FCL, LCL, ICD and CFS

Most sea cargo moves in steel containers of standard sizes. The two you will book most are the 20-foot and the 40-foot. Ports and shipping lines count them in TEU, twenty-foot equivalent units: a 20 ft container is 1 TEU and a 40 ft is 2 TEU.

Heavy goods usually reach a container's weight limit before they fill its space, while light, bulky goods fill the space first. Ask the line for the weight limit of the container you book, not just its size.

• FCL, full container load: you book the whole container for your goods alone and pay for it whether or not you fill it. It is packed, sealed and carried as one unit.
• LCL, less than container load: you pay for the space your cargo takes, and a consolidator packs it into a shared container with other shippers' goods.

LCL suits small or trial shipments. It takes longer, because the container is packed at one container freight station and unpacked at another, and your cargo is handled more. FCL suits shipments that fill most of a container, or goods that should be handled as little as possible.

An inland container depot is a dry port away from the sea. Under the Customs Act, a place appointed as an ICD counts as a customs port, so goods are cleared there just as at a sea port. Containers then travel between the ICD and the sea port by rail or road.

For an exporter far from the coast, an ICD near the factory means you can file the shipping bill, get the Let Export Order and hand over the container close to home. For an importer, the goods can be carried through to the ICD and the bill of entry filed there.

A container freight station is a customs area linked to a port or an ICD, where cargo is packed into and taken out of containers, stored and examined. The Customs Act counts any area where goods are kept before clearance as a customs area.

• LCL cargo passes through a CFS at both ends: export cargo is consolidated there, and import cargo is unpacked there.
• An FCL import may also be moved from the port to a CFS, where customs examines it and you take delivery.
• Each CFS charges for handling and storage, so ask your customs broker which CFS your container will go to.

1. 1Work out the volume and weight of your cargo from the packing list, and ask your forwarder whether it should go FCL or LCL.
2. 2Decide where you will clear customs: at the sea port, or at an ICD near you.
3. 3For a packed container going by sea, the shipper must give its verified gross mass (VGM) before loading. Under the international SOLAS rules, a container without one is not loaded.
4. 4Ask how many free days the line and the CFS allow before storage and container charges start.
5. 5Find a customs broker who works at that port or ICD.