India: Revised Guidelines for Container Detention Freetime

In view of the recent outbreak of COVID-19, the Government of India has implemented several measures to ensure the safety of the population, which includes a nationwide lockdown. We are closely monitoring the situation, and adapting our operating procedures to be in line with this dynamic situation.

We understand that this lockdown has a cascading effect on the timely handling of import and export containers and respective clearance processes, and as your trusted partner during this time of crisis; we shall extend the freetime as follows:

• Any container accruing detention for the period from March 22, 2020 until April 14, 2020 (both days inclusive) will be exempt from detention. This pertains ONLY to carrier equipment detention.

Conditions apply as follows:

• This applies ONLY to cargo discharged (import) and empties picked up for export, post and inclusive of March 22, 2020
• This applies ONLY to cargo cleared and waiver requested within April

This is a manual process and will not reflect automatically in the invoice. In case you are eligible for a waiver, please send us a waiver request on [email protected]

Below is an example, which demonstrate how this will work:

Example: If a container discharged on March 23, 2020 having 7 days contractual free time.
As per the revised guidelines, the days from March 30, 2020 until April 14, 2020 are eligible for waiver of detention for that period. Detention charges will be applicable from April 15, 2020.

We urge you to arrange the timely movement of your import and export containers to minimize the potential costs as well as to ease the congestion and capacity issues that could take place at various ICD’s, CFS’ and terminals.