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Demurrage Claims Management

Demurrage claims management for claims analysts: one port call on two clocks, what the owner claims, what you can claim from the buyer, and the gap between them.

See the demo Book a demo

Follow one port call on day 71 of 90 ↓

The problem

Paid in full on the charter, short on the sale, and a page still missing

A trader pays the shipowner under the charter party and claims from the buyer under the sale contract. The two contracts start and stop their clocks for different reasons: the buyer’s delivery window, weather, a shift between berths. Each claim gets worked on its own, often months apart, so the money that falls between the two only shows up after the owner is paid.

Meanwhile the time bar runs. A sale contract lists the papers a claim must carry, and a signed pumping log is the one that tends to be missing. Nobody chases it until the last weeks, and a claim can fail outright for that one page. The analyst ends up doing the same sum twice, and finds on the second pass what should have been seen in the summer.

Built forClaims analystsClaims managersVoyage operatorsInternal auditors

The Problem Today

A trader pays on one contract and claims on another, and one missing page can lose the claim.

$65M: of demurrage a year through the sample desk our estimate

Rebuilt by hand today

Statements
Notices
Contracts
Time bars

Two contracts, read apartCharter and sale terms rarely meet on one sheet
A page nobody chasedThe pumping log turns up missing near the last day

The Solution

Read the papersStatements of facts and notices, each event tied to its line
Run both clocksCharter and sale contract, hour by hour, each stop with its clause
Chase what is missingRequest drafted, a person sends; the page arrives and is read
Prepare and signAn analyst prepares; a manager opens each page, then signs

Built-in controls

The signer opens each page before signing
Agents never send, sign or make up a page
Time bar readings go to the claims manager

What You Get

Claims go out with each page on file, and the money left between the contracts gets a name.

Sums that add upEach stretch priced to the minute, on one screen
No hour without a pageClick any stop to see its clause and its line
Wordings behind the gapsThe same mismatch, counted across open port calls

One port call, two clocks

Demurrage claims management on one tanker discharge, day 71 of 90

A product tanker loads diesel, sails, and discharges at a buyer’s terminal. Owner claims on the charter; trader claims on the sale. Those hours read two ways, and one page is still missing.

demoAll of it is sample data: the ships, owners, buyers, terminals and staff, each dollar and each hour. Contract clauses are sample wording.

0108:41
Charter $81,667, sale $44,042, and $37,625 stuck between them
Claims analyst
The port call is drawn twice, the charter clock above the sale clock, each stretch coloured as running, on demurrage or stopped. Below it the gap is priced line by line: four hours before the buyer’s window opened, rain and lightning, the berth shift, five minutes at the load port. The time bar card reads day 71 of 90, and the pumping log is missing.
0208:45
118 h 40 m on the charter against 61 h 10 m on the sale
Claims analyst
The hour grid fills one square per hour, charter on the top line and sale on the bottom, and the ledger below runs both totals stretch by stretch. Each stretch cites the line on the statement of facts it came from. The analyst can check the sum herself instead of rebuilding it in a spreadsheet for the second time.
0308:52
Weather and a berth shift count on the charter and stop on the sale
Claims analyst
The contracts sit side by side, term by term: time allowed, when the clock starts, what counts, weather, shifting between berths, the ship’s own fault, the rate, the time bar and its papers. A note flags the sample sale wording on weather and shifting and says to ask counsel if your own contract does not say the same.
0409:10
Pumping log is not on file, and nothing can stand in for it
Claims analyst
The page viewer lists the claim’s papers, and the log is the one with a warning. Nothing here makes it up: it can only come from the ship or the terminal. Until it arrives, the sale claim cannot be prepared, and without it the claim can fail outright at the time bar. The analyst goes to the chase.
0509:16
The chase is drafted, with a warning that the log also helps the owner
Claims analyst
The draft asks the port agency for the pumping log, signed by a senior officer and a terminal representative, by a date that leaves room before the bar. Before sending, the screen warns her: the charter lists the same log, the owner has not presented it, and it shows a terminal limit that protects the owner from a slow-pump deduction. That reading is with counsel.
0609:24
Sent by a person, and the claim stays blocked until a page arrives
Claims analyst
She sends it herself, to the port agency. The card says plainly that the agent has no way to send it and that no page has arrived yet, so the claim stays blocked. When the log comes, she opens it and attaches it to the claim file, and only then can the sale claim be prepared. Until then the time bar keeps counting toward day 90.
07Late morning
Fifteen timed events on the statement of facts, each feeding a stretch
Claims manager
The manager reads the discharge port statement of facts himself. Beside the page, the agent’s list shows what it read, line by line, with how sure it is of each. Only his own openings count toward the claim. A page an analyst opened, or one he opened before the claim was prepared, does not count for his signature.
08Late morning
A reading waits for the manager, and nobody signs the claim until he rules
Claims manager
After the lightning warning lifted at 23:40, the terminal held cargo until daylight, 5 h 20 m. Does that stretch stop the sale clock as weather? The agent gives no view; the question waits for the claims manager on the readings page, with the pages it cites. Until he rules, the claim cannot be signed, and the pumping log shows as chased.

Where $37,625 sits between the two clocks

Each line is one stretch the charter counts and the sale does not, at $1,750.00 an hour.

Before the buyer’s delivery window opens4 h 00 m	$7,000.00
Rain and lightning9 h 40 m	$16,916.67
Berth shift, hoses off to hoses on7 h 45 m	$13,562.50
Load port, beyond what the charter allows0 h 05 m	$145.83
Gap: $81,667 less $44,042	$37,625.00

demoSample data, from the working solution.

Around the claims book

The demurrage time bar across the whole book, and who signs what

The rest of the claims desk, on the same sample book.

Demurrage time bar list of open claims, soonest first, with owners’ claims and the trader’s own claims kept apart — **Time bars, soonest first**147 open claims: 88 from owners claimed on the trader and 59 claimed by the trader, shown apart, never added. Filters for missing pages and readings open.

Claims manager’s sign-off queue, largest first, showing pages opened by the manager and claims escalated near the time bar — **Waiting for a signature**Claims waiting one at a time, largest first, with how many pages the manager has opened on each. Claims near their last day are escalated to him.

Outcomes of closed demurrage claims for the year, reasons for write-offs, and the sale contract wordings behind recurring gaps — **What the year closed**Paid, recovered and written off, why claims were written off, and the contract wordings behind the gaps counted across open port calls.

Audit trail of the claims desk: clocks built, claims prepared, the chase drafted by an agent and sent by the analyst — **Every action, as it happened**Agents building clocks, the analyst preparing claims, the chase drafted and sent, each with who and when.

Claims desk settings: warning and escalation lines, batch sample size and row ceiling, who can do what, and systems of record — **Lines and limits**Warning and escalation lines, batch sample size, a ceiling per row and retention. The administrator proposes, the claims manager signs.

demoSample data, from the working solution.

The analyst prepares, the manager opens and signs, a person sends

No agent sends, signs or makes up a page.

Claims analyst

Sees: Both clocks, the gap and the time bar card
Signs: Prepares each claim; sends chases

Claims manager

Sees: Each page of the claim, opened himself
Signs: Rules on readings, signs claims and sampled batches

Voyage operator

Sees: Missing pages and berth questions
Signs: Chases pages and carries berth questions to the master and terminal

System administrator

Sees: Lines, limits and roles
Signs: Proposes settings; never touches a claim

Internal auditor

Sees: Who opened what, read only
Signs: Nothing; downloads the record

The agents

Agents build both clocks to the minute, and none of them can send a claim

They read pages, build clocks and draft. People rule, sign and send.

Statement reader

Reads statements of facts and notices into timed events, each tied to its line.

Never fills a missing time

Contract reader

Reads the charter and the sale contract side by side.

Says what the words are, not what they mean in a dispute

Clock builder

Builds both clocks, stretch by stretch, to the minute.

Never decides a reading

Time bar keeper

Counts days from hoses off and flags missing pages.

Never moves a date

Document chaser

Drafts the request for a missing page.

Cannot send
Never writes or completes a page

Claim drafter

Drafts the claim letter and laytime statement from the clocks.

Never signs

Counter checker

Reads what owners and buyers send back and drafts an answer.

Gives no view on a time bar point

Voyages, statements, contracts and payments, read where they live

Each connection is read only, except the claims mailbox, which holds drafts a person sends.

Voyage management systemVoyages, ships and events

Document management systemStatements of facts, notices and logs

Contract repositoryCharter parties and sale contracts

ERPPayments to owners and receipts from buyers

Shared claims mailboxChases and replies, sent by a person

What claims analysts ask about demurrage claims management

What is demurrage claims management?

Demurrage claims management is the work of building, checking and settling claims for time a ship spends beyond its allowed laytime. This solution runs the charter and the sale clocks for one port call side by side, cites every hour to a page, names the gap between them, and chases missing pages before the time bar.

Is this just laytime calculation software?

It does the laytime sum, minute by minute, and shows it. It also puts the second contract beside the first, so a stop the sale contract allows and the charter does not is priced and named, and it tracks the pages each claim must carry.

How does it handle the demurrage time bar?

The time bar keeper counts days from hoses off on every open claim and lists them soonest first. A missing page is flagged with its day count, and a claim near its last day is escalated to the claims manager.

Can a tanker demurrage claim go out without the pumping log?

Not when the sale contract lists it. The claim stays blocked until the page is on file. The document chaser drafts the request, a person sends it, and nothing in the solution can stand in for the log.

Who signs a claim?

The claims analyst prepares it. The claims manager opens each page himself, rules on any reading, and signs. Only his own openings count. A person sends it, and the agents cannot.

What happens when a stretch could be read either way?

It becomes a reading for the claims manager, with the pages it cites. The agent gives no view. His ruling, with his reason, moves the clocks, the letter and the claim file together.

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