Working or calendar days: what the terminal tariff actually says

One rule is repeated constantly in logistics advice: free time is counted in working days, and the charge after it in calendar days. The rule is real but not universal, and assuming it costs money in both directions.

Where the rule comes from

The construction is real and has its logic. Free time exists so the customer can complete an action — and actions happen on working days. The charge compensates for occupied space, and space is occupied at weekends too.

Where the rule does apply, the practical effect is large: five working days of free time starting on a Thursday end on the following Thursday. If the same five days are counted as calendar days, they end on Tuesday — two days earlier, and that repeats every weekend.

But two large tariffs say otherwise

We verified two publicly published sea-terminal tariffs, and both state free time in calendar days.

HHLA Hamburg, clause 3.1: “Free quayside storage for import goods in containers / general cargo: 3 calendar days after the last day of discharge by the seagoing ship”. For export it is five calendar days, for transhipment seven.

EUROGATE Bremerhaven, clause 7.5.3, is even more explicit: “Obligatory storage counts for every calendar day subject to free time given between receiving and delivery”.

This does not mean the rule is invented. Working-day free time does occur in carrier demurrage tariffs and in individual contracts with terminals. It means the assumption cannot be made.

Why the assumption is dangerous in both directions

If you assume working days and the tariff says calendar days, you will prepare a claim whose basis does not match the document. The terminal will answer in one sentence and will be right.

If you assume calendar days and the tariff says working days, you simply will not see the overcharge. You will calculate exactly as the person who issued the invoice did, and you will get the same result.

The third rule, the one that disappears most often

Besides the day type there is one more detail: whether the interchange day is counted. Bremerhaven's conditions say the day of delivery to the terminal is free, while the day of redelivery counts as a full day.

That is one day per container. It looks like a rounding question, which is why it is almost never checked.

What to check in your own documents

Find the sentence in the tariff about free time and look for the word “calendar” or “working”. If neither is there, the day type is not defined in the tariff — and that in itself is a question for the terminal.

Then find the separate sentence about the charge itself: it may state a different day type from free time. That is not a contradiction; it is exactly the asymmetry the whole question is about.

Only then compare with the invoice.

Terminal invoice audit