Recover the ocean freight charges billed in error.
Sellexio benchmarks 12 months of demurrage, detention, bill-of-lading and bunker/EU-ETS surcharge billing against the filed tariff, the contract and the port record. You see the recoverable figure and the basis for each line before any engagement is signed.
- AI cross-reference of BoL vs Statement-of-Fact vs port invoice
- IMO 2026 & EU-ETS surcharge line-item audit
- Carrier Risk Index benchmark for your top 5 partners
- Written recovery brief — yours to keep either way
NGN 536,992 disputed out of NGN 2,415,736 billed
Two real terminal invoices, read line by line against the filed MSC Nigeria and APM Terminals tariffs: overlapping storage clocks, undefined tariff lines, charges above the published band. Demands served, recovery in progress.
See the line-by-line findings →- Encrypted upload · 256-bit in transit and at rest
- Mutual NDA before you send anything
- No software to install — we never connect to your TMS or ERP
- GDPR & PIPEDA aligned · files deleted after the audit unless you proceed
- No recovery, no fee
Mike Paul Firth, founder (Lethbridge, Canada), and regional port-operations advisors like Anyanwu Obinna Bede (Lagos) review findings against the carrier's own filed tariff — not a black box.
Published findings name the port, the counterparty and the amount — ask for the working paper behind any figure before you sign anything. Verify us on the Trust centre →
The audit itself is free and commits you to nothing — you see the recovery figure before signing anything. Only if you choose to proceed: 20% of funds actually recovered, invoiced net 30 with the settlement evidence attached. No retainer, no licence fee, no seat count. A $160 minimum applies on a successful claim, and the fee never exceeds the amount recovered.
Your exposure, in three numbers
From roughly 86 boxes a year going past free time, carrying about $56,760 in demurrage and storage.
- Recovered (midpoint)
- $19,866
- Success fee at 20%
- −$3,973
- Net to your P&L
- $15,893
- Fixed cost to evaluate
- $0
Cost of inaction: most carrier contracts and the US COGSA time bar close disputes nine to twelve months after invoice date. Roughly $1,656 of the figure above times out every month it goes unclaimed.
- Carrier free time and terminal storage run on separate clocks — the overlap is routinely billed twice
- Days with no appointment slot available are not merchant-caused and are the most commonly reversed line
- US import invoices missing any of the 13 elements required by 46 CFR 541 are not enforceable as billed
It never looks like an overcharge
One line on the invoice, one clause in the tariff. The gap between them is the claim.
STORAGE — CONTAINER YARD
14 days × NGN 26,400
NGN 369,600
Storage runs from gate-in, and free time is not consumed while the terminal is closed or the box is under customs hold. Six of the fourteen days were not chargeable — and demurrage was billed for the same period.
NGN 536,992 disputed out of NGN 2,415,736 billed
Two real invoices, audited line by line against the filed MSC Nigeria and APM Terminals Apapa tariffs. Disputed amounts identified — demands served, recovery in progress.
Gate-out delivery, scanning services and the VAT levied on top of them carry no code in the filed terminal tariff. A charge that cannot be named against a published tariff cannot be defended, and the burden of substantiating it sits with the terminal.
Evidence demanded: Tariff page, effective date and the clause authorising each line.
THC gate-out on a 40ft box was billed far above the ceiling of the published rate range for that tariff code on comparable lanes. The excess over the band needs a contractual basis, and none was supplied with the invoice.
Evidence demanded: The rate-agreement clause supporting the above-band amount.
Three unexplained VAT and stamp-duty lines stacked on a single demurrage invoice — each one small enough to survive a manual review, and repeated on every box. Across a year of shipments this is one of the largest recoverable pools we see.
Evidence demanded: A tariff reference and cost basis for each fee under the threshold.
Case study · anonymized
Peruvian frozen-mango exporter, 14,000 TEU/yr. Duplicate BAF pass-throughs on the Callao→Rotterdam lane across 6 months of Maersk invoices.
West-coast auto-parts BCO. Detention charged past carrier free-time on 118 containers where the AIS log proved discharge had completed.
Mid-market Chilean seafood shipper. Reefer plug fees billed on empty repositioning legs — spotted by tariff × AIS cross-reference.
Client names withheld under standard NDA · figures net of the 20% success fee
Drop your shipment CSV into our browser-side scanner and see a preliminary leakage estimate in ten seconds — nothing leaves your machine until you decide to book a full audit.
Run the browser-side CSV scanner →