Blog
Numbers with their sources, not opinion. Every post carries something no model could have produced — proprietary numbers, a named practitioner's judgement, or a specific HS-code walkthrough.
- USPS will invoice the sender for duty the buyer never paid
An interim final rule effective 19 October 2026 lets USPS bill a mailer for destination duties, taxes and import fees, payable in full even if disputed.
- Import and export documentation in one system
A desk that does both runs two clocks in opposite directions: imports time off the ship arriving, exports off the gate closing. One system has to hold both.
- Your landed cost is not final until the entry liquidates
The duty on a US entry is an estimate until CBP liquidates it: a year by default, longer if extended. A cost closed at delivery is a guess with a deadline.
- Your carrier may not own a ship. Whose free time counts?
If your bill of lading is an NVOCC's, the free time governing your container is the NVOCC's own published tariff, not the vessel operator's. One question finds out.
- The 15-day entry window is being closed
CBP has proposed that informal entries be filed on or before the date of importation, not 15 days after landing. Every type 11 entry would also need a bond.
- Goods detained at port: which clock you are on
A customs hold and an agency hold look identical on a tracking screen and run on completely different deadlines. One has a statutory 30 days. The other has none.
- IEEPA tariff refunds: what a CAPE declaration needs
CBP will refund IEEPA duties through a CAPE declaration in ACE: a CSV of entry summary numbers, 9,999 per filing. Which entries qualify is a liquidation question.
- The thirteen facts a US import entry needs
ACE Cargo Release replaced CBP Form 3461 with a list of required data elements. CBP reprinted it on 1 October 2026, and three of them exist only after loading.
- What a landed cost spreadsheet gets wrong about US fees
Two US federal fees ride on every entry summary. One is clamped at both ends and rose 38% today, the other has no clamp, and a trade agreement zeroes only one.
- How to calculate demurrage charges, on one container
The sum is four numbers: day zero, free days, the rate band and the size column. Worked twice on published tariffs, then checked against the invoice.
- Demurrage and detention software: whose calendar?
Five published tariffs, five ways of counting a free day. What demurrage and detention software has to let you set, and the question that finds out in a demo.
- Bill of entry filed late: the charges, and the second clock
Late filing of a bill of entry costs ₹5,000 a day, then ₹10,000. The deadline now falls before the ship arrives, and demurrage runs alongside it.
- Letter of credit discrepancy: when documents don't comply
A letter of credit discrepancy is a mismatch between your documents and the credit. What the bank does when they do not comply, and why demurrage keeps running.
- FMC charge complaint: a demurrage refund with no deadline
The FMC's Charge Complaint Procedures rule took effect 1 September 2026. The carrier must prove the charge was reasonable, and section 41310 sets no deadline.
- Supplier changed bank details: what to do in the first hour
The email asking you to wire to a new account is the end of the fraud, not the start. What to check before paying, and what to do in the first hour after.
- What a demurrage spreadsheet cannot hold
Six terminal tariffs make the storage charge a function of six things. A cell holds one. What to check before buying demurrage and detention software.
- Demurrage software counts one clock. The port runs another
Jebel Ali allows 10 free days at the terminal. Nhava Sheva's NSICT allows 3. Neither is your carrier's free time, and most D&D tools only count the carrier's.
- UAE 12-digit HS codes: what a Dubai declaration now needs
Dubai mandates twelve-digit classification for mainland imports from outside the GCC by January 2027. What its own correlation table shows, line by line.
- Landed cost tools for an import desk: three kinds
ERP allocation modules, trade-compliance suites, evidence capture. Three kinds of landed cost tool, and only one of them gets the charge out of the inbox.
- How to choose demurrage and detention software
Six questions that separate the products sold under one name. The sharpest asks whether the tool can produce the lines a carrier's own invoice must carry.
- How to dispute a demurrage invoice, and why most fail
A demurrage invoice is disputed on dates, not on argument. Which rules give you a footing, what evidence a waiver request needs, and the days no rule will cover.
- Landed cost software: per container first, then per SKU
Most landed cost software is an ERP module that allocates a container's charges across SKUs. It needs a complete container total first, and nobody collects it.
- Demurrage and detention software: which kind you need
Four products are sold as demurrage and detention software, and three of them only act once the clock is already running. How to tell which kind your desk needs.
- Food imports clear at 171 points of entry in India
FSSAI clears imported food only where it has an authorised officer: 171 points of entry after the April 2026 additions. What that means for the port on your booking.
- Replacing Excel for import tracking: what actually works
The shipment tracker is the best-run file in most import businesses. The exact point it stops working, and why most replacements leave the chasing behind.
- The import document checklist that actually holds
Most import checklists list documents. Documents are not what fails — fields fail. The cross-check that catches a wrong weight before a bank does.
- My exporter is not sending the shipping documents
A supplier who goes quiet is not a relationship problem. It is a follow-up problem with no owner. The escalation ladder, the timings, and what the chase costs.
- Six parties, one container. Who owns the follow-up?
Supplier, broker, bank, forwarder, insurer, trader. Every one owns a task. Not one owns the coordination, which is why it lands on your documentation desk.
- Why am I paying demurrage when the ship arrived on time?
Demurrage is a paperwork failure wearing a shipping costume. Two clocks race every container, and only one of them is the vessel. Where the eight days go.
- How much desk time does one container really take?
About 2.2 hours per container. The full breakdown, line by line, where the hours actually go — and how to measure your own desk inside a week.