Terminal storage tiers: where one day costs four

Most disputes over terminal invoices revolve around the number of days. The costliest error is usually not the number of days but the rate they were billed at.

The rate is not one number

In a terminal tariff, storage rarely has a single price per day. The rate escalates in tiers: the first few chargeable days are cheap, then the price jumps, and for a container standing a long time it can multiply several times over.

In EUROGATE's Bremerhaven tariff an import container has four tiers — days 4–8, 9–13, 14–18 and from day 19. A 20-foot container costs 42.00 € per day in the first tier and 168.00 € from day 19. That is four times as much.

HHLA's Hamburg tariff works differently but on the same logic: the import rate doubles after seven chargeable days and triples after fourteen. For export the boundary is different — it doubles after nine.

Why a one-day error costs more than it looks

If the end of free time is calculated one day too early, the container does not simply gain one extra chargeable day. It shifts along the whole ladder: the day that should have been the eighth becomes the ninth, and if that is a tier boundary, every remaining day is billed at the higher rate.

So an error that looks like a single day can mean several hundred euros on the invoice. And the reverse is also true: getting the boundary right often yields more than arguing about the days themselves.

This is checkable without assumptions

Tier boundaries are stated in the tariff as numbers, not as descriptions. Either the day falls inside the tier or it does not — there is no third option. This requires neither contract interpretation nor correspondence with the terminal.

Three things are needed: the invoice with the billed days and rate, the applicable tariff with its tier table, and the real gate-in and gate-out dates.

Where it usually goes wrong

First, the container type. Tiers differ not only by day but by container: non-ISO, reefer and hazardous containers have their own ladders with their own boundaries in Bremerhaven.

Second, import versus export. The same tiers do not apply in both directions, and the direction is not always clearly stated on the invoice.

Third, what the tier itself is counted from. The tariff speaks of “countable” days — free time does not enter the tier count. Counted from the gate-in date, the tier arrives too early.

Terminal invoice audit