According to today's USDA Grain Transportation Report, starting November 28, Union Pacific Railroad (UP) removed its 14-day-storage caps on demurrage fees—essentially, storage fees—at seven inland terminals: Council Bluffs (Iowa), Dallas, Denver, Houston, Memphis, Salt Lake City, and St. Louis.
According to the Journal of Commerce, UP’s action was in response to a decline in containers piling up in Southern California amid a sharply falling port volumes.
The fees were originally capped when shippers were incurring penalties of more than $10,000 through no fault of their own, but rather, because their containers were made inaccessible (buried deep in stacks).
As backlogs at the West Coast ports and inland terminals have subsided, UP lifted the caps as it anticipates “the more fluid activity” will continue.
Read the full report here.