Container Tracking for Drayage Carriers: Every Line, Every Last Free Day, One Board

Thirty days. Under the Federal Maritime Commission's billing rule, an ocean carrier or marine terminal has to send a demurrage or detention invoice within 30 calendar days of the date the charge was last incurred. If it doesn't, the rule says the billed party "is not required to pay the charge". An NVOCC gets 30 days from the date of the invoice it received itself. The rule's definition covers per diem.

Most drayage carriers never use that rule, because they can't prove the dates. The line's tracking page shows where a box is today. It doesn't keep a record of when it became available, when free time ran out and when you returned the empty. That record is the carrier's job, and it is where the money is.

Quick answer: Use each line's own tracker to confirm a status, then put every container you're moving on one board with three dates per box: availability, last free day and empty return. At LA, the port's free Port Optimizer Track & Trace already pulls several lines and terminals into one login. If your volume is high enough to need it in your TMS, an API tracking service does the same job across lines. When a per diem invoice comes in, check it against the FMC's required fields before you pay.

Line tracking pages, the eCFR text of 46 CFR Part 541, Port Optimizer, eModal and the UIIA site were read on 24 October 2026.

Where Each Line's Tracker Stops

Each line's tracker answers one question about one box. They differ in what you can search by and how far back they go.

Evergreen. Evergreen's ShipmentLink cargo tracking takes a bill of lading, container or booking number, and has a "Multiple Tracking" mode next to "Quick Tracking". Booking search works for specific countries only.

K Line and NYK. Neither runs its own container tracking anymore. In April 2018 the container businesses of "K" Line, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and NYK merged into Ocean Network Express, according to K Line's own site. So a K Line or NYK box is tracked on ONE's cargo tracking page. It takes a ONE bill of lading or booking number, and asks for the last 12 characters of the BL without the "ONEY" prefix. It doesn't accept a house BL from an NVOCC or forwarder, which is the number a dray dispatcher is often handed.

Matson. Matson's shipment tracking needs no user ID or password and searches by container, booking or bill of lading number. History goes back 90 days. Matson calls it "basic visibility".

That is three lines, three input rules and three screens, and none of them remembers your dates for you. Every extra line on your board adds another page to check by hand.

The Three Dates That Cost Money

Every container on your board needs three dates, and each one is attached to a different charge.

Availability date. The day the box can be picked up. For imports, the FMC rule makes the container availability date a required field on the invoice. If your record and the line's disagree, this is the first place a dispute starts.

Last free day. When free time ends and demurrage starts. The FMC rule lists the sources of the daily rate as a tariff rule, a terminal schedule or a service contract, so free time and rates differ by line and terminal. Write the LFD on the board the day the box becomes available, not the day you dispatch it.

Empty return date. When the chassis and box go back. Per diem keeps counting until the empty is back. Keep the gate-in receipt or interchange record for every return, because that is the date you will need in 30 days.

Get the box out before the clock does. Sort the board by last free day, then by return date, and the next charge is always at the top.

What a Per Diem Invoice Has to Show

The FMC's rule at 46 CFR Part 541 sets the minimum an invoice must carry, and section 541.5 says that "failure to include any of the required minimum information" eliminates any obligation to pay that charge. The list is long. For a drayage carrier, these are the lines to check:

• the bill of lading and container numbers, and for imports the port of discharge
• why you are the party liable for the charge
• the free time allowed in days, with its start and end dates
• for imports, the container availability date
• the specific dates charged
• the tariff or contract rule the daily rate comes from, and the rate itself
• a contact and a public web page explaining how to request a refund, mitigation or waiver
• a statement that the billing party's own performance didn't cause or contribute to the charges

The rule also gives you at least 30 calendar days from the invoice date to ask for a refund or waiver, and the billing party has to try to resolve your request within 30 days, or later if you both agree.

Your interchange contract is the other half. The UIIA, which its operator calls "the only standard industry contract" for equipment interchange between intermodal truckers and equipment providers, has binding arbitration for disputes over per diem, maintenance and repair, and equipment use charges, after the dispute steps under the UIIA and the provider's addendum are exhausted. IANA's UIIA page says 95% of North American equipment interchanges run under it and 13,000 intermodal trucking companies participate.

A dispute is won with your dates, not the line's. If your board shows the box wasn't available until the 14th, and the invoice charges from the 12th, you have a specific line to point to.

Building One Board

There are three ways to get all your boxes in one place, and the right one depends on volume.

Port community tools. At the Port of Los Angeles, Port Optimizer Track & Trace is free to register and tracks containers "across multiple shipping lines and terminals all from a single application", with ETAs, discharges and gate moves. Its sample screen shows a last free day field. Appointments and ocean carrier fee payments are a separate system again, such as eModal, so your board still has to point to it.

A shared sheet. For a few boxes a week, a spreadsheet with container number, line, terminal, availability date, LFD, pickup date and return date is enough. It works only if someone updates it every day from the line pages.

An API tracking service. Above that, an API service feeds the events into your own system. Vizion, for example, is listed on TruckMyApps as standardizing tracking events from carriers, ports, terminals and rail into one data feed. It pays for itself once manual lookups are eating a dispatcher's day.

The line's page tells you where the box is. Your board tells you what it is going to cost.

Operator Checks

Track by the line's own number, not the house BL. ONE won't accept a forwarder's house BL, so get the master BL or booking number with the order.

Record availability the day it posts. That date drives both the LFD and the dispute.

Keep every gate-in record. The return date is the one you can't reconstruct later.

Date-stamp every invoice when it arrives. The 30 day issue rule only helps you if you can show when the charge stopped and when the invoice came.

Dispute in writing within 30 days. The rule guarantees you at least that long. Don't wait to see if the next invoice is better.

The text of 46 CFR Part 541 was read on eCFR (current as of 22 October 2026) on 24 October 2026, along with Evergreen's ShipmentLink, ONE's and Matson's tracking pages, K Line's container service page, Port Optimizer Track & Trace, eModal and IANA's UIIA page. Line tracking rules and terminal free time change, so check them on the line's site and your interchange addendum. This is not legal advice. Directory counts are TruckMyApps data as of 24.10.2026.