Free time is a contract term, not a rule
No Indian customs rule and no port regulation grants an importer 14 free days with a container. The number comes from two places, and it is worth knowing which one you are looking at:
- The published tariff is the carrier's standard position for that trade, and it differs sharply between lines serving the same ports.
- The contract free time is what the line has agreed for the bookings in question. This is the number that actually applies, and it is only visible in a booking confirmation or a quotation — not in a tariff sheet and not in a rate index.
| Carrier (India import, dry vs reefer) | Published free days | What the tariff says about counting |
|---|---|---|
| OOCL — all India, port / ICD / CFS | 14 calendar days dry (7 reefer, 14 special) | Detention runs from the date of discharge at the terminal; for inland cargo, from the date the cargo reaches the ICD. Sundays and local holidays count. |
| ONE — India import, dry equipment | 5 calendar days | Free period starts from discharge at gateway ports; for ICD moves it can start at ICD arrival, depending on who hauls the container. |
| Volta — Mundra, Kandla, Nhava Sheva | 7 days standard (3 reefer, 5 hazardous) | Combined demurrage and detention, counted from full discharge at the terminal to empty return at the nominated depot. |
Those three rows are public tariff positions on the same trade, read in the same week. The spread is the whole argument for asking in writing: a quotation that says "14 days free time" and a contract that delivers five are both real, and the difference is discovered on arrival, per container, per day.
How the clock is counted in India
- From discharge, not from notification. The days begin when the container is discharged at the terminal. The arrival notice, the delivery order and the consignee's own paperwork come later, which is why the first two or three days are usually spent before anyone can physically clear the cargo.
- Calendar days. Sundays and local holidays are counted by most lines on this trade — OOCL states it in its India tariff. A weekend is not a pause.
- Inland cargo has a different start point. For carrier-haulage rail moves to an ICD the count can begin when the container arrives at the ICD rather than at the seaport; on merchant haulage it normally begins at discharge. Which rule applies can move the deadline by a week on a Delhi or Hyderabad booking.
- Charges escalate after free time. Published slabs rise in steps — for example a 20' GP dry container on one India tariff at USD 65 per day for the first chargeable week, USD 80 for the second, and USD 110 thereafter, with the 40' GP at roughly double. Read from the current tariff sheet at booking, not from a memory of last year's.
Demurrage, detention, and the Indian terminology trap
In the textbook version, demurrage is charged while the container is still inside the terminal and detention is charged once it has left the port and has not been returned. In India the party that invoices you depends on the line and the terminal: some carriers bill one combined demurrage and detention charge running from full discharge to empty return, while others bill detention only from discharge and leave in-terminal storage and ground rent to the terminal or CFS tariff, settled by the consignee directly with the yard. Both arrangements exist on the same ports. So when a charge is described as demurrage on this trade, ask which party is invoicing it and what its basis is — the answer decides who you argue with, and what evidence you need.
What we confirm, and what we refuse to confirm
We request 14 days at booking and write the number the carrier confirms into the quotation, next to the rate and the validity. If the line will not commit, we say so in writing before the booking is placed, because a free-day figure quoted and then not delivered is the customer's money. We do not confirm free days from memory, and we do not treat a tariff sheet as a booking term.
What our own booking files show
These are quotations our China–India desk issued between April and September 2026. They are not rate index data; they are what was written to customers, on which carrier, on which port pair.
| Port pair | Equipment | Carrier | Free time in the quotation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shekou → Nhava Sheva | 1 × 20' GP | ONE | 14 days |
| Shanghai → Mundra (Nanjing pickup) | 1 × 20' OT + 1 × 20' GP | ONE | 14 days |
| Ningbo → Mundra | 19 × 40' HQ | HMM | 14 days |
| Nansha → Nhava Sheva | 1 × 40' HQ | PIL | 14 days |
| Shekou → Nhava Sheva | 1 × 40' HQ | ZIM | 14 days |
| Zhongshan → Nhava Sheva | 5 × 40' HQ, ALL IN | OOCL | 14 days |
Two things follow from the same files. First, the request for 14 days appears in almost every enquiry we receive on this trade, and it is treated as a booking condition rather than a courtesy — a quotation that omits it is not compared. Second, free time is not the only term that has to be checked against equipment: in April 2026 a customer asked us for Tianjin → ICD TIHI on 40' open tops, and the answer was that open tops can be delivered at Nhava Sheva but not into the ICD, so the inland leg had to be re-planned around a different box rather than around a different free-day figure.
When the line will not give 14 days
- Buy additional free days before the free period expires. Carriers sell extra days against the contract, normally at a rate well below the first chargeable slab. The request has to be made in writing before the clock runs out; asking after the fact converts a cheap extension into an expensive argument.
- Compress the clearance cycle so fewer days are needed. The steps that decide this all happen before the vessel berths: pre-file the Bill of Entry, confirm the IEC and AD code are linked and the broker's credentials are live at ICEGATE, have duty funds ready for electronic payment, take the delivery order or telex release early, and book inland transport before Out of Charge is issued. Consignees who prepare this way clear within days; the ones who start on arrival spend the free time waiting for their own paperwork.
- Choose the delivery point deliberately. Where the clock starts at ICD arrival rather than at discharge, an inland delivery can buy effective time. This only works if it is confirmed for the specific booking, and it has to be weighed against the rail and ICD charges it adds.
- Compare holding the box with taking it out. Moving cargo into a CFS or a bonded warehouse and returning the empty container on time is sometimes cheaper than the in-terminal storage it replaces. This is a decision for the consignee's own broker, with the numbers in front of them, not a rule of thumb.
The three terms to have in writing
- How many free days apply at destination, and from what date they are counted.
- What triggers demurrage and detention, who invoices them, and at what rates.
- How long the rate itself is valid — free time on a quotation that expires in a week is a different commodity.
None of the three is a commitment we can make on the carrier's behalf, and all three can be written into a quotation before the booking is placed. That is the version of the promise that survives arrival.
How we quote the free days
Send us the port pair, the equipment and the consignee's city. We will quote the ocean leg, the destination items we can confirm, and the free days the carrier has actually approved — as separate lines, so you can see which part is ours and which part is the line's. For what gets billed after arrival, see destination charges at an Indian port; for equipment, transit times and port pairs on this lane, see China to India sea freight.