Container Gate-Out Log

The equipment interchange receipt — the gate document recording container number, condition, date/time and parties at every custody transfer. It's the authoritative record both clocks (demurrage stop, detention start) hang on. An invoice disputing YOUR dates loses to an EIR every time; a dispute without one is testimony. Reference the number here; archive the document itself.

Your demurrage exposure at its root: 95%+ means charges are rare-event noise; below 80% means structural cost — and the misses' notes tell you whether the cause is appointments, customs, chassis or warehouse capacity. It's also the counterweight metric when negotiating free time: carriers extend terms more readily for shippers who demonstrably use them well.

Because access and longevity differ: terminal portals show recent events to authorised users, purge histories, and aren't YOUR record when a dispute or audit lands a quarter later. A contemporaneous own-side ledger with EIR references is permanent, sortable and admissible-grade documentation — and it costs thirty seconds per box.

Directly: gating out on the LFD starts the detention clock with your whole unload-and-return cycle still ahead, while gating out early 'spends' demurrage-free days to buy detention headroom. The right answer depends on which clock has more free time left — this log plus your detention free days makes that a calculation instead of a habit.