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Ocean carriers are ramping up the pressure on beleaguered shippers by reducing the amount of import container free-time at North European ports.

Millions of dollars in extra detention and demurrage (D&D) charges at the busiest box hubs will go straight to the balance sheets of carriers’ that currently enjoy billion-dollar profits on a quarterly basis.

Importers already face heavily congested landside operations and a shortage of container haulage right across the Le Havre-Hamburg range of hub ports, and now carriers are reducing ...

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  • David Thompson

    October 04, 2021 at 1:39 pm

    It would be OK to incentivise importers taking delivery of cargo promptly if they were able to respond to emails and issue PIN’s in keeping with the reduced free time. Instead, it’s taking days to get a response, and the absolute indifference shown by the Lines is shocking – they couldn’t care less. Perhaps, after months of complaints, it’s all water off a ducks back by now, but the attitude stinks. I take heart that it’s all cyclical, and one day they will need our business – and we will remember – but when they are making 10 years profit in one year, that day seems a long way off.