Read this before anything else
This is not legal advice and we are not lawyers. What is below is a list, copied out of a published federal rule with the rule’s own words beside each line, so you can hold it up against a bill and see for yourself what is missing.
There is no sample of this one to hand you, because there is nothing it could be a sample of. Every other feed here keeps dated copies of something that moves, and hands you a slice of the file to look at first. This one is not that. It is one dated reading of one rule that has not moved, and the whole of what we hold is printed on this page. There is no file behind it and nothing is being kept back.
We are on the importer’s side of this and we say so. Nothing here is written for the shipping line, and we do not go looking for anyone to bill.
The 20 things the bill has to carry46 CFR 541.6 · read 2026-08-24 · 20 items
The rule splits them across five lettered subsections: 4 + 8 + 3 + 3 + 2 = 20, that is 4 in (a), 8 in (b), 3 in (c), 3 in (d), 2 in (e). Count them in the table and you get the same number, because the table is the list and the count is taken from it.
| What it is | The rule's own words | Where it says so | When it applies |
|---|---|---|---|
| the bill of lading number | The Bill of Lading number(s) | 46 CFR 541.6(a)(1) | every bill |
| the container number | The container number(s) | 46 CFR 541.6(a)(2) | every bill |
| the port where the container was landed | For imports, the port(s) of discharge; and | 46 CFR 541.6(a)(3) | import bills only |
| why YOU are the one being billed - the basis for saying you are the proper party and so liable for the charge | The basis for why the billed party is the proper party of interest and thus liable for the charge | 46 CFR 541.6(a)(4) | every bill |
| the date the bill was written | The invoice date | 46 CFR 541.6(b)(1) | every bill |
| the date the money is due | The invoice due date | 46 CFR 541.6(b)(2) | every bill |
| how many free days were allowed | The allowed free time in days | 46 CFR 541.6(b)(3) | every bill |
| the day the free days started | The start date of free time | 46 CFR 541.6(b)(4) | every bill |
| the day the free days ran out | The end date of free time | 46 CFR 541.6(b)(5) | every bill |
| the date the container was made available | For imports, the container availability date | 46 CFR 541.6(b)(6) | import bills only |
| the earliest return date | For exports, the earliest return date; and | 46 CFR 541.6(b)(7) | export bills only |
| the exact days you are being charged for | The specific date(s) for which demurrage and/or detention were charged | 46 CFR 541.6(b)(8) | every bill |
| the total amount due | The total amount due | 46 CFR 541.6(c)(1) | every bill |
| which tariff rule, terminal schedule, service contract or agreed arrangement the daily rate comes from | The applicable detention or demurrage rule ( e.g., the tariff name and rule number, terminal schedule, applicable service contract number and section, or applicable negotiated arrangement) on which the daily rate is based; and | 46 CFR 541.6(c)(2) | every bill |
| the actual rate or rates per that rule or contract | The specific rate or rates per the applicable tariff rule or service contract | 46 CFR 541.6(c)(3) | every bill |
| an email, phone number or other contact for questions or to ask for the fee to be reduced, refunded or waived | The email, telephone number, or other appropriate contact information for questions or request for fee mitigation, refund, or waiver | 46 CFR 541.6(d)(1) | every bill |
| a link, QR code or digital watermark pointing to a public web page that says exactly what paperwork a request needs | Digital means, such as a URL address, QR code, or digital watermark, that directs the billed party to a publicly accessible website that provides a detailed description of information or documentation that the billed party must provide to successfully request fee mitigation, refund, or waiver; and | 46 CFR 541.6(d)(2) | every bill |
| stated time limits - how long you have to ask, and how long they take to resolve it | Defined timeframes that comply with the billing practices in this part, during which the billed party must request a fee mitigation, refund, or waiver and within which the billing party will resolve such requests | 46 CFR 541.6(d)(3) | every bill |
| a statement from them that the charges follow the shipping regulator's rules | The charges are consistent with any of the Federal Maritime Commission's rules related to demurrage and detention, including, but not limited to, this part and 46 CFR 545.5; and | 46 CFR 541.6(e)(1) | every bill |
| a statement from them that their own performance did not cause or contribute to the charge | The billing party's performance did not cause or contribute to the underlying invoiced charges. [89 FR 14363, Feb. 26, 2024] | 46 CFR 541.6(e)(2) | every bill |
26 of the 26 phrases quoted anywhere on this page were found word-for-word in our own saved copy of the regulation, and that is checked every time this page is built. We did not read a summary of the rule and we did not work from memory: we fetched the government’s own text, saved it, and every line above is tied to the exact words in it. If one of them ever stops matching, this page does not get built at all.
3 things we counted as required, and then took back out
These were on our first list and they should not have been. They are left here, named, rather than quietly deleted, because a list that only ever grows is a list nobody re-read.
- who is being billed, by namewe counted this as required and it is not. The rule asks for the BASIS for why you are the proper party, which is a different and much harder thing than printing your name - see “why YOU are the one being billed - the basis for saying you are the proper party and so liable for the charge”.
- the ship and voyagenot on the required list. Useful to read, never a finding.
- what kind of charge this isnot on the required list as its own item.
The 4 clocks
Four separate time limits, and every one of them is thirty days. They count from four different days, which is the part that catches people out, so each row says which day it counts from.
| What it limits | Days | Counted from | Where it says so |
|---|---|---|---|
| how long they have to send the bill at all | 30 | the date the charge was last incurred | 46 CFR 541.7(a) |
| the same window for a freight forwarder type biller, counted from a different day | 30 | the issuance date of the invoice they themselves received | 46 CFR 541.7(b) |
| how long you have to ask for the fee to be reduced, refunded or waived - this is a FLOOR on them, they may allow longer | 30 | the invoice issuance date | 46 CFR 541.8(a) |
| how long they have to try to resolve your request | 30 | the day they receive your request | 46 CFR 541.8(b) |
What a missing item actually does, and what it does not do
The rule says it plainly: if a bill leaves out any of the required information, the person billed does not have to pay that charge.
It kills that bill. It does not wipe out the money forever. The agency that wrote the rule said so in its own published explanation: a bill that breaks the rule can be re-issued as a clean one, and a clean one has to be paid. So the honest version is “this bill is defective”, never “you never owed this”. Anyone telling you the second thing is selling you something.
And they can only re-issue it while they are still inside the thirty days in the table above. That is why the dates matter as much as the missing items.
What this list will not tell you
Four limits, written down here rather than left for you to find out the hard way.
- Do not tell anyone a missing item wipes the debt out permanently. It kills that invoice; a clean re-issued invoice inside the 30-day window is payable.
- Do not rely on 46 CFR 541.4 (who may lawfully be billed). It now reads [Reserved] in the official text - confirmed by fetching it on 2026-08-24 - so there is no categorical bar on who can be invoiced any more.
- Do not apply this to a bill between an ocean carrier and a terminal operator. Those are carved out by 541.2(b).
- Do not demand the import-only items on an export bill, or the export-only item on an import bill. If we cannot tell which it is, the answer is 'we do not know'.
We ran our checker over three made-up billsrun 2026-08-30 · 3 invented bills
None of these bills is real. There is no such carrier, no such importer and no such container: the addresses in them point at a domain the internet’s own rules say can never belong to anybody. They are here to show you what the checker says, and the words below are what it said on the day this page was built, not a transcript somebody kept.
The dollar figures below are the invented bills’ own numbers, not ours. Nothing on this page is for sale and there is no amount here for anyone to pay.
| The made-up bill | What the checker said | Anything to argue about? |
|---|---|---|
| A bill with nothing wrong with it | This bill adds up and carries everything we look for. Nothing to dispute here. | No |
| The same bill, sent 52 days after the last day it charges for | This bill was sent too late: the last day charged is 2026-06-29 and the bill is dated 2026-08-20, which is 52 days later - more than the 30 days allowed for sending it. | Yes |
| A bill with most of the list missing | This bill contradicts itself in 1 place. That is a fact about the document, not an opinion, and you can point at it today. | Yes |
The same bill, sent 52 days after the last day it charges for
- 46 CFR 541.7(a)the last day charged is 2026-06-29 and the bill is dated 2026-08-20, which is 52 days later - more than the 30 days allowed for sending it — working: 2026-06-29 to 2026-08-20 = 52 days, limit 30
A bill with most of the list missing
- the sums do not agreethe bill charges 10 days at $310.00 a day, which is $3,100.00, but asks for $2,790.00 — working: 10 x 31000c = 310000c, stated 279000c
13 of the required items were not on it at all: the bill of lading number, why YOU are the one being billed, the date the money is due, how many free days were allowed, the day the free days started, the day the free days ran out, the date the container was made available, which tariff rule, terminal schedule, service contract or agreed arrangement the daily rate comes from, an email, phone number or other contact for questions or to ask for the fee to be reduced, refunded or waived, a link, QR code or digital watermark pointing to a public web page that says exactly what paperwork a request needs, stated time limits, a statement from them that the charges follow the shipping regulator's rules, a statement from them that their own performance did not cause or contribute to the charge. Each one is in the table further up this page, beside the rule's own words for it.
One of those three headlines names the wrong fault, and we are leaving it there. The late bill is late — that is a date problem under a different section of the rule — but the checker files it under missing information, so its one-line summary says information is missing. The finding underneath says what it really found. We could have swapped in a better sentence of our own; showing you the machine's actual words and pointing at what is wrong with them is worth more than a tidy page.
The clean bill gets a real answer and nothing to buy. When there is nothing wrong with a bill the checker says so and stops, in its own words: “nothing on this bill is worth disputing, so there is nothing to sell you”. A checker that only ever says “you might have a problem, pay to find out” is selling fear, and this one cannot do that.
Two readings, and a disagreement is not a coin toss. Every bill is read twice by two different methods. Where the two readings disagree about what a line says, the answer is “we do not know”, and a bill we cannot read at all comes back “we could not read this” — never “looks fine”. Being told a bad bill looks fine is worse than being told nothing, because you stop looking.
Nobody has used this
0 bills have ever been checked and 0 have ever been sent to us. Counted out of the checker’s own store as this page was built, not remembered.
There is no page here to upload a bill to, and we are not pretending otherwise. The checker is working code and the list above is the rule it checks against. Neither of those is a service you can use today. When this page can honestly say otherwise, it will say it here.
Where the words came from
- The government’s own text of the rule46 CFR part 541, the text current through 2026-08-01, fetched on 2026-08-24 and saved to a file we keep. Every quote on this page is held against that saved file on every build.
- The words are free to reprintA federal regulation is written and published by the United States government, and a work of the US government carries no copyright of its own under 17 U.S.C. 105. That is what lets us print the rule’s exact words next to each line rather than paraphrasing them at you.
- Who the rule binds, in its own wordsThis part sets forth regulations governing any invoice issued by an ocean common carrier, marine terminal operator, or non-vessel-operating common carrier for the collection of demurrage or detention charges. Bills between ocean carriers and terminal operators are outside this part entirely - 46 CFR 541.2(b).
Tell us if we have read it wrong
No pay button on this one yet. Email operations@ustechautomations.com. There is nothing to buy here and nothing to sign up to. The list above is the whole of it, and it is free.
Email us if we have read the rule wrongIf the regulation has moved since we read it, or a line above does not match what you see in the official text, say which line and we will re-read it.