Audit
Demurrage and freight invoice audit: we recover what you've already overpaid
We check carrier and terminal invoices you've already paid against your own contract, and draft a claim. The initial review is free, and for the historic audit you only pay a share of what's actually recovered.
The audit isn't tied to a port: the claim is filed against the carrier under your contract, so we can review an invoice from any port or terminal. In Klaipėda, Riga, Tallinn and Gdańsk the review is automatic. In other ports we first request the terminal tariff — the result is the same, it just adds a few working days. Core markets: the Baltic states, Poland, DACH and Nordic Europe.
These services are aimed at different sides: most audits protect the cargo owner or forwarder against the carrier, while the German toll audit, by contrast, serves the carrier with its own fleet — there's no conflict of interest, since the other side there is the German toll operator, not your client. Payment terms analysis is fundamentally different from all the others: it checks not an invoice issued to you, but your own receivables from your own customers — and it never works against any party, because we do not contact your customer at all.
Was your last D&D invoice calculated correctly?
Enter your contract terms and one invoice below — in a few seconds you'll see whether the carrier counted the free time the way it should have.
Quick D&D check
Total days
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Chargeable days
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Correct amount
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This is an indicative check — a full audit also checks formal completeness, force majeure, and the contract's fine print. More calculators: /en/calculator.
Five places where logistics money disappears without a trace
Container demurrage
A demurrage and detention invoice from the carrier that nobody compared against the contract's free-time terms.
How it worksDriver waiting time
The hours a truck spent waiting at the ramp that never made it onto an invoice or into a report.
How it worksFreight invoices
A carrier invoice checked arithmetically, but never compared against the contracted rate.
How it worksAir terminal storage
Free time is measured in hours, not days — and when counting starts depends on the terminal, not the flight.
How it worksTerminal invoices
The storage rate escalates in tiers, and both the tier boundary and the interchange day are stated in the tariff — but rarely checked against the invoice.
How it worksAll five have the same cause: checking costs more working time than one invoice seems to be worth.
Why these invoices almost never get checked
A typical overpayment runs to a few hundred euros. Disputing it means reading the contract, comparing dates, and writing a substantiated claim. Most mid-size forwarders' finance teams don't have anyone for that — or they do, but that person's time costs more than the potential return from one invoice.
The result: errors that never get checked become a steady, invisible profit source for one side. Demurrit automates exactly the check nobody has time to do by hand.
This is an illustrative calculation, not confirmed statistics — the actual time and overpayment amount depend on your specific invoices.
How the audit works
01Send us 3 months of invoices
We review them for free and show you where the real errors are — before you pay anything.
02We agree on terms
We discuss the pricing model that fits your case — gain-share on what's recovered, or a fixed fee, depending on the service.
03We draft the claim — you file it
With a full calculation basis and evidence, ready to send straight to the carrier. See what the pack looks like — with a sample PDF.
D&D audit
Container demurrage and detention (D&D) is the carrier's charge for holding a container beyond the free time set out in your contract. Contracted free time typically ranges from 3 to 14 days depending on the carrier and contract — the example below uses 5 days purely for illustration.
First step
The contract clause review is not one of the modules below — it establishes which checks your contract permits at all, which is why it comes first.
Before any module Contract clause review We extract 27 clauses from the contract, each with a verbatim quote. They determine which checks we can run and which are excluded because of the dispute deadline.Services
Pricing
D&D audit — historic
25%
Of the amount actually recovered. If nothing is recovered — €0, never in advance.
No cap, no minimum fee.
Freight invoice audit — historic
25%
Of the amount actually recovered, capped at €5,000/case, or a fixed price of €1,490 for an archive audit. Scope is agreed before starting.
Available to German clients as fixed-price only. If nothing is recovered (with the success-fee option) — €0.
Freight invoice audit — ongoing monitoring
€79/mo
A fixed monthly fee, regardless of result. Includes driver waiting-time and air terminal storage detection.
German toll audit — historic
25%
Of the amount actually recovered, capped at €5,000/case, minimum €100, or a fixed price of €1,490 for an archive audit. Minimum scope — 10 vehicles.
Available to German clients as fixed-price only. If nothing is recovered (with the success-fee option) — €0.
German toll audit — reclassification / ongoing monitoring
€199 / €4.90/mo
Forward-looking reclassification — €199 per vehicle, one-time. Ongoing monitoring — €4.90/mo per vehicle.
Wagon demurrage audit — historic
25%
Of the amount actually recovered, capped at €5,000/case, minimum €100, or a fixed price of €1,490 for an archive audit. Minimum scope — 50 demurrage invoice lines.
Available to German clients as fixed-price only. If nothing is recovered (with the success-fee option) — €0.
Wagon demurrage audit — ongoing monitoring
€99/mo
A fixed monthly fee, regardless of result. Covers both demurrage AND track-usage (Gleismiete) invoice checking.
Payment terms analysis — one-time review
€349
An analysis of a twelve-month invoice register, one report. A success fee is never charged — this is an analysis, not a debt collection service.
Payment terms analysis — subscription
€79/mo
Up to 250 invoices per month, then €0.35/invoice. A monthly report by customer and an annual negotiation summary.
For high-volume clients (>50 containers/mo) — custom terms
Driver waiting-time detection never goes into gain-share — it benefits the carrier, the system only flags the hours, we don't file claims on your behalf. Air terminal storage detection, by contrast, is gain-share eligible, just like the container D&D audit. Both are included in the same €79/mo ongoing monitoring or historic audit. For document extraction on both sides, see Cargo Intelligence.
Frequently asked questions
Is this legal?
Yes. We only review your existing contract with the carrier and how it was applied to a specific invoice — this is a standard commercial dispute, nothing unusual.
Do you always recover money?
No. Not every claim is won — it depends on the contract terms and the specific case. That's exactly why, in the historic audit, you only pay for what's actually recovered, never in advance.
Can you check invoices from ports that aren't on your list?
Yes. A claim is filed against the carrier under your contract, not against a port, so the calculation check works anywhere. For four ports we already have terminal tariffs and holiday calendars on file, so the review is automatic and faster. Elsewhere we'll first ask for the terminal tariff — that adds a few days but doesn't change the result.
What data do I need to provide?
For the D&D audit: the demurrage invoices themselves, the contract's free-time terms and, if you have them, container movement data (gate-in/gate-out). For the freight invoice audit you'll also need your rate contract with the carrier — without it the system can't check the base rate or accessorials, only duplicates. No other financial information (bank statements, other invoices) is needed.
How long does the process take?
60–180 days from filing the claim, depending on the carrier.
Send us three months of invoices for review
Free initial review — send us the last three months' demurrage or freight invoices, and we'll show you where the real errors are, before you pay anything.
Getting your money back is good. Not losing it is better.
The D&D audit works retroactively. But most demurrage charges don't happen because the carrier made a mistake — they happen because nobody was tracking, in real time, when the free time ran out. Cargo Intelligence extracts data from your B/L and cargo documents and warns you before the invoice is even issued.
D&D audit clients get a 20% discount on any Cargo plan.