Demurrage is a data problem

Demurrage and detention feel like operational failures, but they're usually information failures. The free-day clock started, it ran, and by the time anyone looked, the window had closed. No single person decided to pay a penalty — the data just wasn't in front of them in time.

How do you track free days? A clock per container

Freightflow keeps a free-day count for every container. It applies the most specific free days that hold, in this order:

1. The container's own override.
2. The shipping line.
3. The customer default.

It then shows the days left on the container itself, on the boards the desks already use.

You can't manage a deadline you can't see. Make it visible early enough, and demurrage becomes a decision instead of a surprise.

The point isn't another report to read at the end of the day. It's to put the few containers about to cost money in front of the person who can act, while there is still time to act.

Visible, not noisy

The failure mode of most tracking is noise: so many flags that people learn to ignore all of them. A count that cries wolf is worse than none. So the days left sit quietly on every container, and the desk sees which boxes are close long before the bill arrives.

Get that right and the tone of the operation changes. Demurrage stops being a monthly line item you explain after the fact and becomes a small, boring series of decisions made on time. The savings are real, but the bigger win is that the deadline stops being a source of dread.