is charged. The bands are the daily rates that apply once free time ends, each higher than the last.

Maersk's UK import tariff effective 1 November 2021 is one example of how a carrier tariff structures storage: storage runs from the day the full container is discharged to the day it is gated out, and for a 20-foot dry container the first five days are free, days 6 to 7 cost GBP 20 a day, days 8 to 10 GBP 24, days 11 to 14 GBP 48 and day 15 onwards GBP 60. These are dated figures from one carrier's tariff for one country, not a current UK storage rate.

When no tariff sits behind the line, the rate is whatever the invoice says. In the invoices we audited from April to September 2026, storage was billed 210 times under 67 different descriptions, about CHF 71,000 in total, from containers held at rail yards to storage at a trucker's yard, and none of those lines had a contracted rate to check against. Without a tariff or contractual basis, a billed rate cannot be validated against a reference, which is why the first audit question is where the rate came from.

Terminal storage vs demurrage: who charges what?

Storage is the terminal's charge for the space a container takes in its yard; demurrage is the carrier's charge for the use of its container inside the terminal beyond the free days. Both can run on the same container on the same days, and in some tariffs one includes the other, so the tariff in force at that port decides.

In Hapag-Lloyd's June 2024 explainer, demurrage is the daily charge when a discharged container is not removed from the port area after the free days expire; detention, the container rental for days outside the terminal, has its own post. The terms are not used identically by every carrier, so the tariff in force decides how a line is classified. On US trades the FMC's billing rule of 26 February 2024 defines "demurrage or detention" as any charges assessed by ocean common carriers, marine terminal operators or NVOCCs "related to the use of marine terminal space or shipping containers", so on its wording a US terminal's storage invoice falls inside that rule. On 23 September 2025 the D.C. Circuit set aside the rule's section on who may be invoiced, 46 CFR 541.4, and left the rest in place (Holland & Knight, October 2025).

The table lists typical differences; any cell can be overridden by the tariff in force.

Usage differs by tariff. Hapag-Lloyd's German import tariff in force from 1 January 2025 states for Hamburg and Bremerhaven that storage is included in demurrage and not charged separately, with four free days from discharge and, for a 20-foot standard container, EUR 70 a day for four days, EUR 110 for the next five and EUR 180 thereafter. Maersk's UK tariff above runs the two separately. A separate storage line on a Hamburg import under the Hapag-Lloyd tariff is therefore grounds for a query; the same line on a UK import under the Maersk tariff is the expected structure. Which applies depends on the contract terms and the tariff incorporated into them.

Why does a container storage fee go through unchecked?

A container storage fee typically passes because there is no rate card line to compare it with, the daily rate varies from container to container, the invoice arrives weeks after the container has left, and the free days are counted from a trigger the checker does not know. Each is a process gap.

No contract line: the shipper rarely agreed a rate, and many approval workflows only check lines that have a contracted counterpart. Variable rate: banded tariffs give two containers on one invoice different daily rates, and a forwarder may add a margin, so nothing looks constant enough to flag. Late billing: storage is often invoiced apart from the freight, weeks after collection, when the shipment file is closed; on US trades the FMC rule sets a 30-calendar-day invoicing limit, elsewhere any limit comes from the contract. Trigger date: a count from discharge, availability or gate-in gives three different totals, and the invoice rarely says which was used.

How do you check a terminal storage line?

Check a storage line by finding the tariff in force, counting the free days from the trigger that tariff names, checking the band, checking for overlap with demurrage on the same days, and disputing with the tariff extract and the terminal's movement records.

Storage lines can be numerous and arrive after the main freight invoice, which makes them easy to overlook and significant in aggregate. Our Dispute Agent takes a storage line that fails the tariff check, turns it into a freight overcharge claim the carrier can act on, tracks the response and matches the credit note back to the shipment. Nothing counts as recovered until the credit note is in.

Free freight audit, 100 shipments

We audit 100 of your shipments and show you the savings.

• Send us 100 recent ocean invoices with their shipment data and rate cards.
• We check every line, including storage, against the contracted rates and the tariffs in force.
• You receive the findings with the source for each line.

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CEO & Founder, Intellyse

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