Episode Details

You've ordered a container of goods from China. It arrives at the port. Now what? Most first-time importers focus on getting their cargo — and forget about the metal box it came in. That's how they end up with surprise bills of thousands of dollars in demurrage and detention fees. In this episode, we walk through the operational sequence of turning a container around: how free time works, the difference between demurrage and detention, where to return an empty container (it's not the port), and who actually sends the bill if things go wrong. Whether you're handling the inland leg yourself or relying on a forwarder, understanding the container interchange agreement and the return deadline is the difference between a clean transaction and a very expensive souvenir.