Why is my freight bill higher than my quote?

What a quote covers, and what it can’t

A typical import quote prices the ocean freight from the origin port, often with customs clearance and delivery to your door. Those costs are known when the quote is written. What happens after the container is unloaded is not: how many days it sits in the terminal, whether a chassis is waiting where the container is, whether customs picks it for an exam, and how long the driver waits at the gate or at your dock. Each of those becomes a line on a later invoice.

A careful quote can’t price those events in advance, but it can state the rules that will price them: the free time, the chassis days included, and the rate for each extra. When a quote says nothing about them, the first time you see the rate is on the bill.

The charges that show up after arrival

Here is how often the common extras were billed across all published ports in Freight Benchmarks’ data. Trucking fees are shares of shipments whose final trucking was billed on the same invoices.

• Chassis extra days: 37.5% of trucked shipments, for days on a chassis beyond those included in the trucking rate. See chassis extra days.
• Chassis splits: 29.0% of trucked shipments, when the trucker had to fetch the chassis from somewhere other than the container. See chassis split.
• Storage: 9.5% of all shipments, at a terminal, a warehouse or the trucker’s yard. See storage.
• Per diem and demurrage: 3.7% and 2.4% of all shipments, and when demurrage was charged the median bill was $490 per shipment. See demurrage and per diem.

Why the bill arrives in pieces

Freight, customs and delivery are usually invoiced as the shipment moves. Delay charges can’t be invoiced until they stop running: demurrage when the container leaves the terminal, per diem when the empty is returned, storage when the cargo is picked up. So a second or third invoice can follow the first by weeks, and it is often the bigger surprise. More on that in why a demurrage bill can arrive weeks after delivery.

A fair extra charge, or padding?

A fair extra charge has three things: a cause you can see, such as the dates, the hold or the wait; a rate that was agreed or published; and backup from whoever billed it first. Compare each amount with the benchmarks for your port. The port pages show how often each fee hits there and what it cost. An amount far above the usual range isn’t proof of overcharging, but it is a fair reason to ask questions, as covered in is my freight forwarder overcharging me?