diff --git a/swh/loader/mercurial/cli.py b/swh/loader/mercurial/cli.py
index ab51dc4..d90dabf 100644
--- a/swh/loader/mercurial/cli.py
+++ b/swh/loader/mercurial/cli.py
@@ -1,61 +1,66 @@
 # Copyright (C) 2018-2021  The Software Heritage developers
 # See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
-import datetime
 from itertools import chain
 import logging
 
 import click
+from deprecated import deprecated
+
+from swh.loader.mercurial.utils import parse_visit_date
 
 LOGLEVELS = list(
     chain.from_iterable(
         (logging._levelToName[lvl], logging._levelToName[lvl].lower())
         for lvl in sorted(logging._levelToName.keys())
     )
 )
 
 
 @click.command()
 @click.argument("origin-url")
 @click.option(
     "--hg-directory",
     "-d",
     help=(
         "Path to the hg (local) directory to load from. "
         "If unset, the hg repo will be cloned from the "
         "given (origin) url."
     ),
 )
 @click.option("--hg-archive", "-a", help=("Path to the hg archive file to load from."))
 @click.option("--visit-date", "-D", help="Visit date (defaults to now).")
 @click.option("--log-level", "-l", type=click.Choice(LOGLEVELS), help="Log level.")
+@deprecated(
+    version="0.4.0", reason="Use `swh loader run mercurial|mercurial_from_disk` instead"
+)
 def main(
     origin_url, hg_directory=None, hg_archive=None, visit_date=None, log_level=None
 ):
     from swh.storage import get_storage
 
     logging.basicConfig(
         level=(log_level or "DEBUG").upper(),
         format="%(asctime)s %(process)d %(message)s",
     )
 
-    if not visit_date:
-        visit_date = datetime.datetime.now(tz=datetime.timezone.utc)
+    visit_date = parse_visit_date(visit_date or "now")
+
     kwargs = {"visit_date": visit_date, "url": origin_url}
     if hg_archive:
         from .loader import HgArchiveBundle20Loader as HgLoader
 
         kwargs["archive_path"] = hg_archive
     else:
         from .loader import HgBundle20Loader as HgLoader
 
         kwargs["directory"] = hg_directory
 
     storage = get_storage(cls="memory")
     return HgLoader(storage, **kwargs).load()
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     main()
diff --git a/swh/loader/mercurial/utils.py b/swh/loader/mercurial/utils.py
index 9c9ee5d..319b4f4 100644
--- a/swh/loader/mercurial/utils.py
+++ b/swh/loader/mercurial/utils.py
@@ -1,29 +1,29 @@
 # Copyright (C) 2020-2021  The Software Heritage developers
 # See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
 from datetime import datetime, timezone
 from typing import Optional, Union
 
-import dateutil
+from dateutil.parser import parse
 
 
 def parse_visit_date(visit_date: Optional[Union[datetime, str]]) -> Optional[datetime]:
     """Convert visit date from either None, a string or a datetime to either None or
        datetime.
 
     """
     if visit_date is None:
         return None
 
     if isinstance(visit_date, datetime):
         return visit_date
 
     if visit_date == "now":
         return datetime.now(tz=timezone.utc)
 
     if isinstance(visit_date, str):
-        return dateutil.parser.parse(visit_date)
+        return parse(visit_date)
 
     raise ValueError(f"invalid visit date {visit_date!r}")