SIMIC

MAERSK will begin billing container detention charges directly to consignees on merchant haulage moves from April 1 that involves invoicing practices related to new requirements from the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), reports New York's Journal of Commerce.
"With the FMC's ongoing rulemaking process, we're aiming to line up a better billing process that helps truckers and customers," said Maersk.
Merchant haulage involves container moves where the importer manages a box's pickup and empty return with its own drayage providers.
Detention fees are assessed when a container is returned to a terminal after contractual free time expires.
"We will update our US import detention billing practices to no longer invoice motor carriers by default on merchant haulage moves," said Maersk.
"Instead, all import detention invoices will by default be issued to the consignee on the bill of lading."
Maersk declared that shippers can indicate whether they would prefer to still have truckers billed first for detention.
The move by Maersk comes as the FMC is in the midst of a rulemaking process around detention and demurrage billing mandated by the passage of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 (OSRA-22) last June.
The initial rulemaking by the FMC proposes that "a properly issued invoice is only issued to the person that has contracted with the billing party for the carriage of goods or space to store cargo, and the billed party is responsible for the payment of any demurrage or detention charge."
The FMC stated the agency received 90 comments on the proposed rulemaking from industry players, many of which addressed the issue of who can be billed for detention and demurrage.