Maersk will begin charging manual bookings in the US (such as booking made via phone or email) a 50 USD fee from the 1 September, reports the Supply Chain Dive magazine. This fee will apply to manual bookings only, not to bookings made via the Maersk Line website, EDI, INTTRA or similar systems.
The Danish integrated shipping giant has already applied this fee in the European Union, Australia, Canada, Malaysia and Egypt. For example, in Europe, since the launch of their inland haulage tool www.e-maersk.eu in August 2019, the company is urging its customers to use their digital platform instead of manual ways. For this reason, as from 1 June 2020, all port release orders or import rail inland deliveries in the EU shall be done through Maersk e-system. If a customer chooses the manual way via phone or email, they should pay a Manual Delivery Order fee of 25 euros per container. Also, a so-called Manual Documentation Amendment is charged for another 25 euros.
The same system will be introduced in the US with different rates. According to the Supply Chain Dive magazine, US clients will be charged the Manual Booking Amendment Fee of $50 and the Manual Documentation Amendment fee of $75 for every amendment to a booking Maersk receives through a manual channel.
Photo: Bari Bookout/ Wikimedia Commons