When it goes wrong · the box has stopped moving · read 07/26–07/29/2026
A container stuck at the port is stuck for one of a few named reasons, and each has a different way out
- A container stuck at a US port is almost always stuck for a named reason, and the name decides everything: who can lift it, how long it takes and who pays. The named reasons are a customs hold, an examination, a document or release problem, an unpaid charge, or a carrier-side failure such as a port omit.
- A customs hold does not stop the money. Demurrage and terminal storage keep accruing while the box sits, and the hold is not by itself a defence against either charge. That is the single most expensive thing people learn late.
- Customs examination costs are borne by the importer — the moves, the opening, the restow and the exam site's own charges. The regulator does not pay them and neither does the terminal, and no schedule of those charges is published in anything we have read.
- Abandoned cargo does not simply disappear. After a statutory period we have not read from CBP, unclaimed cargo can be sold at public auction, donated or destroyed. The charges accrued up to that point do not vanish with the freight — they stay with the party that owes them.
A hold, an exam and a release problem are three different things
A container stuck at a US port is stuck for one of a few named reasons, and the name decides who can release it. A hold is placed by Customs and Border Protection or another federal agency and only that agency lifts it. An examination is a physical or imaging inspection that moves the box to a station and back. A release problem is neither: the cargo is free to go and the paperwork, the payment or the appointment is not there.
The three are confused constantly and they are not interchangeable. You cannot pay your way out of a hold, and no agency can fix a missing telex release.
Who lifts each hold, and who pays for the days it takes
Who lifts it and who pays for the days are two different questions, and for most of these the answer to the second is the same party.
How this page is built · what we are paid
- This page covers the box and the clocks running against it. Clearance procedure, entry filing and duty calculation are somebody else’s subject and are not covered here.
- Every rate comes from a carrier tariff or a port fee schedule with the date we read it.
- Where a deadline exists and we have not read the document that sets it, this page says a deadline exists and does not invent the number.
- No company has paid to appear here, and no link on this site is a referral link.
| Why it stopped | Who can lift it | Who pays the days | Does the clock stop? |
|---|---|---|---|
| A manifest or documentation hold | Customs and Border Protection | Cargo interest | no |
| A CBP examination | Customs and Border Protection, after the exam | Cargo interest — the examination costs are borne by the importer | no |
| Another agency’s hold | that agency — food, drug, agriculture or transport | Cargo interest | no |
| A release problem: unpaid freight, no telex release, no delivery order | the ocean carrier or your forwarder | Cargo interest | no |
| No appointment available | the terminal, when a slot opens | Cargo interest | no — and no tariff we read treats this as an excuse |
| Nobody collects it at all | nobody — the cargo becomes unclaimed | The party the bill of lading names | no — and unclaimed cargo can eventually be sold at auction, donated or destroyed |
What a week of waiting costs while nobody is at fault
A week of waiting while nobody is at fault still produces invoices, and it helps to know their size before deciding how hard to push.
| Line | Per day | From when |
|---|---|---|
| Carrier demurrage | $125–$390 first paid day8 of 9 tariffs · read 07/28–07/29/2026 | the moment the carrier’s free time ends, and it steps up in tiers |
| Terminal storage | not checked yetgap A | the terminal’s own free time ending — a separate clock |
| A port charge for sitting, where one exists | $45 per unit per day from day 8Port Houston · read 07/26/2026 | the only port authority dwell fee we have read anywhere |
How the clock behind the first line runs: how the demurrage clock runs. What each carrier charges once it has run out: what each ocean carrier charges after free time.
The invoice that will arrive for these days
An invoice will arrive for these days, and in US trade it answers to 46 CFR Part 541 — in force since 05/28/2024, before the D.C. Circuit twice since, with the 09/29/2025 decision changing who may be billed. Whether the delay was your fault does not decide whether the invoice meets its requirements; those are separate questions and the second one is testable.
How to test it before paying: the federal rules your invoice has to meet.
Descriptive, not legal advice.
What to do today, in the order that actually unblocks a box
The order matters more than the actions. Most published advice starts at step three.
- Find out which of the three it is, in writing. Hold, examination or release problem. Ask for the status in a form you can quote back — the answer decides which party you spend the week talking to.
- Find out when free time ended or ends. The date the charges start is the number that makes everything else urgent, and it comes from the carrier’s tariff rather than from anyone’s estimate.
- Contact the party that can actually lift it. Your broker for a customs hold, the agency for an agency hold, the carrier or forwarder for a release problem. A forwarder cannot lift a hold and an agency cannot issue a release.
- Book the collection appointment now, not after it clears. Appointment scarcity is the delay nobody plans for, and no tariff we read treats an unavailable slot as a reason to stop charging.
- Ask, in writing, whether your tariff pauses anything. As a rule it does not. If an exception exists for holds or exams it is in that document, and the answer is worth having on paper either way.
- Watch the tier steps, not the total. The rate rises in tiers in every tariff we read, so the cost of week two is not twice the cost of week one. How many free days you had to begin with: how many free days each port allows.
When it is not a hold at all
Four situations look like a hold and are not, and one of them is not about freight at all.
- The vessel never called at your port. The box is not stuck, it is elsewhere — when the ship skips your port.
- The chassis is what you are waiting for. Then the charge growing is not only demurrage — what the chassis adds to the bill.
- The cargo is unclaimed rather than held. After a statutory period unclaimed cargo can be sold at public auction, donated or destroyed. A deadline exists; we have not read the document that sets it and do not print a number.
- Your search brought you here about software. One of these queries returns container-image and developer results — that is a different kind of container, and it is worth saying plainly rather than pretending the ambiguity does not exist.
What the pages answering this question actually tell you to do
The pages answering this question mostly tell you to contact your forwarder. These are our own counts across the nine queries this page answers.
| What we measured | Value |
|---|---|
| Positions held by federal sources across the nine queries | seven |
| Queries where a discussion forum appears in the top ten | five of nine |
| One vendor blog holding position 1 | on four of the nine queries |
| What three of the quick answers reduce to | “contact your freight forwarder or customs broker” |
| A quick answer on “container seized by customs” answering about something else entirely | parcel tracking with the postal service |
our own capture of the nine stuck-container queries, Google US, 07/26/2026
“Contact your forwarder” is not wrong. It is what you do after establishing which of the three situations you are in, and before that it is a way of not answering.
How every figure here is sourced and what each status means: how every figure here is sourced.
- Not legal advice. A description of a federal rule is a description of it, and the rule as in force on your date governs.
- Not a quote. The tariff and the bill of lading in your own file decide what you owe, not a number on this page.
- Not a filing service. We do not act for you, contact your carrier, or take a share of anything recovered.
Questions people ask while the box is sitting
Why would customs hold a container?
For a named reason with a named owner: a manifest or entry data mismatch, a risk-targeted examination, or a rule enforced by another agency such as FDA or USDA. The type decides who can lift it and how long it takes, which is why identifying the type comes before anything else.
Can I ignore a customs seizure letter?
No. A seizure notice carries a response window, and letting it pass has consequences of its own. We are not publishing the specific deadlines until we have read them from CBP directly rather than from a summary — but the deadline exists, and it is the first thing to establish.
How long do customs exams take?
It depends on the type of examination and on the exam site's queue. What does not depend on it is the money: demurrage and terminal storage keep accruing throughout, so the length of the exam and the size of the bill move together.
Who pays for a customs exam?
The importer. That covers the moves to and from the exam site, the opening, the restow and the site's own charges. Neither the regulator nor the terminal absorbs them, and they arrive separately from the demurrage.
How do I check if my container is really under exam?
Through the official status rather than a message from an intermediary: the ocean carrier's portal, the terminal operating system, and CBP's Automated Commercial Environment. If those three disagree, that disagreement is itself the finding.
Who is liable for abandoned cargo?
The consignee and, depending on the bill of lading, the party that arranged the carriage. The accrued demurrage and storage do not disappear with the freight, which is why abandonment is rarely the cheap exit it looks like.
What happens to abandoned cargo?
After a statutory period, unclaimed cargo can be sold at public auction, donated or destroyed. The period itself is on our reading list; what is already clear is that the charges outlive the goods.
Does a customs hold stop demurrage?
As a rule it does not. The carrier's clock and the terminal's clock run on their own tariffs and are not suspended because a government agency is the reason the box cannot move. Check your own tariff, because that is where any exception would live.
A stopped box produces two questions — how to move it and who pays for the days it did not move. The first is above; the pages that answer the second are linked throughout.