Last Free Day (LFD)

The last free day (LFD) is the date on which a container's free time ends. From the next day the terminal or ocean carrier charges demurrage while the loaded container stays in the terminal, or detention while the carrier's container is kept outside it. No regulation defines the term; it is the date that falls out of the carrier's tariff or your service contract.

There is usually more than one

• Port LFD: the last day the loaded import container can leave the terminal without demurrage
• Rail LFD: on inland moves, the rail terminal applies its own free time under its own tariff
• Detention LFD: the last day to return the empty without detention, counted from gate-out on most tariffs

How to find it

• The terminal's availability listing, looked up by container or bill of lading number, shows holds and demurrage status
• Carriers' own tools: Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk publish demurrage and detention calculators that return the free days and last free date
• The arrival notice from the carrier or NVOCC states the free time; it is sent before arrival, so confirm the date once the container is discharged

What happens after the LFD

Charges accrue per day. At some terminals a container in demurrage cannot even be given a pickup appointment until the demurrage is paid: the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's truckers' guide says so for GCT Bayonne. The LFD can move: carriers may pass on extra free time a terminal grants when access is impeded, and a cancelled or delayed vessel can shift the dates. Under tariffs such as Hapag-Lloyd's, customs holds and exams do not stop the clock, so an exam can push a container past its LFD. Separately, CBP's clock runs too: cargo not entered may stay at the place of unlading only until the fifteenth calendar day after landing before it can go to a general-order warehouse (19 CFR 4.37).

How to beat it

• File the ISF and the entry before arrival, and settle the freight release early
• Book drayage against the ETA; at busy ports appointments can be days out
• Use a pre-pull when the LFD is close and your dock cannot receive yet
• Check invoices: under 46 CFR 541.6 each one must state the free time's start and end dates and, for imports, the container availability date

Container tracking follows the container from discharge to gate-out, and our drayage service books pickups ahead of the last free day, using night and Saturday gates where terminals offer them.