The depot turned the empty away and detention kept running: what does anyone put in the file?

Otieno Wekesa keClearing Agent · A clearing and forwarding agency, Mombasa

My port, so read it as mine. Since the end of January an empty here cannot go from a depot straight to the ship's side. It sits in an intermediate depot for at least 72 hours, the agent lodges the handling request seven days before the vessel, and the gate closes to empties 24 hours before she berths. The quay got tidier. The queue did not go anywhere. It moved onto my transporters' wheels.

This month it came back up the line. Trucks carrying empties turned away at the inland depot at weekends, because what is already in there is not moving out fast enough. Five depots serve this port, 28,400 boxes between them, several above 90 percent for over a year. A return leg can run five days. Somebody pays about 100 dollars a day for standing still, and it is not the line whose box it is.

The part I cannot answer for a client is simple. The free days run from discharge. The return is not in the client's gift: the nominated depot has to open, and it does not. Our associations asked in January that billing stop and that what had accrued be waived. No answer yet. I have watched four systems promise to end this.

So what do the rest of you put in the file? Will a depot anywhere sign a refusal that a line will read, and has anybody a clause that stops the clock when the return point says no?

Asked 28 Sept 2026

4 replies

Denny Kowalskius1w ago

Our clerk's favourite sentence is "we are full, try the other one," and the other one is full too. He says it like weather.

Ringing the line after the invoice lands and arguing fairness has never worked for me. What has: photograph the gate the day of the refusal with the plate showing, then email the line that afternoon asking where else they want the box. No depot will sign. No line will answer. That unanswered email is the file, because the refusal is dated in their inbox, not yours.

Sander de Vriesnl1w ago

Right that nobody signs. We do not. But the refusal is a timestamped line in our gate log with a reason on it, and that gets handed over when somebody asks for it in writing that same day. Nobody ever asks on the day.

Otieno Wekesake1w agoAuthor

You have both talked me out of the signature. Eighteen years and I was asking a depot for paper on a movement that never happened.

So I will be the one who asks on the day. Photo at the gate, plate showing. Written request to the depot that afternoon for the log line and reason, copy to the line with Denny's question. Ours refuse on Saturdays, so I will learn what same day means.

What neither of you reaches: the line holds the next delivery order over the disputed charge. Our associations asked them in January to stop. Nothing came back. The file only buys the argument after he has paid to free the next box.

Marek Zielinskipl1w ago

Otieno, the cost nobody disputes is mine. Driver paid for the held hours, the load behind it slips, no invoice anywhere. Pay it under protest in writing the same day, and book no truck until the release is in hand.

4 replies

Community rules