Logistics & shipping
Freight and logistics debt collection in the UAE
Freight charges, demurrage, detention, storage and handling. Logistics debt is distinctive because the charges keep accruing while the dispute runs — which makes early action worth more here than in almost any other sector.
What we recover
- Ocean and air freight charges billed to shippers, consignees and forwarding agents.
- Demurrage and detention. The category creditors most often write off and most often should not — the amounts are contractual and the entitlement is usually clear.
- Storage, handling and port charges on cargo that sat longer than anyone planned.
- Trucking and last-mile balances, including cross-border road freight.
- Customs, clearance and disbursement advances paid on a customer's behalf and never reimbursed. Often the strongest claims in the sector, because the money was actually laid out.
The question that decides most logistics claims
Who is the contracting party? Freight moves through shippers, consignees, notify parties, forwarders and agents, and the entity named on a document is frequently not the entity that agreed to pay.
| Document | What it establishes |
|---|---|
| Booking confirmation / rate agreement | Who instructed the movement and on what terms. The most important document in the file. |
| Bill of lading or air waybill | The parties to the carriage — but not necessarily who is liable for charges. |
| Standard trading conditions | Where demurrage, detention, storage and lien entitlements usually live. Send them. |
| Delivery orders and release records | When the clock started and stopped on accruing charges. |
| Statement of account | What has been paid and what remains — and often an implicit acknowledgement of the balance. |
Demurrage and detention accrue daily, and a debtor disputing a small original freight charge can end up facing a balance many times larger. That sounds like it favours the creditor. In practice it is the opposite: the larger the accrued figure grows relative to the underlying service, the more strenuously the debtor resists it and the more likely the whole balance ends up compromised. Act while the number is still proportionate.
Cross-border by nature
A large share of logistics claims involve a counterparty outside the UAE — a shipper in Asia, a consignee in Africa, a forwarder in Europe. Those are pursued through partner agencies in the debtor's own jurisdiction. See cross-border recovery, and Fujairah for bunkering and marine supply.
How we work a logistics claim
Standard five stages. Verification does most of the heavy lifting: establishing the correct contracting party, confirming the trading conditions that apply, and checking whether the accrued charges are actually supported by the documents. A demand built on the wrong party or an unsupported accrual gets picked apart.
Logistics FAQs
Common questions
The customer disputes demurrage because the delay was not their fault. Now what?
Whose fault the delay was and who is contractually liable for the charges are different questions, and the trading conditions usually answer the second one. That said, a disputed accrual many times the original freight value rarely gets paid in full — a negotiated figure is often the realistic outcome.
We billed the forwarder but they say the consignee is liable.
The booking confirmation and the trading conditions decide it, not the bill of lading alone. This is the most common reason a logistics demand fails, which is why the contracting party is verified before anything is sent.
Can we hold the cargo until we are paid?
Lien rights depend on your trading conditions and on the circumstances, and exercising them wrongly creates its own exposure. That is a question for a licensed advocate rather than a collection agency, and we will say so.
Our debtor is overseas with no UAE presence. Is it worth pursuing?
It depends on documentation and on whether recovery is realistic where they are. We will give you a straight answer at the assessment before you spend anything.