Docket documents screen: outstanding documents by container and supplier, each marked discrepancy, missing or awaited, with its due date. — Documents — what's verified, what's awaited, and by when.

Trade glossary

The terms that decide whether a container clears on time — defined plainly, each with its sources. Where a number exists in our operational baseline, it is on the page.

Documents

Arrival Notice — A notification sent by the carrier or its agent to the consignee and notify party named on the bill of lading, stating that a shipment is due to arrive or has arrived, and setting out the charges to be settled before the cargo is released.
Bill of Lading — The transport document a carrier issues for goods received, which works at once as a receipt, as evidence of the contract of carriage, and, when made out to order, as the document of title to the cargo.
Certificate of Origin — A document certifying the country in which goods were produced, issued by a chamber of commerce or a designated authority, used by customs to apply duty rates, quotas, trade remedies and preferential tariff treatment.
Commercial invoice — The seller's itemised bill for goods sold for export, and the document an import declaration takes its value, description and origin from. Its required contents are set by the importing country's customs law rather than by the seller.
Delivery Order — A written instruction from an ocean carrier or its agent to the terminal, authorising release of specified containers to a named party. Issued once title documents are surrendered or released electronically and the carrier's charges are settled, and required before the container can gate out.
House bill of lading — The bill of lading an NVOCC or freight forwarder issues to an importer for cargo it has booked on somebody else's vessel. The master bill covers the same container between the vessel operator and the NVOCC, who appears on it as the shipper.
Notify party — The party named on a bill of lading whom the carrier or its agent notifies that cargo is arriving. It carries no title to the goods and no right to take delivery; it is the address the arrival notice is sent to, alongside the consignee.
Packing List — A shipping document listing the physical contents of a consignment package by package: quantities, shipping marks, net and gross weights, dimensions and which goods are in which package or container, without prices.
Phytosanitary Certificate — An official certificate issued by the exporting country's national plant protection organisation stating that a consignment of plants or plant products was inspected and found to meet the importing country's phytosanitary requirements, including any treatment the importer's rules demand.
Pre-Shipment Inspection Certificate — A certificate from an inspection agency at the loading end, issued before shipment, recording that the consignment was inspected and meets the stated requirement. For metal scrap into India it confirms no arms or explosives and background radiation, from a DGFT-recognised agency.
Seal number — The identifier on the security seal fitted to a loaded container's doors, recorded on the bill of lading, the packing list and the carrier's manifest. It evidences that the doors were not opened between stuffing and delivery, and US rules require the number on the Cargo Declaration.

Shipping & ports

Beneficial cargo owner — The business that actually owns imported or exported goods and takes delivery of them, as opposed to an intermediary such as a freight forwarder or NVOCC moving the goods on its behalf. The term is industry usage, not a regulatory definition.
Billed party — The person who receives a demurrage or detention invoice and is responsible for paying the charge on it. In US trade the invoice must state the basis for why that person is the proper party of interest and thus liable.
Carrier tariff — A common carrier's published schedule of its rates, charges, classifications, rules, regulations and practices, kept open for public inspection. It is where free time, demurrage and detention terms are stated, and it is a different thing from a customs tariff, which is a schedule of duty rates.
Charge Complaint — A complaint to the US Federal Maritime Commission under 46 U.S.C. 41310 about a charge assessed by an ocean common carrier — most often demurrage or detention — which the Commission must promptly investigate and for which the carrier bears the burden of establishing reasonableness.
Combined demurrage and detention — A carrier tariff that treats demurrage and detention as a single charge on a single clock, running from vessel discharge to the return of the empty container, against one allowance of free days rather than one allowance for each. The gate-out event does not split the count.
Container availability date — The date on which a discharged import container is actually available to be collected — off the vessel, released by the terminal and free of holds. It is the event free time is meant to run from, and in US trade it is required minimum information on a demurrage or detention invoice.
Container number — The eleven-character identifier marked on a shipping container: a three-letter owner prefix, a one-letter equipment category identifier, a six-digit serial number and a single check digit that validates the other ten. It is the identifier that follows one box across every party's paperwork.
Demurrage — The charge a carrier or terminal levies when a container remains inside the port past its allotted free time, accruing daily per container until the box is collected.
Demurrage credit — A credit or waiver against accrued port demurrage for days on which the container could not be collected, granted under a published port tariff. In the two US tariffs that set out the mechanism, the party entitled to apply is the ocean carrier, not the importer who bears the charge.
Demurrage Invoice — The invoice a terminal or ocean carrier issues for the days a container remained inside the port beyond its free time, stating the container and bill of lading references, the free-time period, the daily rate applied and the number of days charged.
Detention — The daily charge a carrier levies for keeping its container outside the terminal beyond the agreed free period, running from gate-out until the empty is returned to the depot the carrier nominates.
Detention invoice — The invoice a shipping line or an NVOCC issues for the days its container remained outside the line's control after leaving the terminal, stating the bill of lading and container references, the free-time period, the rate per tier and the days charged.
Dwell time — The period for which a container occupies space between the event that starts the count and the event that ends it. Dwell is a measurement, not a bill: each tariff and contract names its own start event, so one container can carry several different dwell figures at once.
Empty container return — The acceptance of a carrier's empty container back at the depot or terminal the carrier nominates, recorded on an interchange receipt. It is the event that ends the importer's detention liability, and the date it happened is not a required field on the detention invoice.
Free time — The grace period allowed before demurrage or detention begins to accrue, counted from discharge in plain calendar days at most terminals and in working days at some, and set by the carrier's tariff or by the importer's service contract.
Freight forwarder — A party that dispatches shipments on behalf of others and arranges carriage for them, handling the booking and the shipping documents. In the United States it is a licensed ocean transportation intermediary, distinct from the separately licensed customs broker who files the declaration.
Gate-out — The release of a laden import container through the terminal gate, recorded on the equipment interchange receipt. It ends the container's occupation of terminal space, stopping demurrage, and begins the importer's use of the carrier's box, starting detention.
Inland Container Depot — An inland facility with customs jurisdiction where import and export containers are received, stuffed, destuffed and customs-cleared, functioning as a port of clearance without being on the coast.
Interpretive rule — An agency's published statement of how it reads a statute it administers. It imposes no new duty and binds nobody on its own; it tells you what the agency will weigh when it decides a case under the statute that does bind.
Last Free Day — The last day of an allowed free time period, after which demurrage or detention begins to accrue on a container. It is derived from an event such as discharge from the vessel or gate-out, plus the number of free days allowed by the applicable tariff or service contract.
Laytime — The period of time agreed between the parties to a voyage charter during which the shipowner will make and keep the vessel available for loading or discharging without payment additional to the freight.
Marine terminal operator — The business providing wharfage, dock, warehouse or other terminal facilities in connection with a common carrier. In the United States it is a regulated entity under the Shipping Act, with its own charges, its own published schedule and its own liability for unreasonable practices.
Per diem — The daily charge for the use of a carrier's equipment beyond free time, and chiefly the US term for container detention. Under 46 CFR 541.3 a per-diem charge for a shipping container is a demurrage or detention charge; the same definition excludes charges for other equipment, such as a chassis.
Service contract — A written contract, other than a bill of lading, in which one or more shippers commit a volume or portion of cargo over a fixed period and an ocean carrier commits to a rate or rate schedule and a defined service level. In the US it is filed confidentially with the Federal Maritime Commission.
Terminal schedule — A marine terminal operator's published set of actual rates, charges, classifications, regulations and practices for handling and storing cargo at its terminal, including the free time allowed before terminal storage begins to accrue.
Terminal storage charge — The charge a marine terminal operator levies for an import container occupying terminal ground beyond its free dwell time, set out in the terminal's published scale of rates and identical for every importer at that terminal, as distinct from the carrier's demurrage.
Transhipment — Unloading goods from the conveyance that brought them in and loading them onto one that takes them out again, without consigning them to a party in the country between. No duty or GST applies because nothing is imported, but a permit and a movement deadline usually do.
Unjust and Unreasonable Practice — A failure by an ocean carrier, marine terminal operator or ocean transportation intermediary to establish, observe and enforce just and reasonable practices for receiving, handling, storing or delivering property, prohibited by 46 U.S.C. 41102(c). A claim needs five elements.
Vessel Demurrage — An agreed amount payable to the shipowner in respect of delay to the vessel once the laytime has expired, for which the owner is not responsible; a voyage-charter charge running from charterer to owner, distinct from container demurrage.
Wharf demurrage — A charge assessed by a US port authority or marine terminal operator against cargo remaining on terminal facilities after free time expires. It pays for the ground the box occupies. The ocean carrier's demurrage, on the same container, pays for the box itself and is written in a different tariff.
Wharfage — A port's charge against merchandise for the passage of that merchandise onto, over, through or under its wharves. It is solely a charge for use of the wharf, assessed once per crossing on weight or measurement, and is separate from storage, from demurrage and from any handling service.
Working day — In a port or terminal tariff, a day that counts against free time only if the terminal works it. Where free time is allowed in working days, Saturdays, Sundays and named holidays drop out of the count. Where it is allowed in plain days they do not, and the tariff states which in one line.

Customs

ACE Cargo Release — A programme for ACE entry summary filers in which the importer or broker transmits the required cargo release data electronically in lieu of filing CBP Form 3461, Entry/Immediate Delivery, to secure release of imported merchandise from CBP custody.
Bill of Entry — The customs declaration an importer files to clear imported goods in India, filed electronically on ICEGATE, normally by the CHA, and required before the goods can be assessed, duty paid and the cargo released.
Centralized examination station — A privately operated facility, not in the charge of a Customs officer, at which merchandise is made available to Customs officers for physical examination. US CES operators are selected by the port director under 19 CFR part 118 and bill users directly from an approved fee schedule.
Clearing Agent — The party that prepares and submits a customs declaration in Dubai on an importer's behalf. Dubai Customs licenses the role as a customs broker under Customs Policy No. 17 of 2008, and declarations are submitted through the Mirsal 2 system.
Competent authority — The government agency, other than the customs administration, whose advance notification, licence or certificate approval a controlled good must have before it may be imported. Customs enforces the requirement; the competent authority decides it.
Container Freight Station — A customs area outside the port where import containers are taken for de-stuffing, examination and clearance. In India its operator is a Customs Cargo Service Provider under the Handling of Cargo in Customs Areas Regulations 2009 and must publish its schedule of charges.
Customs bond — The security filed with US Customs and Border Protection, usually on CBP Form 301 through a corporate surety, guaranteeing that an importer will pay the duties, taxes and charges owed and comply with the entry conditions. Merchandise is not released from CBP custody until one is on file.
Customs House Agent — A licensed intermediary authorised to transact customs business on an importer's or exporter's behalf: filing the goods declaration, presenting supporting documents, arranging examination and clearing the consignment out of the port.
Customs value — The value of imported goods on which customs duty is assessed. Under the WTO Valuation Agreement the primary basis is the transaction value — the price actually paid or payable for the goods when sold for export — adjusted by the additions listed in Article 8 and by no others.
Declaring Agent — An entity registered with Singapore Customs under a Declaring Agent Account, permitted to lodge customs permit declarations through TradeNet on its own behalf or for a trader. The declarations are filed by registered Declarants who have passed the Customs Competency Test for Declarants.
Detention Certificate — A certificate issued by Customs recording the period for which imported goods were seized, detained or held by the department, used to obtain waiver of the custodian's rent and demurrage for that period under regulation 6(1)(l) of the Handling of Cargo in Customs Areas Regulations, 2009.
Entry Inwards — The order by which a customs officer grants a vessel permission to unload imported goods. Under section 31 of the Customs Act 1962 no unloading may begin before it, and no order is given until the import manifest has been delivered.
Entry Summary — The documentation or data filed with US Customs and Border Protection that enables it to assess duties, collect statistics on imported merchandise and determine whether other legal requirements are met. Normally CBP Form 7501, submitted through ACE within 10 working days of entry.
Entry type — The two-digit code on a US customs entry identifying the procedure the shipment went through. Type 01 is the general formal entry; type 11 the general informal entry for merchandise valued at $2,500 or less; type 12 the informal entry for quota or visa goods; type 13 a proposed informal mail entry.
Export declaration — The filing lodged with the customs authority of the country goods are leaving, declaring what is going out, to whom and under what value and classification, and which must normally be accepted before the cargo may be loaded for export.
Forfeiture notice — Notice that imported cargo is about to become government property: either a title-vesting or sale notice on merchandise gone unclaimed and abandoned, or a notice of seizure and intent to forfeit. Each carries its own deadline, counted from a different event.
General order — The customs custody status of imported merchandise that has not been entered or released: taken into the port director's custody and deposited in a general order warehouse at the risk and expense of the consignee, where storage runs on top of whatever the terminal has already billed.
Harbor maintenance fee — A US port use fee of 0.125 percent of the value of commercial cargo loaded on or unloaded from a commercial vessel at a port listed in the regulation. On imported cargo the importer is liable at the time of unloading, and the fee is shown and paid on the entry summary.
HS code — A product number from the Harmonized System, the World Customs Organization's international classification. Six digits are common to every member country; national tariffs extend them to eight or ten digits for duty rates and controls.
Importer of record — The party that makes customs entry for an import and carries the legal liability for the duties, taxes and fees on it. In US trade it must be the owner or purchaser of the merchandise, or a licensed customs broker appropriately designated by them.
Importer Security Filing — The advance electronic filing an importer of ocean cargo owes US Customs and Border Protection under 19 CFR part 149: ten data elements per good at the lowest bill of lading level, due before the cargo is laden abroad, and kept current until the vessel arrives.
J-List — The list at 19 CFR 134.33 of classes of article excepted from US country-of-origin marking under section 304(a)(3)(J) of the Tariff Act of 1930. The exception applies to the article; the outermost container it reaches the ultimate purchaser in must still be marked.
Licensed warehouse — Premises licensed by a customs authority in which imported dutiable goods may be stored with duty and GST suspended until the goods are removed and enter the customs territory for local use or consumption.
Liquidated damages — The amount CBP demands from the principal and surety under a customs bond when a bond condition is breached. The sum is fixed by the bond conditions rather than assessed as a penalty, and the principal may petition for cancellation within 60 days of the notice.
Liquidation — The final computation and ascertainment by US Customs and Border Protection of the duties, taxes and fees owed on an entry. Notice of it is posted on cbp.gov, which is the legal evidence of liquidation; the electronic message sent to the filer is expressly a courtesy and not decisive.
Merchandise processing fee — A US customs user fee charged for processing an entry. On a formal entry it is an ad valorem fee of 0.3464 percent of the entered value, subject to a minimum and a maximum amount that CBP re-indexes for inflation each fiscal year, plus a surcharge on a manual entry.
Prior notice — A notice the importer, owner or ultimate consignee must submit to FDA before an article of food arrives in the United States, confirmed for review by FDA a set number of hours before arrival depending on the mode of transport. Arriving without it makes the food subject to refusal of admission.
Protest — The formal administrative objection to a decision of US Customs and Border Protection under section 514 of the Tariff Act of 1930, filed on CBP Form 19 or electronically within 180 days of the decision. It is the only route to reopen a liquidation an importer believes is wrong.
Single window — A single entry point through which a trader submits the documentation and data required to import, export or tranship goods, and through which the participating authorities return their decisions, so that one submission reaches every agency with a say in the consignment.
TradeNet — Singapore's single electronic window for trade declarations. Every import, export and transhipment permit application is submitted through it, by a declaring agent or by a company registered as its own, and Singapore Customs and the other competent authorities answer that one submission.

Payment & fraud

Letter of Credit — A bank's written undertaking to pay a seller a stated amount against a presentation of documents that complies with the terms of the credit, governed in most trade by ICC UCP 600.
Payment diversion fraud — A business email compromise scam in which an attacker impersonates a trusted counterparty and redirects a legitimate payment to an account they control, usually by announcing a change of bank details mid-deal.

Finance

Landed cost — The total cost of a consignment delivered into the buyer's warehouse, combining the goods value with duty, freight, port and terminal charges, agent fees, inland transport, insurance, bank charges, inspection and any demurrage or detention.

Incoterms

Incoterms — The ICC's eleven International Commercial Terms, which allocate delivery point, risk transfer, cost allocation, clearance duties and insurance obligations between a seller and a buyer in a sale of goods.