A Docket shipment flagged critical: demurrage in 7 days, EPR registration missing and a fumigation stamp query, above the invoice, route, free-time and CHA details. — A container against its clock — free time ends 14 Jul, two documents unresolved.

Fremantle port storage charges: Patrick's cheapest gate

Patrick Terminals Fremantle allows three working days including the day of availability, then charges AUD 255.60 per TEU per day, identical to its Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane schedules. Two lines are not identical: the Landside Terminal Charge every laden box pays is AUD 96.13, well under half the eastern rate, and the reefer surcharge is AUD 369.80 a day, exactly twice it.

One stevedore, two coasts, one effective date Patrick's Fremantle and Sydney schedules for 1 January 2026. The lines that decide what being late costs are identical; the two that differ move in opposite directions.

UN/LOCODE: AUFRE
Country: Australia
Customs authority: Australian Border Force. An Import Declaration (N10) is lodged through the Integrated Cargo System.
Terminals: Patrick Terminals Fremantle — Storage and Yard Ancillary Charges and Landside Terminal Charge, both effective 1 January 2026, advisories issued 31 October 2025 · DP World Fremantle, which DP World names on its Australian locations page without publishing an Australian storage schedule

Terminal storage: 3 free days, then these rates

Import containers and goods not collected within the free period. Patrick prices storage per TEU, so the 20ft column below is the published rate and the over-20ft column is two of them, which is what the unit means. The surcharges and the separate Landside Terminal Charge are in the exceptions. at Patrick Terminals Fremantle, effective 1 January 2026. It is the only Fremantle container terminal whose storage tariff is published as a document this page could read.. Free time counted from "Storage charges will be payable on all import containers/goods not collected within three (3) working days including day of availability. A minimum of one Yard Handling Fee will also be applicable on day one, along with all relevant surcharges." The day the box becomes available is one of the three, and the three are working days rather than calendar days — which in Western Australia is its own public-holiday calendar, not New South Wales'..

Period	Up to 20ft	Over 20ft
First 3 days	Free	Free
Storage, every chargeable day from day 1 (no tier step)	AUD 255.6	AUD 511.2
Out-of-gauge storage, every chargeable day	AUD 511.2	AUD 1,022.4
Yard handling fee, once, on day one	AUD 199.8	AUD 199.8

Per container per day.

Surcharges run per ISO container per day or part thereof on top of storage: reefer services AUD 369.80, controlled-temperature reefer AUD 92.55, dangerous goods AUD 353.60.
Non-standard containers and other commodities are priced "POA" — the tariff publishes no rate for them at all.
Every figure is exclusive of GST, "which is payable in addition".
Storage rates are "exclusive of Landside Terminal Charge, all other ancillary landside fees and quayside and shipping line fees". That charge is a separate published schedule for the same terminal and date: AUD 96.13 per import laden container and AUD 48.05 per export laden container, "applicable on all laden container movements into and out of" the terminal, late or not.
Storage has no credit terms: "Credit Terms; payment is required prior to release of any import containers/cargo." The Landside Terminal Charge is payable "within thirty (30) days consistent with the Vehicle Booking System rules".
The storage schedule states only that rates change "with notice in accordance with Patrick's Standard Conditions of Contract". The Landside Terminal Charge schedule commits to "60 days' notice".

Source: Patrick Terminals, Storage and Yard Ancillary Charges, Port(s): Fremantle, effective 1 January 2026, Industry Advisory issued 31 October 2025. Storage from day 1 at AUD 255.60 per TEU per day or part thereof and OOG at AUD 511.20 per TEU; yard handling fee AUD 199.80 per ISO container; reefer services AUD 369.80, CT reefer AUD 92.55 and dangerous goods AUD 353.60 per container per day or part thereof; other commodities and non-standard containers "POA"; the free period "three (3) working days including day of availability" with "a minimum of one Yard Handling Fee … applicable on day one, along with all relevant surcharges"; "Credit Terms; payment is required prior to release of any import containers/cargo."; rates "exclusive of Landside Terminal Charge, all other ancillary landside fees and quayside and shipping line fees" · checked 2026-10-27

This page is about the Port of Fremantle, Western Australia’s container gateway, UN/LOCODE AUFRE. It is the third Australian port on this site after Melbourne and Port Botany, and it is the one that breaks the pattern the other two established.

Three working days, on a different holiday calendar

Patrick’s Fremantle schedule states the free period in the same sentence it uses on the east coast:

Storage charges will be payable on all import containers/goods not collected within three (3) working days including day of availability. A minimum of one Yard Handling Fee will also be applicable on day one, along with all relevant surcharges.

The days are working days, so a weekend does not spend one, and the day of availability is included, so the clock did not start tomorrow. The part that is specific to this coast is which days count. Western Australia keeps Western Australia Day in June and its Queen’s Birthday holiday in September, and does not keep the eastern states’ dates. A free period written in working days is a free period written in a state’s calendar, and a desk running one spreadsheet across four Australian ports has four calendars in it whether it knows or not.

What the days cost

Exclusive of GST, from day one of storage onwards:

Charge	Rate
ISO containers, storage	AUD 255.60 per TEU per day or part thereof
Out-of-gauge, storage	AUD 511.20 per TEU per day or part thereof
Yard handling fee, once	AUD 199.80 per ISO container
Reefer services	AUD 369.80 per container per day
Controlled-temperature reefer	AUD 92.55 per container per day
Dangerous goods	AUD 353.60 per container per day

Patrick prices per TEU, so a 40-footer is two of them: AUD 511.20 a day. There is no tier step: the rate on the fifteenth day is the rate on the first, which is unusual on this site. Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Jebel Ali, Khalifa, Los Angeles and Melbourne’s VICT all escalate.

Run a 40-footer out, including the one-off handling fee:

End of	Cumulative
1st chargeable day	AUD 711.00
2nd	AUD 1,222.20
3rd	AUD 1,733.40
7th	AUD 3,777.20

The first day is AUD 711.00 against a headline rate of AUD 511.20, because the yard handling fee lands on it. Multiplying late days by the daily rate understates day one by 39%, which is the ordinary shape of a terminal storage charge: the tariff is a schedule of several charges and the one with “per day” against it is only the largest.

The finding: the national rate is the one that does not matter

Patrick publishes a storage schedule for each of its four Australian terminals. Port Botany’s page already recorded that Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are the same document with a different port name on it, down to the cent. Fremantle holds that line on everything that decides what lateness costs. AUD 255.60 per TEU, AUD 511.20 out-of-gauge, AUD 353.60 for dangerous goods, three working days including the day of availability. And then it departs from that schedule twice, in opposite directions.

Patrick terminal	Landside charge, import laden	Reefer services, per day
Fremantle	AUD 96.13	AUD 369.80
Sydney AutoStrad	AUD 224.90	AUD 185.00
Melbourne	AUD 242.00	AUD 185.00
Brisbane AutoStrad	AUD 243.50	AUD 185.00

The Landside Terminal Charge is the flat fee “applicable on all laden container movements into and out of” the terminal, whether or not anybody is late. At Fremantle it is AUD 96.13 an import box: AUD 128.77 under Sydney and AUD 147.37 under Brisbane, which is less than half. And the reefer surcharge is AUD 369.80 a day against AUD 185.00 on the east coast: exactly twice, from advisories issued on the same day by the same operator.

So the two charges that differ by port are the two a desk is least likely to look up. The one that is national to the cent is the one every demurrage article in the category is about. If you budget Fremantle off an eastern schedule you are AUD 128.77 too pessimistic on every laden box and AUD 184.80 a day too optimistic on every reefer that runs late.

Which of these a desk can actually move

One of them. The landside charge arrives with the box and no amount of paperwork discipline reduces it. The reefer surcharge, the storage and the handling fee all start at the same moment, the expiry of three working days you did not use, and that moment is decided by whether the import declaration and the pack behind it were ready when the box was. Document packs routinely run about eight days late against free time. At Fremantle, eight days on a late 40ft reefer is the storage, the handling fee and AUD 2,958.40 of reefer surcharge on top.

That is the part demurrage and detention software that counts each tariff’s own free time is for, and the reason this site publishes terminal tariffs rather than averages: the clock that matters is the one in the document covering your terminal, and at Fremantle two of its lines are not the ones you read last week.

What this page does not say

No carrier free time. Patrick’s tariff is the terminal’s charge for ground; your shipping line bills separately for the box itself, on its own clock, under a carrier tariff or your service contract. Those numbers differ between two importers on the same vessel, so they are not publishable and this page leaves them empty rather than inventing a figure.

Questions importers clearing here ask

How many free days does an import container get at Fremantle?

Three working days at Patrick Terminals Fremantle, and the day the container becomes available is one of them. The tariff reads: "Storage charges will be payable on all import containers/goods not collected within three (3) working days including day of availability." Working days rather than calendar days means the Western Australian public-holiday calendar decides the date, not the eastern one — Western Australia Day in June and the Queen's Birthday holiday in September fall on dates the other states do not keep. DP World Fremantle publishes no storage tariff, so no free period is stated here for it.

What are the storage charges at Patrick Fremantle?

AUD 255.60 per TEU per day or part thereof from day one of storage onwards, exclusive of GST, with out-of-gauge at AUD 511.20 per TEU. There is no tier step: the rate on the fifteenth day is the rate on the first. A yard handling fee of AUD 199.80 per ISO container is charged once, with "a minimum of one" on day one, and the surcharges on top are reefer services at AUD 369.80 a day, controlled-temperature reefer at AUD 92.55 and dangerous goods at AUD 353.60.

What does one day late cost on a 40ft container at Fremantle?

AUD 711.00, exclusive of GST. A 40-footer is two TEU, so storage is AUD 511.20, and the AUD 199.80 yard handling fee lands on the same day. That is 7.4 times the AUD 96.13 Landside Terminal Charge the same container was always going to pay — the widest ratio of any Patrick terminal, because Fremantle has the dearest handling fee and by far the cheapest landside charge.

Is Patrick cheaper at Fremantle than at Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane?

For the charge you cannot avoid, dramatically. For the charge you can, no. Patrick's Landside Terminal Charge is AUD 96.13 per import laden container at Fremantle against AUD 224.90 at Sydney, AUD 242.00 at Melbourne and AUD 243.50 at Brisbane — under half the eastern rate on the same effective date. The storage line is identical to the cent at all four. And the reefer surcharge runs the other way: AUD 369.80 a day at Fremantle against AUD 185.00 at Sydney and Melbourne, exactly twice.

Why is a reefer so expensive at Fremantle?

The tariff does not say, and this page will not guess. What it does say is the size of it: reefer services are AUD 369.80 per container per day or part thereof at Fremantle and AUD 185.00 at Sydney and Melbourne, from schedules issued on the same day by the same operator. The operational consequence is worth carrying into a budget: a live reefer sitting at Fremantle past its free time costs more each day in the reefer surcharge alone than in storage on a 20ft box, and a desk that provisioned off an eastern schedule is short AUD 184.80 a day.

What is the Landside Terminal Charge at Fremantle?

AUD 96.13 per import laden container and AUD 48.05 per export laden container, exclusive of GST, "applicable on all laden container movements into and out of the Patrick Terminals – Fremantle". It is not a penalty and collecting on time does not avoid it — every laden box pays it. It is published separately from the storage schedule, so a desk reading only the storage tariff is reading one of two documents.

Is Fremantle terminal storage the same as my carrier's demurrage?

No, and an importer who clears late pays both. Everything on this page is the stevedore's own charge for the ground the box occupies inside its gates, published as a tariff. Your shipping line charges separately for the box itself, under its own tariff or your service contract, on a clock with its own free days and its own rate. This page carries no carrier free-time row for Fremantle because none has been sourced.

Does this page cover every container terminal at Fremantle?

No. It covers the one whose storage tariff is published as a readable document, Patrick Terminals Fremantle. DP World names Fremantle among its Australian terminals and publishes no Australian storage schedule. A figure we cannot cite is a figure we do not publish.