BAF, the Bunker Adjustment Factor, covers fuel price swings, typically 500 to 1,500 dollars per TEU on major trades, reset monthly or quarterly against low sulphur fuel prices. It moves with oil, which means it moves after the quote is issued, and the invoice carries the new number. A quote that is a month old carries a BAF that no longer exists.
GRI, the General Rate Increase, is a mid-quarter increase to the base rate, typically 500 to 1,200 dollars per TEU, usually announced with 30 days of notice. It is not a surcharge in the usual sense. It is a rate rise, announced in advance, applied to all shippers alike. A quote issued before the GRI announcement does not include it, and the invoice does.
PSS, the Peak Season Surcharge, is the August to November capacity fee, typically 300 to 800 dollars per TEU, and 500 to 800 dollars per 40-foot container on the transpacific in a normal peak. It is seasonal by design, which means it is predictable, and brands still miss it, because the peak is when they ship the most and the surcharge is when it costs the most.
CAF, the Currency Adjustment Factor, is a 3 to 8 percent add-on on lanes priced in currencies other than the US dollar. It is the smallest of the four and the easiest to forget, which is why it shows up as a surprise on lanes where the carrier's home currency strengthened against the dollar.
The most widely quoted benchmark is the Drewry World Container Index, a composite of spot rates per 40-foot container on major East-West routes. On 1 October 2026 it fell 1 percent to 4,434 dollars per 40-foot container. Shanghai to New York rose 1 percent to 10,428 dollars, and Shanghai to Los Angeles held at 7,835 dollars. Those are spot rates for the container, not all-in rates for the shipment, and the surcharges sit on top of them.
Spot rates from Shanghai to the US West Coast more than doubled between May and October 2026, according to Xeneta, and US-bound rates reached their post-crisis peak for the year in early October. A brand that budgeted on May rates and shipped in October paid twice the ocean freight it planned for, before the surcharges. The index is the number to watch. The quote is the number to verify.
The lesson is not that rates are high. It is that they move, and they move faster than a landed cost model that is updated quarterly. A model that uses a rate from three months ago is a model that is wrong by the time the container sails.
On top of the surcharges come local charges at each end: terminal handling at origin and destination, documentation fees for the bill of lading, and the truck that moves the container between the port and the warehouse. On a 40-foot box the surrounding charges typically add 1,200 to 2,300 dollars before duty and VAT, and that is before the container sits too long.
Terminals and carriers give a set number of free days. After that, demurrage is charged for a container left at the terminal, and detention is charged for keeping the carrier's container outside the terminal beyond the agreed period. Demurrage and detention run 50 to 120 dollars per container per day, and they are the charges that turn a late pickup into a four-figure problem. The free days are in the contract. The cost of missing them is not.
The fix is to price the shipment from the invoice, not the quote. Take the last three invoices for the lane, add the surcharges that applied, add the local charges, and use that as the freight line in the landed cost model. A quote is a promise about the base rate. An invoice is the truth about the shipment.
Related reading on this site: Demurrage and Detention: The Port Fees That Eat Your Margin, Freight Surcharges, Line by Line: Why the Invoice Beats the Quote, and The Merchandise Processing Fee, Line by Line.
BAF, the Bunker Adjustment Factor, is a fuel surcharge that covers swings in bunker fuel prices. It typically runs 500 to 1,500 dollars per TEU on major trades and is reset monthly or quarterly against low sulphur fuel prices.
PSS, the Peak Season Surcharge, is a capacity fee applied during the August to November peak season, typically 300 to 800 dollars per TEU, and 500 to 800 dollars per 40-foot container on the transpacific in a normal peak.
It is a composite of spot rates per 40-foot container on major East-West routes, and the most widely quoted benchmark for container shipping. On 1 October 2026 it stood at 4,434 dollars per 40-foot container.
Demurrage is charged for a container left at the terminal beyond the free days, and detention is charged for keeping the carrier's container outside the terminal beyond the agreed period. Both typically run 50 to 120 dollars per container per day.