Source: The Loadstar
Date: 26th April 2023
The European shipper whose containers attracted more than $289,000 in detention and demurrage (D&D) charges has condemned Hapag-Lloyd USA for “organisational incompetence”.
A consignment of 70 containers was shipped from Antwerp to Charleston, South Carolina, by Hapag-Lloyd and on to Nashville by rail company CSX, under the same bill of lading.
Hapag-Lloyd has instigated proceedings against the rail company for its failure to release 10 containers, on which it had levied $136,500 in D&D charges, between 7 September and 7 October 2022, because it said they ‘belonged’ to Hapag-Lloyd and could not be loaded onto chassis belonging to a forwarder.
The shipper, who doesn’t want to be named, claims Hapag-Lloyd should have organised chassis so the freight “could be delivered in a timely manner”, and it was due to its “incompetence” that the boxes were not released.
Those charges were paid in order to retrieve the cargo on behalf of the shipper. A daily charge of $500 just for goods one needs urgently is simply not acceptable.