Feb.15--THE Harbour Trucking Association has revealed that member trucking companies have filed 70 letters to the Uniform Intermodal Interchange Agreement (UIIA) or to individual shipping companies to waive demurrage charges during the port congestion and labour disruptions crisis at US west coast ports.
The trucking companies in their letters are claiming force majeure over demurrage and daily charges assessed to their companies.
American Trucking Associations (ATA) executive director Curtis Whalen, pointed out drayage companies that are considering filing legal challenges to ocean carrier-imposed fees for the late return of equipment under the UIIA should have confidence that their cases will be arbitrated fairly.
"It is a very effective mandatory and binding arbitration system," he added, reported the Newark's Journal of Commerce.
Harbour truckers say shipping lines and terminal operators are responsible for the congestion, while delays make it impossible for the truckers to pick up or return containers before free time expires.
Carriers assess demurrage charges ranging from US$100 to $200 a day, and per diem charges of $85 to $175 a day. The truckers that are claiming force majeure are asking that the charges be waived.
The UIIA for decades has been the document that owners of equipment, such as containers, require that truckers sign when the equipment is turned over to them.
Harbour truckers in Los Angeles-Long Beach say that due to congestion, marine terminals close off sections of their facilities to trucks, refuse to accept returned empty containers and to accept export loads, and take actions that make it difficult to comply with equipment return provisions in the UIIA.
(Source:shippingazette)