What is the last free day (LFD) in shipping?

The last free day does not cost anything by itself. It is the date that decides when demurrage starts. Pull the container on or before the LFD and there is no storage charge. Pull it the day after and the meter is already running, usually at a daily rate that steps up the longer the box sits.

That makes the LFD the single most important date in an import move, and one of the least reliable.

Free time is written into each terminal's tariff, and the fine print differs by port. At the New York and New Jersey terminals, dry import containers get four free days and reefers get two, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and ILA holidays unless the gate is open, and the clock starts on the first business day after the box reaches its first resting spot on the terminal. At Long Beach, since September 2022, Saturdays and Sundays count as free days whenever the terminal is open.

The ocean carrier often has its own free time too, in its tariff or your service contract, and it does not always match the terminal's. So the question is not only when the LFD is, but whose.

Because free time counts from discharge, the LFD cannot be known for certain until the container is actually off the vessel and available. A vessel that arrives two days late pushes the LFD two days later. A terminal that works the ship faster than planned pulls it in. The date typed into the TMS when the booking came in is a guess that was made before any of that happened.

Holds make it worse. A customs exam or a freight hold can keep a container from being picked up, and some carrier tariffs still bill the cargo owner for demurrage caused by holds, exams, chassis shortages, or congestion. The container can be stuck and still on the clock.

At busy ports you cannot just show up. Most terminals require an appointment, and slots fill fast, so the practical last free day is the last day you can book a pickup, often a day or two before the printed LFD. Dispatchers describe it as a race to book in the terminal's system before the open slots are gone.

And having an appointment is not the same as getting out. Operators on r/logistics describe drivers waiting more than six hours in the terminal line and getting turned away at gate close, missing the LFD with a truck already at the port. Terminals will sometimes extend the date when the driver was already in line, but that has to be asked for, not assumed.

The meter is steep. Under the 2025 New York Terminal Conference tariff, import demurrage on a standard container runs $214 a day for the first four days past free time, $275 a day for days five to nine, $460 a day from day ten, and $622 a day from day thirty. A container missed by a week is already well past $1,500 before anyone notices. One drayage customer traced a single missed container to about $9,000 in storage.

Missing the LFD also sets up the next charge. When the box finally gates out, per diem starts on the carrier's equipment. Some carriers, Maersk among them since August 2024, bill those days on the calendar once free time is gone, including days the pickup or return location is closed.

Stopping LFD misses is a visibility problem. The delivery order has to be in the TMS the moment it arrives, not after someone gets to it. The LFD has to come from the terminal and update when discharge moves, not sit as the number typed in at booking. And the containers that are available, clear of holds, and inside 48 hours of their LFD have to rise to the top of the list on their own.

When that list maintains itself, dispatch books appointments before the slots are gone, instead of finding the container on page two after the meter has started.