Freight and customs terms explained

Freight and customs terms explained

Full Container Load (FCL)

A shipment that fills a whole shipping container by itself. It's the usual choice once you have enough volume to justify a full container, typically a 20ft or 40ft box. A household move with a full 20ft container of furniture would normally go as FCL.

Less than Container Load (LCL)

A shipment that shares a container with cargo belonging to other shippers, and pays only for the space it uses. It suits smaller loads that wouldn't fill a container on their own. A handful of boxes and a sofa moving from Miami to San José is a typical LCL shipment.

TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit)

The standard measure of container capacity, based on a 20-foot container. Carriers and ports use it to talk about how much cargo a ship or terminal handles.

CBM (cubic metre)

A measure of volume used to price freight, worked out from a shipment's length, width and height. LCL shipments and courier quotes are often priced per CBM. A few pieces of furniture might come to only two or three CBM, which is why they travel LCL.

Bill of Lading

The document a carrier issues for an ocean shipment, acting as a receipt for the goods and the contract for carrying them. Your customs broker (agente aduanal) needs a copy before they can submit your customs declaration. Without the Bill of Lading, along with the commercial invoice and packing list, clearance at the Port of Caldera or Port of Limón cannot begin.

Demurrage

A daily charge from the shipping line for leaving a container at the port past the free time it allows, usually because customs clearance or collection has taken longer than expected. Delays in getting a customs broker appointed, or missing paperwork, are common reasons a container starts running up demurrage.

HS Code (Harmonised System Code)

A standard numeric code that classifies exactly what a product is for customs purposes. The code determines the import duty rate applied to a shipment's value.

TICA

Costa Rica's customs technology platform, used by the customs authority to process import and export declarations. A customs broker submits your declaration through TICA on your behalf. See the customs clearance guide for how a declaration moves through TICA once your broker has your documents.

Customs broker (agente aduanal)

The licensed professional who submits your customs declaration to TICA and manages clearance at the port. Costa Rican law requires most commercial and many personal shipments to go through one.

Menaje de casa

The customs procedure for declaring household goods brought into Costa Rica by people moving here. It is not an exemption on its own: duty is waived only for people who hold a separate exemption, such as the one Ley 9996 gave investor, rentista and pensionado residents during its first five years. A retiree shipping furniture would declare it under menaje de casa, then check with Hacienda or a customs broker whether any duty exemption is still open to them.

Incoterms (International Commercial Terms)

A set of standard trade terms that fix exactly where the seller's responsibility for cost and risk ends and the buyer's begins during shipping. They matter because they decide who pays for freight, insurance and duty, and at what point.

CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight)

An Incoterm under which the seller pays for shipping and insurance to the destination port, and Costa Rican import duty is calculated on this combined CIF value.

FOB (Free on Board)

An Incoterm under which the seller's responsibility ends once the goods are loaded onto the ship at the origin port, and the buyer takes on the cost and risk of the voyage from there.

DAP (Delivered at Place)

An Incoterm under which the seller arranges and pays for transport to an agreed destination, but the buyer is responsible for import duty and customs clearance once it arrives.

DDP (Delivered Duty Paid)

An Incoterm under which the seller handles everything, including import duty and customs clearance, so the goods arrive ready for the buyer with nothing further to pay or arrange.