The Federal Maritime Commission is proposing a new rule that seeks to bring more clarity, structure, and punctuality to the demurrage and detention billing practices of vessel operating common carriers (VOCCs), non-vessel-operating common carriers (NVOCCs), and marine terminal operators (MTOs). The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) requires VOCCs, NVOCCs, and MTOs to issue bills for demurrage or detention only to parties that they have a contractual relationship with, to be clear regarding the nature of the charges, and issue invoices within 30 days after the charges stop accruing, and provide 30 days to dispute the charges with clear information about how charges should be disputed. Interested parties will have 60 days to submit comments to docket number FMC-2022-0066 at https://www.regulations.gov.
