What It Means for Invoices, Disputes, and Truckers Right Now
The who-can-be-billed question is back on the table. Your contracts, invoices, evidence, and dispute playbooks need a same-week refresh.
Executive Summary (What changed, what didn’t, what to do)
- What changed: A federal appeals court vacated the portion of the FMC’s Demurrage & Detention (D&D) Billing Requirements that tried to bar billing certain parties (especially motor carriers) in many scenarios. That bright-line restriction is gone.
- What didn’t: The invoice content, issuance deadlines, and dispute windows still apply. If an invoice is late or missing mandatory elements, you don’t owe it.
- What it means: Expect more invoices to truckers in carrier-haulage contexts, more contract-driven outcomes, and lane-by-lane variation until a new rule is attempted.
- What to do now: Tighten contracts (who pays, pass-throughs, indemnity), stand up a 48–72 hour invoice triage, retrain teams on evidence capture, and run a single dashboard for Finance + Ops to keep exposure visible.
The Event: Date, Impact, and Why It Matters
On September 23, 2025, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling set aside the part of the FMC rule that limited “who can be billed” for demurrage and detention. The court did not throw out the whole framework. Instead, it said the FMC’s categorical restriction—especially where motor carriers have direct contracts/privity with the billing party—was arbitrary and inconsistent.
Immediate impact:
- Billing parties (ocean carriers, marine terminals) regain discretion to bill the party with whom they have a contractual path—even if that is the motor carrier in carrier-haulage situations.
- Everything else about D&D invoices still bites: mandatory data fields, 30-day issuance clocks, and minimum dispute windows continue to govern payment obligations.
Plain English: the who-pays fight just moved back into contracts and facts, but the how-to-bill rules still shield you from sloppy or late invoices.
The Parts of the Rule That Still Protect You
These protections remain—and they are powerful:
- Mandatory Invoice Contents
A valid D&D invoice still needs, at minimum:- Key identifiers (bill of lading, container number, port/terminal, shipment party details).
- Why you are the proper party to be billed.
- Free-time start and end, and the specific charge days.
- Availability notice for imports or earliest return for exports.
- The rate rule or contract basis, daily rate math, and total.
- Dispute path (contact, how to challenge, timeframe).
- Certifications, including that the billing party did not cause or contribute to the charges.
- Issuance Deadlines & Dispute Windows
- Billing party has 30 calendar days after the last day of accrual to issue the invoice. Miss it, and no payment is owed.
- Billed party gets at least 30 days to request mitigation/refund/waiver.
- Billing party should resolve within ~30 days or as mutually agreed.
- NVOCC Timing Relief
When an NVOCC is both billed (upstream) and billing (downstream), the clock adjusts to prevent impossible back-to-back deadlines.
Key takeaway: You can win a lot of disputes on format, timing, and evidence—before you even argue about fault.
From Rulebook to Contract Book: The New Reality
With the categorical “who-can-be-billed” piece gone, contracts control again. That puts the spotlight on:
- Carrier-haulage vs. merchant-haulage distinctions.
- Pass-through clauses: do charges travel downstream, and on what standard?
- Indemnity & contribution: who shoulders charges caused by third-party or infrastructure issues?
- Conditions precedent to payment: make invoice compliance a requirement, not a request.
- Evidence standards: set explicit evidence requirements for any party asserting D&D (gate records, availability notices, earliest return advisories, appointment logs).
Practical result: You’ll see more billing to motor carriers where privity exists, more three-way negotiations, and more variability by lane and terminal—until new rulemaking clarifies (if it ever does).
Role-Based Playbooks (Do these now)
A) Motor Carriers
- Amend haulage agreements: define “who pays” by scenario (import CY pickup, store-door delivery, export empty return).
- Add pass-through rights for charges caused by shipper behaviors (late documents, customs holds not at your fault) or terminal constraints (no appointment windows, earliest return whiplash).
- Insert invoice-compliance clauses: if the D&D invoice is missing any mandatory element or is late, no obligation.
- Stand up a 48–72 hour triage: reject late/non-compliant invoices immediately; escalate only clean ones.
- Evidence discipline: gate in/out time-stamps, EDI/portal screenshots of availability/earliest return, appointment logs, photos of line queues when relevant.
B) Shippers/BCOs
- Pin down haulage mode in contracts and purchase orders; avoid ambiguity.
- Require carriers and dray partners to certify they did not cause/contribute to the charges when billing you.
- Build SOPs for documentation timing, customs clearance, and appointment booking to avoid being the proximate cause.
- Run weekly dashboards: D&D invoices received, rejects (non-compliant, late), open disputes, and recovered credits.
C) NVOCCs & Freight Forwarders
- Use the timing relief to avoid downstream squeeze.
- Set mirror-evidence requirements upstream and downstream so your dispute pack aligns both directions.
- Pre-agree with customers: if an upstream invoice is time-barred or non-compliant, your downstream bill is withheld until corrected.
D) Marine Terminals / Ocean Carriers
- Expect more front-end challenges on certifications and “proper party” statements.
- Improve availability/earliest return communications—ambiguity here is the #1 dispute lever against you.
- Tighten clock discipline: issue within 30 days or forfeit collectability.
- Standardize dispute responses with timestamped operational records (yard status, gate queues, appointment slot reports).
Invoice Triage: A 72-Hour SOP You Can Copy
Day 0 (Intake)
- Route all D&D invoices to a central inbox with auto-acknowledge.
- OCR/parse to extract required fields: BL, container, free-time dates, charge days, availability/earliest return, rate math, total, dispute path, certifications, “proper party” statement, invoice date.
Day 1 (Validation)
- Time-bar check: Was the invoice issued within 30 days after last accrual? If not—deny.
- Content check: Missing any mandatory field? Deny with a one-page deficiency notice.
- Certification check: If the billing party plausibly caused or contributed to delay (e.g., no appointments, yard closures), demand mitigation or withdrawal.
Day 2 (Evidence Pack)
- For invoices that survive checks, assemble an evidence chronology:
- Gate records and appointment logs.
- Availability and earliest return notices with timestamps.
- Terminal advisories (closures, rollovers, yard congestion).
- Driver notes and photos if relevant.
- Decide: pay, mitigate, or dispute. Set calendar reminders for the dispute window and resolution follow-up.
Day 3 (Close-out)
- Issue denial or dispute letters referencing missing elements, late issuance, or factual defenses (with exhibits).
- Track days-to-resolution, win rate, cash at risk, and credits realized.
The Evidence Everyone Forgets (But Wins Cases)
- Earliest Return changes for exports, with exact timestamps.
- “No appointment available” screenshots, including date/time and terminal logo/identifier.
- Terminal or carrier bulletins declaring no access or yard outages.
- Vessel roll-notice timestamps.
- Customs release timing vs. actual availability posting.
- Driver geo-fence logs proving arrival within window.
Keep these organized by container; a one-page timeline beats a pile of PDFs.
Scenario Library (Use these responses today)
1) Carrier-haulage import; trucker receives invoice
- Review contract: privity exists? If yes, billing may be permitted now.
- Validate invoice against content and clock rules.
- If compliant, build factual defense: availability posted late, no appointments, terminal closures, gate turn times.
- Seek waiver/mitigation if evidence shows billing party contribution.
2) Merchant-haulage export; earliest return changes twice
- Produce both change notices with timestamps.
- Argue impossibility of return within free-time; request waiver for days where no return window existed.
- If denied, escalate with yard status screenshots and carrier advisories.
3) Time-barred invoice arrives on Day 45
- One-page denial citing the missed issuance deadline.
- Flag the shipper/carrier record to prevent re-billing of the same period.
4) “Admin fee” on a non-compliant invoice
- Deny the entire invoice; request fully compliant re-issue within the original clock (no extending your deadlines).
- If re-issued late, deny again—time-barred.
5) NVOCC squeezed both ways
- Invoke timing relief; withhold downstream billing while disputing upstream.
- Provide customers with the same evidence pack you sent upstream to keep trust high.
Finance + Ops + Legal: One Dashboard, One Voice
KPI set (review weekly):
- Invoices received (count, value)
- Auto-rejects (non-compliant, late)
- Open disputes (aging buckets)
- Days-to-resolution, credits recovered
- Terminal/carrier scorecard (accuracy, responsiveness)
- Lane exposure (by port, terminal, haulage mode)
Quarterly business reviews:
- Bring the scorecard to carriers/terminals.
- Negotiate performance-for-volume terms (fewer defects = stronger allocations).
- Move poor performers to spot-only or reduced share until accuracy improves.
Contract Architecture: Guardrails That Hold Under Stress
- Who-pays map by scenario (import CY, import store-door, export empty return, export full gate-in).
- Invoice-compliance condition precedent: no payment unless the invoice includes all mandatory elements and is issued on time.
- Pass-through and indemnity rules tied to cause and evidence.
- Surcharge sunset provisions: if a fee or rule is paused or vacated, related adders auto-suspend.
- Audit rights and data access: require terminals/carriers to provide gate/yard records upon request for any contested charge.
- Performance-for-volume gates: allocations tied to accuracy and dispute-resolution times.
(Have counsel review before execution.)
Risk Map (What can go wrong next)
- Invoice spam: With the billing restriction gone, volume may rise. Your triage must auto-filter late or non-compliant items.
- Liability ping-pong: Shipper ↔ NVOCC ↔ Trucker ↔ Terminal disputes loop. Use contracts to define final responsibility and a tie-breaker standard.
- Policy snapback: A future rulemaking could restore limits; keep clauses reversible.
- Data gaps: Without routine evidence capture, you’ll pay defensible charges. Treat evidence like cash.
- Relationship strain: Aggressive denials without facts hurt allocations. Deny correctly with proof; escalate politely with patterns.
30-60-90-180 Day Plan
Days 0–30
- Stand up triage.
- Re-train ops on evidence and appointment discipline.
- Amend top 10 contracts with who-pays maps and invoice-compliance clauses.
Days 31–60
- Launch dashboard.
- Run lane pilots to test improved appointment booking and empty-return forecasting.
- Start QBRs with your top terminals/carriers using real defect data.
Days 61–90
- Expand contract guardrails across vendors.
- Automate OCR, rule checks, and dispute templates.
- Publish an internal D&D playbook with examples and screenshots.
Days 91–180
- Embed performance-for-volume language in renewals.
- Negotiate proactive waivers for known congestion windows.
- Calibrate inventory buffers so free-time pressure eases at predictable peaks.
Common Myths vs. Facts
- Myth: “If they bill a trucker, we must pay.”
Fact: Only compliant, timely invoices with proper-party rationale create an obligation—and even then, facts may defeat liability. - Myth: “We can’t fight terminal fees.”
Fact: You can—and should—when availability/earliest-return data or yard conditions show billing-party contribution. - Myth: “This ruling erased protections.”
Fact: It removed a categorical restriction on who can be billed. The best protections—content, clock, and evidence—remain intact.
FAQs
Q: Did the court kill the entire FMC D&D rule?
No. It vacated the who-can-be-billed restriction. The rest—invoice contents, 30-day issuance, and dispute windows—still apply.
Q: Can carriers bill motor carriers again?
Where contract privity exists (typical in carrier-haulage), yes. Whether payment is due still turns on contract terms, invoice compliance, and facts.
Q: What if the invoice lacks free-time dates or charge-day math?
Reject it. Missing mandatory elements = no payment obligation.
Q: We received an invoice 45 days after the last accrual day.
Time-barred. Deny with a short letter referencing the missed issuance window.
Q: How do we avoid paying defensible charges?
Capture availability/earliest return timestamps, gate logs, and appointment evidence. Without this, you’ll lose arguments you should win.
Q: Will the FMC try again with a new rule?
Possibly. Until then, contracts and facts govern liability.
Q: Fastest wins this month?
Deploy triage, automate rejects for late/non-compliant invoices, and amend pass-through/indemnity clauses on your highest-volume lanes.
(Operational guidance; not legal advice.)
AMB Logistic’s Role
We convert rulings into operational protection—fast.
- Contract Guardrails: Who-pays maps, invoice-compliance conditions, pass-throughs, indemnities.
- Invoice Triage Engine: Automated intake, clock and content checks, one-click denials, and dispute packs.
- Evidence Automation: Gate/yard/appointment data stitched into container-level timelines that win disputes.
- Performance Scorecards: Accuracy and responsiveness by terminal/carrier, rolled into QBR playbooks.
- Team Training: A 45-minute ops session that turns rules into daily checklists.
When policy shifts, process beats panic—and data wins.
Final Word from AMB Logistic
The court took a bright-line “who pays” rule and handed it back to contracts and evidence. That’s not chaos—it’s an opportunity. If you standardize intake, enforce clocks and contents, and hardwire pass-throughs and indemnities, you’ll turn the ruling into predictability and margin, not confusion.
Call to Action
Need a 48-hour invoice audit and dispute kit, plus contract guardrails that fit your lanes? We’ll deliver a ready-to-run D&D protection playbook—triage SOPs, templates, dashboards, and training.
📧 info@amblogistic.us
📞 +1 (888) 538-6433
Tags
Demurrage & detention, FMC billing, appeals court ruling, trucker liability, carrier-haulage, merchant-haulage, invoice compliance, 30-day issuance, dispute playbook, contract guardrails, terminal operations, AMB Logistic insights
