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Incoterms - Delivery Terms

This info should serve merely as a rough assistance for the use of the Incoterms, any warranty or guarantee for the correctness of the content of this page content is excluded. Therefore, nobody should misunderstand this info as a secured decisive basis for further activities and should not act without detailed further investigation.

Often neglected are the terms of delivery, although they are of substantial importance. Even small missunderstandings can result in delayed or even refused payments, although the goods obviously have been delivered as agreed. To avoid this international terms of delivery have been negotiated, the so called INCOTERMS.

They include international standardized and in their scope of services fixed terms of delivery. To use them is simple, they start with the abbreviated, internationally fixed term consisting of three letters. After this you have to mention either a location, a haulier company or the name of a ship, depending on the type of clause that has been chosen. Finally the reference of the chosen issue of the INCOTERM must be given, actually valid are the INCOTERMS 2000. That is it.
INCOTERM clauses fix the minimum of a scope of services, so exclusion of included services will cause invalidity of the whole clause. But it is possible to add further services in addition to the included scope. Last but not least it is vital to use the correct term in the appropriate context. Using clauses developed for transport by ship for airfreight or for destinations without any port is obviously a nonsens and causes also invalidity.
In the presentation of the various clauses on this page we mention the terms with a short explanation. We would suggest to order the full text INCOTERM documentation available in various languages from the Chamber of Commerce.

Abbreviation:

EXW

Meaning:

Es Works

Application:

All types of transport

 

Responsibility of the Seller:
  • Separation of the desired goods.
  • appropriate (for the desired transport) packing.
  • keep goods ready for pick-up at suitable location.
  • information 'ready for pick-up' to the buyer.

Responsibility of the Buyer:
  • Insurance of the goods effective after being informed 'goods are ready'.
  • Handling export and import declarations, customs and further paperwork.
  • Organisation of loading and transport of the goods.

 

 

Abbreviation:

FCA

Meaning:

Free Carrier

Application:

All types of transport

 

Responsibility of the Seller:

  • Separation of the desired goods.
  • appropriate (for the desired transport) packing.
  • take care of export declaration and customs paperwork.<br>- load goods on transport facility provided by the buyer.

Responsibility of the Buyer:
  • Insurance of the goods effective after being loaded on transport vehicle.
  • Organisation of transport of the goods.
  • Handling import declarations, customs and further paperwork.

 

 

Abbreviation:

FAS

Meaning:

Free Alongside Ship

Application:

Only transport by ship

 

Responsibility of the Seller:
  • Separation of the desired goods.
  • appropriate seaworthy packing.
  • deliver goods to the requested harbour, the requested quai alongside the requested ship at the requested time.
  • take care of export declaration and customs paperwork.

Responsibility of the Buyer:

  • Insurance of the goods effective after the goods being delivered alongside the ship.
  • Organisation of loading the goods onto the ship and further transportganisation des Transports der Ware.
  • Handling import declarations, customs and further paperwork.

 

 

Abbreviation:

FOB

Meaning:

Free On Board

Application:

Only transport by ship

 

Responsibility of the Seller:

  • Separation of the desired goods.
  • appropriate seaworthy packing.
  • deliver goods on board the requested ship.
  • take care of export declaration and customs paperwork.

Responsibility of the Buyer:

  • Insurance of the goods effective after the goods being loaded on the ship.
  • Organisation of the further transport.
  • Handling import declarations, customs and further paperwork.

 

 

Abbreviation:

CFR

Meaning:

Cost and Freight

Application:

Only transport by ship

 

Responsibility of the Seller:
  • Separation of the desired goods..
  • appropriate seaworthy packing.
  • take care of export declaration and customs paperwork.
  • transport the goods by ship to the requested port of destination.

Responsibility of the Buyer:

  • Insurance of the goods effective after the ship arrived in port of destination.
  • Organisation of unloading the goods and further transport.
  • Handling import declarations, customs and further paperwork.

 

 

Abbreviation:

CIF

Meaning:

Cost, Insurance and Freight

Application:

Only transport by ship

 

Responsibility of the Seller:

  • Separation of the desired goods.
  • appropriate seaworthy packing.
  • take care of export declaration and customs paperwork.
  • insuring the goods with 110% of the export goods value in favour of the buyer.
  • transport the goods by ship to the requested port of destination.

Responsibility of the Buyer:
  • Insurance of the goods effective after the ship arrived in port of destination.
  • Organisation of unloading the goods and further transport.
  • Handling import declarations, customs and further paperwork.

 

 

Abbreviation:

CPT

Meaning:

Carriage paid to

Application:

All types of transport

 

Responsibility of the Seller:

  • Separation of the desired goods.
  • appropriate packing.
  • take care of export declaration and customs paperwork.
  • cover the transport costs to the mentioned destination.

Responsibility of the Buyer:

  • Insurance of the goods effective after the goods arrived at destination.
  • Organisation of unloading the goods and further transport.
  • Handling import declarations, customs and further paperwork.

 

 

Abbreviation:

CIP

Meaning:

Carriage, Insurance paid to

Application:

All types of transport

 

Responsibility of the Seller:

  • Separation of the desired goods.
  • appropriate packing.
  • take care of export declaration and customs paperwork.
  • cover the transport costs to the mentioned destination.
  • insuring the goods up to arrival at the agreed destination with 110% of the export goods value in favour of the buyer.

Responsibility of the Buyer:

  • Insurance of the goods effective after the goods arrived at destination.
  • Organisation of unloading the goods and further transport.
  • Handling import declarations, customs and further paperwork.

 

 

Abbreviation:

DAF

Meaning:

Delivered at frontier

Application:

All types of transport

 

Responsibility of the Seller:

  • Separation of the desired goods.
  • appropriate packing.
  • take care of export declaration and customs paperwork.
  • transport of the goods to the first borderline at an agreed border location.

Responsibility of the Buyer:
  • Insurance of the goods effective after the goods arrived at destination.
  • Organisation of unloading and loading of the goods and further transport.
  • Handling import declarations, customs and further paperwork.

 

 

Abbreviation:

DES

Meaning:

Delivered ex ship

Application:

Only transport by ship

 

Responsibility of the Seller:

  • Separation of the desired goods.
  • appropriate seaworthy packing.
  • take care of export declaration and customs paperwork.
  • transport the goods by ship to the requested port of destination.

Responsibility of the Buyer:

  • Insurance of the goods effective after the ship arrived in port of destination.
  • Organisation of unloading the goods and further transport.
  • Abwicklung der Importmeldungen, Zoll und sonstige Dokumente.

 

 

Abbreviation:

DEQ

Meaning:

Delivered ex Quai

Application:

Only transport by ship

 

Responsibility of the Seller:

  • Separation of the desired goods.
  • appropriate seaworthy packing.
  • take care of export declaration and customs paperwork.
  • transport the goods by ship to the requested port of destination.
  • unloading of the goods at  port of destination.

Responsibility of the Buyer:

  • Insurance of the goods effective after the ship arrived in port of destination.
  • Organisation of further transport.
  • Handling import declarations, customs and further paperwork.

 

 

Abbreviation:

DDU

Meaning:

Delivered duty unpaid

Application:

All types of transport

 

Responsibility of the Seller:

  • Separation of the desired goods.
  • appropriate packing.
  • take care of export declaration and customs paperwork.
  • transport of the goods to the agreed destination.

Responsibility of the Buyer:
  • Insurance of the goods effective after the goods arrived at destination.
  • Organisation of unloading of the goods.
  • Handling import declarations, customs and further paperwork.

 

 

Abbreviation:

DDP

Meaning:

Delivered duty paid

Application:

All types of transport

 

Responsibility of the Seller:

  • Separation of the desired goods.
  • appropriate packing.
  • take care of export declaration and customs paperwork.
  • transport of the goods to the agreed destination.
  • Handling import declarations, customs and further paperwork.

Responsibility of the Buyer:

  • Insurance of the goods effective after the goods arrived at destination.
  • Organisation of unloading of the goods.