About DDClear

Why I built DDClear — and why it's free right now

If you handle ocean freight, you know the feeling: a demurrage or detention invoice lands, the number's higher than it should be, and you pay it — because fighting it costs more time than it feels worth.

Here's what most shippers never find out: ocean carriers have to follow a federal billing rule (the FMC's 46 CFR Part 541). When an invoice is missing required information, billed late, or charges you for days your container couldn't even be moved, you may not legally owe it. The carriers know the rule. They're betting you don't — and that you won't check.

DDClear checks. You drop in the invoice, it reads it against the rule, shows you exactly what may not be owed, and drafts the dispute letter for you to send in your own name. About a minute. No account, no spreadsheet, nothing confidential stored.

So why is it free? Honest answer: because I'm new, and I need to know it actually helps real shippers before I ever charge for it.

I'd rather earn your trust by saving you money first than ask you to gamble on a tool you've never heard of. So right now DDClear is free — use it as much as you want, on as many invoices as you want, and tell me the truth about whether it's useful.

One day DDClear will be a simple paid tool — one flat monthly price, unlimited use, and nothing confidential ever stored. That's how it becomes a real business instead of a side project. But the shippers who use it and shape it while it's free won't get left behind: founding users keep founding-user pricing, locked in. Helping me now is the best deal DDClear will ever offer.

Real talk: I went looking for this. No dramatic origin story — I went hunting for a real, expensive problem the big software companies won't touch, because it'll never be the next billion-dollar app. Demurrage and detention overcharges? Perfect. It's quietly costing shippers like you serious money, the federal rule is literally on your side, and almost nobody checks.

I'm not a maritime lawyer or some freight lifer. I'm a builder — I take a buried, miserable problem and turn it into sixty seconds. So that's what I did.

Here's the part that should matter to you: I picked a problem I can live on by serving you well — not by flipping it and vanishing. So I only win if DDClear keeps putting money back in your pocket. It's free right now because I'd rather prove that than tell you about it. Use it, and tell me if I'm full of it. email me.

— Matt, founder of DDClear

DDClear is software and analysis, not legal advice or representation. It shows what may not be owed under the rule — never a guarantee — and you review and send everything in your own name. Nothing confidential is stored.