Ranking · terminal handling charge · one figure, one port · read 07/26–07/29/2026
Terminal handling charge is billed by the carrier, named for the terminal, and absent from all ten tariffs we read
- Terminal handling charge is billed by the ocean carrier and named after the terminal, which makes it the only charge in this stack whose name points at a party that does not send the invoice. It covers the lift and the yard move at the port, and it is not the terminal's own storage bill.
- Terminal handling charges do not appear in any of the nine import tariffs we read end to end. Those nine are demurrage and detention documents; the handling charge lives in a carrier's local charges schedule, which is a different publication we have not opened for any carrier.
- US ports carry one handling figure on this site and it belongs to one of them. Savannah is reported at $290 to $370 per TEU, a range of 1.28 times inside a single port, which tells you the number circulating is an estimate rather than a published rate.
- Charges quoted per TEU understate a forty-foot box, and this site has already corrected itself once for exactly that. The Savannah range is per TEU; a forty-foot container is two TEU, and reading the lower number as your total is the same error we logged when a clean truck fee turned out to be ten dollars per TEU and twenty per long box.
Every terminal handling figure we hold, which is one
Terminal handling charge is the one line of the cost stack whose name points at a party that does not send the invoice. Here is every figure we hold for it.
How this table is built · what we are paid
- There is no ranking by port on this page, and there cannot be one. We hold one terminal handling figure for one port. A single figure is not a ranking, and this table stays one row long rather than being padded with ports that have nothing in them.
- That single figure is a consensus of what the market quotes rather than a published rate — and the 28% spread inside one port is the evidence for calling it an estimate.
- The unit is stated in every row. A per-TEU figure is not the number on your invoice for a forty-foot container.
- This charge appears in none of the nine import demurrage tariffs we read end to end, because it belongs to a different class of document — the carrier’s own local charges schedule, which we have not opened for any carrier.
- No port, terminal or carrier has paid to appear here or to be absent, and no link on this site is a referral link.
| Port | Figure | Unit | Status of the number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Savannah | $290 – $370 | per TEU | quoted in the market, no document behind it — a 28% spread inside one portsearch results · read 07/26/2026 |
| Every other US container port | not checked yet | not applicable | no figure located for any of themour own capture · 07/26/2026 |
| One figure for one port is not a ranking, and padding this table with empty rows would make it look like one. | |||
Why the name says terminal and the invoice says carrier
Terminal handling charge is named for the terminal and billed by the ocean carrier. Of the six lines a US import picks up it is the only one whose name points at a party that does not send the invoice — and the practical consequence is immediate: disputing it with the terminal is pointless, because the invoice is the carrier’s and the basis sits in the carrier’s own schedule of local charges.
It is also not terminal storage. Handling is the lift and the yard move at discharge — one event. Storage is a daily charge after free time runs out. Different events, different documents, different billers.
| Charge | The name points at | Billed by | Do they match? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terminal handling charge | the terminal | the ocean carrier | no — the only mismatch in the stack |
| Terminal storage | the terminal | the terminal | yes |
| Carrier demurrage | the carrier | the carrier | yes |
| Local port fees | the port | the port authority | yes |
| Drayage | not applicable | the motor carrier | not applicable |
| Chassis | not applicable | the pool, the carrier or the motor carrier | not applicable |
How this page is built, and why there is almost nothing in it
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 one cost line this site has read end to end, and how it is ranked: the cost stack ranked port by port.
Why there is no handling charge table by port
There is no per-port table of terminal handling charges on this page, and three separate things stand in the way.
How every figure on this site is sourced and what each status permits: how every figure here is sourced.
What the market publishes about terminal handling charges
The market answers this question with methods rather than with prices. These are our own counts across the queries this page was built from.
| What we measured | Value |
|---|---|
| What the related searches ask for | a calculation of the charge rather than a rate — the same pattern as the congestion cluster |
| Per-port summaries of this charge anywhere in the results | none we found |
| What the freight side of the results offers instead | calculators, definitions and trade-lane increase notices |
| A live example of how these charges move | an increase announced for one named trade lane, dated 2025 — by carrier notice rather than by revision of a general tariff |
| What most of this query set is actually about | a controlled substance sharing the three-letter abbreviation — six of ten questions and nine of fourteen related entries. Nothing on this page addresses that subject. |
| Foreign units sitting in this page’s own recorded vocabulary | per-kilogram air freight, per-cubic-metre consolidation and a tonnage ranking — none enters any table here |
our own capture of the terminal handling queries, Google US, 07/26/2026
Who bills the handling charge, and who bills the other terminal costs
Three charges are routinely confused here, and two of them cover the same days from two different parties while the third covers an event.
| Charge | Billed by | Owed by | What it is charged for | Which document sets it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminal handling charge | Ocean carrier | Whoever the Incoterm assigns | an event — the lift and the yard move at discharge | the carrier’s local charges schedule — unopened for every carrier |
| Terminal storage | Marine terminal operator | Cargo interest | each day after the terminal’s free time ends | the terminal’s tariff — gap A |
| Carrier demurrage | Ocean carrier | Consignee or the counterparty named, not both | each day after the carrier’s free time ends | the carrier’s import tariff — the one document class we have read |
How many free days each carrier gives before the last two of those start: how many free days each port allows.
If a handling charge arrives you did not expect
A handling charge you did not expect is reconciled rather than disputed, and in a specific order: confirm the unit — per TEU or per container — and then ask for the document, which is the carrier’s local charges schedule and not a terminal tariff. Demurrage invoices in US trade answer to 46 CFR Part 541, in force since 05/28/2024 and litigated twice since; read the current text at eCFR rather than any summary of it.
How to test a demurrage invoice, which is a different document with different requirements: the federal rules your invoice has to meet.
The one port with a figure, and the two with none
One port carries a figure and the two best-documented ports on this site carry none — which says more about the charge than about the ports.
Savannah — the only figure we hold
$290 to $370 per TEU, quoted consistently enough in the results to record and with no document behind it. The 28% spread inside a single port is what marks it as an estimate rather than a rate, and it never enters a ranking column anywhere on this site.
market consensus · seen 07/26/2026 · what it costs to land a box at savannah
Los Angeles — the best-disclosed port here, and nothing on this line
It publishes volume to the individual container, a live operations dashboard and a fee schedule we have read. On terminal handling it has nothing, which demonstrates the point: this is not a charge ports publish. It is a carrier’s charge that happens to be named after a terminal.
Long Beach — no figure, like almost everywhere
The absence here is a property of the charge rather than of the port, and the Savannah range is not read across to it. Two ports in one bay share tariff groups for demurrage; nothing suggests they share an unpublished handling estimate.
Where a handling charge figure does not apply
A terminal handling figure does not apply in five situations, and the first has already cost this site a published correction.
- A per-TEU figure is not a per-container total. A forty-foot box is two TEU. This site has already corrected itself once for reading a per-TEU rate as a container rate — it is entry five in the corrections log — and the same trap is here.
- Import and export are priced separately in these schedules, and a figure quoted without saying which direction it covers cannot be checked.
- Handling is not storage. One is an event at discharge, the other accrues per day. Adding a handling estimate to a storage estimate double-counts nothing and covers nothing — they are different lines.
- These charges are specific to a trade lane, and they move by carrier notice on a named lane rather than by revision of a general tariff. A figure with no lane and no date is not comparable with anything.
- Under a contract rate the charge may be folded into the freight, in which case a separate line for it is either absent or a duplicate.
How often handling charges change
Terminal handling charges change by carrier notice on a named trade lane, not by revision of a general tariff. The live example in this capture is an increase announced for one lane with 2025 dates — which is exactly the shape of the evidence: a date, a lane, and a carrier.
Our own single figure has neither a date nor a lane attached to it. That is the strongest argument available for why it sits marked as an estimate rather than in a column.
Opening one carrier’s schedule of local charges would replace the whole of this page with read figures. It is the cheapest unread document class on the site and it is covered by no entry in our gap register.
Questions about terminal handling charges
What is a terminal handling charge?
The charge for lifting and moving your container inside the port at discharge. It is billed by the ocean carrier even though it is named after the terminal, and it is a one-off charge rather than a daily one.
Who pays terminal handling charges?
The party named in the contract of carriage. Taking it up with the terminal will not help — the invoice comes from the carrier and its basis sits in the carrier's own schedule of local charges.
How much is it per container?
The only figure we hold is Savannah at $290 to $370 per TEU, and that is a consensus of the results rather than a published rate. A forty-foot container is two TEU, so the per-TEU number is not your total.
Why am I being charged a handling fee?
For the discharge operation itself rather than for time. Demurrage and storage are the charges that count days, and they arrive from different parties on different clocks.
Is it the same as terminal storage?
No. Handling is a one-off charge from the carrier for moving the box; storage is a daily charge from the terminal for leaving it there after free time expires.
Where is the charge published?
In the carrier's schedule of local charges, which is a different document from the demurrage tariff. We have not opened that schedule for any of the nine carriers we otherwise read in full.
Why is there no table by port?
Because we hold one figure for one port. A single row presented as a ranking would be the most ordinary sort of untruth available on this subject, so the table stays one row long.
How often does it change?
By carrier notice on a named trade lane. The capture for this page carries an increase announced for Central America with a 2025 date, which is why a figure without a lane and a date is not usable.
Terminal handling is one line of six, and the only one whose name misdirects you about who to argue with. The pages that price the lines we have read, and the catalogue of ports behind them, are linked above.