Ranking · free time in nine carrier tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026
Free time is set by your carrier's tariff, not by the port, and eight of nine carriers publish the number
- Free time is a field in your carrier's tariff, not an attribute of the port. Eight of the nine US import tariffs we read publish a number; the ninth, ONE, does not publish one at all. For the same port, those numbers are not the same.
- Free time counted in working days and free time counted in calendar days are not the same amount of time. Hapag-Lloyd, CMA CGM, Maersk and Yang Ming count working days, and across a weekend that is two extra days you were not counting on.
- Free time also has a start hour, and three documents give three answers. Georgia Ports Authority starts at the first 12:01 AM after discharge, Maersk at 3:00 AM at Los Angeles and Long Beach, Seaboard Marine at 08:00 on the first working day.
- Free time on rail is shorter than free time at the port. Hapag-Lloyd allows the grounding day plus two working days at ramps against four at ports, and CMA CGM allows three days on rail against four at the port.
Free time in the nine US import tariffs we read
Free time at a US container port is set by your carrier’s tariff, not by the port, and eight of the nine tariffs we read publish the number. What they do not agree on is what a day is, when it starts, and whether your port gets a line of its own.
Every figure in this table is for a dry box, and the other three boxes get less. A container with its refrigeration running gets half: two working days where a dry box gets four, and one where it gets three at Los Angeles and Long Beach. Special equipment and tanks sit in between, commonly two working days against four. Six of the nine tariffs publish the shorter reefer clock and five publish a tank line at all; COSCO applies the same two reefer days at all twenty-two of the places it names, and not one of the nine gives a working reefer more time than a dry box anywhere.
Detention runs on its own clock and this table does not cover it. Four of the nine tariffs publish an import detention free time and all four give the same four working days — ZIM, Yang Ming, CMA CGM and MSC — with no port named in any of them. Detention starts when the box leaves the terminal, so the two clocks can both be running on the same container on the same day.
How this table is built · what we are paid
- Source of record is the carrier’s own US import tariff, read directly, with the date we read it.
- Ordered by how completely the tariff discloses, then by the number of days. Five days that start at an unstated hour rank below four days that start at a stated one, because you cannot plan against the first.
- Where a carrier publishes no number of free days, the cell says “not published” — never “0” and never blank.
- The twenty-nine port authority rules we have not read say “not checked yet”, which is a different statement about a different party.
- No carrier has paid to appear here or to be positioned here, and no link on this site is a referral link.
| Carrier | Free time | Which days are counted | The hour the count starts | Port-specific lines | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hapag-Lloyd | day of discharge + 4 working days | working days | from the day of discharge, stated | ramps: grounding day plus 2 working days | read 07/28/2026 |
| Maersk | 4 days | working days | first 3:00 AM after discharge at Los Angeles and Long Beach | ramps priced separately | read 07/29/2026 |
| COSCO | 5 days, and 4 at New York | tiers counted from the discharge day, free time included | from the day of discharge, stated | New York singled out — the only port-specific free time in all ten tariffs | read 07/28/2026 |
| Yang Ming | 4 working days at Los Angeles · 5 at Savannah | working days | not published | published port by port | read 07/29/2026 |
| CMA CGM | 4 working days | working days | not published | rail: 3 days | read 07/28/2026 |
| MSC | 4 working days | working days | not published | published for Port Everglades only; elsewhere the terminal’s charge is passed through at cost | read 07/28/2026 |
| ZIM | 4 days | not published | not published | none | read 07/28/2026 |
| HMM | 4 days | not published | not published | none | read 07/29/2026 |
| ONE | not publishedthe advisory sets rates and states no number of free days | not published | not published | the advisory notes that California counts terminal working days | read 07/29/2026 |
| Eight of nine publish a number. The ninth publishes rates without one, which is a finding about that document rather than an absence of free time. | |||||
Two conventions in that table are worth more than the day counts. “Working days” and “calendar days” differ by roughly 40% over a two-week stay, and a tier counted from the discharge day including free time is not the same as one counted from the first paid day.
What free time is, and what it is not
Free time is the number of days a container may sit before storage starts accruing. It is not the time you have to collect the box: the carrier’s clock and the terminal’s clock are separate and can expire on different days. It is not a service level either — no carrier guarantees you an appointment inside it.
And it is not dwell. Free time is what your tariff allows; dwell is how long boxes actually sit, which is a different quantity measured four different ways: how long a box sits, and which dwell is meant.
What we are paid
- Nothing on this page has been paid for. No port, terminal or carrier has paid to appear here, to be positioned here, or to be left out, and no outbound link on this site is a referral link.
- If that ever changes, the rate goes on the page carrying the link, at one rate, the same for everyone — and a position in a table still will not be for sale.
The same ten tariffs priced line by line, and what the first paid day costs when free time runs out: the cost stack ranked port by port.
The second clock, which we have not read
Free time comes in pairs and this table holds one of each pair. The carrier’s clock is here; the terminal’s is not.
Every port we cover, with what each one publishes about its own clock: every US container port we cover. How the statuses on this site are defined: how every figure here is sourced.
The market answers this question with a range
Free time is answered in this market with a range, and the range is what you get when nobody opens the documents.
| Where the answer comes from | The answer it gives | What it rests on |
|---|---|---|
| Industry summaries and rate sites | three to seven free days | a range across unnamed carriers and unnamed ports, with no document cited |
| This page | four days at six of nine carriers, five at COSCO except at New York, and one carrier that publishes none | ten tariffs read in full, each row naming the carrier and the date we read it |
nine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026
A range of three to seven days is not false. It is the shape of an answer assembled from summaries rather than from tariffs, and it cannot tell you what your own box gets.
When free time ends, two invoices start
Free time ending is not one event but two, and the two invoices come from different parties on different clocks.
| Charge | Billed by | Owed by | Which clock | First paid day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carrier demurrage | Ocean carrier | Consignee or the counterparty named on the invoice, not both | the carrier’s free time, from the tariff above | $125–$3908 of 9 tariffs · read 07/28–07/29/2026 |
| Terminal storage | Marine terminal operator | Cargo interest, usually via the carrier | the terminal’s own free time, which we have not read | not checked yetgap A — about 80 tariffs |
The invoice that starts when free time ends
Free time running out produces an invoice, and that invoice answers to a federal rule: 46 CFR Part 541, in force since 05/28/2024. The rule has been before the D.C. Circuit twice since, and the decision of 09/29/2025 changed who may be billed — so read the current text at eCFR rather than a summary of the 2024 announcement, including ours.
What the invoice has to contain, what a missing element does to the obligation to pay it, and how the dispute runs at the carrier: the federal rules your invoice has to meet.
Descriptive, not legal advice. The tariff and the invoice in your own file govern.
The three tariffs that tell you the most
Three of the nine tariffs tell you materially more than the other six, and it is worth knowing which before you plan around a number of days.
1 · Hapag-Lloyd — the count and its starting point
Free time runs from the day of discharge plus four working days, and the ramp case is written out separately: grounding day plus two working days. Both the count and the event it starts from are in the document.
Hapag-Lloyd US import tariff · read 07/28/2026
2 · Maersk — the only carrier that names an hour
Four days, and the count begins at the first 3:00 AM after discharge at Los Angeles and Long Beach. That hour is worth a partial day on every box that lands in the afternoon, and no other carrier tariff we read states one.
Maersk USA Imports · read 07/26–07/29/2026 · what it costs to land a box at los angeles, what it costs to land a box at long beach
3 · COSCO — the only port-specific exception
Five free days generally and four at New York, with tiers counted from the discharge day including free time. It is the only line in all ten tariffs that singles out a port for free time, and the port it singles out is the dearest one we priced.
COSCO US import tariff · read 07/28/2026
The port that publishes its own hour rather than leaving it to the carrier is Savannah, and it is the only one on this site: what it costs to land a box at savannah.
Where the number in the table does not apply
Free time from the table above does not apply unchanged in five situations, and four of them are written into the tariffs themselves.
- Rail ramps run on their own free time. Hapag-Lloyd allows the grounding day plus two working days at a ramp; CMA CGM allows three days on rail. Neither matches its own port figure.
- New York is written out separately by COSCO at four days rather than five. Before applying a carrier’s general number, check whether your port has its own line.
- MSC publishes free time for Port Everglades only. Everywhere else it passes the terminal’s charge through at cost, which means the terminal’s free time is the one that governs and we have not read it.
- Working days and calendar days are not the same allowance. Over a two-week stay the difference is roughly 40%, which is larger than most of the rate differences between carriers.
- The terminal’s clock is separate. Nothing in this table tells you when terminal storage begins, and at four carriers in New York the terminal invoices it on its own.
All five read from the nine tariffs, 07/28–07/29/2026.
How often this changes
Free time changes by amendment, and an amendment can be on file before the version it replaces has expired. We caught one while reading: the HMM tariff in force expired 07/31/2026 and its successor was already filed effective 08/01/2026.
| Port group | To 07/31/2026 | From 08/01/2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle, WA; Tacoma, WA | $263 | $265 |
| The other twelve groups | unchanged | unchanged |
HMM tariff HDMU-040, rule 101-1, amendments 1146 and 1157 · read 07/29/2026
So a free-time figure on this page is as of the date beside it. The nine tariffs are re-read quarterly, and any change goes into the corrections log with its date.
Questions about free time and the clock
How many free days before demurrage?
Four in six of the nine tariffs we read, five under COSCO and five at Savannah under Yang Ming. ONE does not publish a number at all. The figure belongs to your carrier's tariff, so the answer changes with the carrier and sometimes with the port inside it.
Is free time counted in calendar days or working days?
Working days in four of the tariffs we read — Hapag-Lloyd, CMA CGM, Maersk and Yang Ming. Two do not say. Across a weekend the difference is two whole days, which is more than most of the rate differences on this page.
When does the free-time clock start?
Whenever your document says. Georgia Ports Authority starts it at the first 12:01 AM after discharge, Maersk at 3:00 AM at Los Angeles and Long Beach, Seaboard Marine at 08:00 on the first working day. Three documents, three hours, one container.
Does the port set free time?
No. The carrier's tariff does, and the terminal has a separate clock under its own tariff. A port authority can publish its own rule as well — Georgia's Rule 34-025 is the one we have read — but that rule sits alongside the carrier's, it does not replace it.
Is rail free time the same as port free time?
No, and it is shorter. Hapag-Lloyd allows the grounding day plus two working days at ramps against four working days at ports; CMA CGM allows three days on rail against four at the port. A box moving inland loses time it never had.
Is a grace period the same thing as free time?
Grace period is not a term the tariffs use. What people mean by it is free time, which is a defined quantity in a specific document with a stated convention and, in some tariffs, a stated start hour.
Do any of the tariffs in this table give fourteen free days?
No. It is a negotiated concession that appears in some contracts rather than a market norm. Every tariff in the table above states its own number, and none of them is fourteen.
Why do sources say free time is three to seven days?
Because they are averaging documents nobody opened. The ten tariffs we read give four, four, four, four, four, five, four or five by port, four, and none at all. The range is what you get when the individual numbers are not looked up.
Free time is the allowance your tariff gives you; dwell is how long boxes actually sit; and the first paid day is what the difference costs. All three are separate pages because they are separate quantities, and the links above go to each.