Your quote will include a line item breakdown of the charges required to move your international freight shipment, which will be invoiced to you at the time of import customs clearance. Please see below for a list of charges that you might expect to see on a quote.
| Line Items for the Movement of Cargo | |
| Origin Trucking | This is for the trucking needed at origin in order to move the goods from the supplier’s location through to the port of departure. |
| Cartage base | This is the base of the trucking fees that may occur at origin or destination. |
| Origin Fees | This is for items and services provided before a shipment has departed the origin seaport or airport. |
| Ocean Freight | This refers to the base rate charged for moving your cargo from the point of origin to an agreed upon destination. |
| Freight Fees | These are fees that are charged based on the freight mode of transportation. These charges are generally incurred for the documentation and administrative process(es) that your shipment goes through. |
| Destination Trucking | This is the base charge for the movement of your goods from the port of arrival/discharge to the final destination. |
| Destination Fees | These are fees that are charged based on the freight mode of transportation. These charges are generally incurred for the documentation and administrative process(es) that your shipment goes through. |
| Container Freight Station Fees | These are charges incurred for the consolidation of your goods at origin and the deconsolidation of your goods at destination, both of which take place at container freight stations (CFSs.) |
| Import Handling Charges | These are charges tied to the import documentation that is needed to process the goods. |
| Import Customs Clearance | This is the fee that our Customs team charges in order to clear your shipment with U.S Customs. |
| Cargo Insurance | This is insurance on your goods in the possible case of loss, damage, etc. of your cargo. |
| Automated Manifest System (AMS) | This is a fee associated with the U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) computerized information transfer system. As a security safeguard, air and ocean freight imports into the United States require an AMS file with complete cargo information. |
| Pier Pass | This is an additional fixed fee that is charged per container for cargo that moves at the ports of Los Angeles or Long Beach. |
| Clean Truck Fee | This is a fee assessed by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as part of the Clear Air Action Plan in an effort to reduce air pollution. |
| Fuel Surcharge | This is a separate, additional fee added above the current contract rate when the cost of fuel exceeds a defined level. |
| Chassis Fee | A chassis is a special trailer or undercarriage used to transport ocean containers over the road. A chassis will be necessary for a shipment traveling by truck and will incur a chassis fee. A tri-axle chassis will be used for overweight FCL shipments traveling by truck. These pieces of equipment are rented from the terminal with a daily charge. |
| Document Fee | This is a fee charged for the processing of documents. |
| Terminal Handling Charge | This is a fee charged by the shipping terminals for the storage and positioning of containers before they are loaded onto a vessel. The charges usually consist of goods handling, unloading the container, container stacking, and crane service. |
| Booking Fee | This is an administration fee from the forwarder. |
| Telex Release Fee | This is the fee that is charged to process the manual electronic release of the goods via telex. |
| VGM Fee | This is the fee that is tied to the Verified Gross Mass (VGM) of the container being shipped and the corresponding documentation. VGM is required at most ports to ensure container weight is well known and distributed evenly across the moving vessel for stability. |
| Handling Fee | This is the line item for the charges tied to the handling of your goods. As an example, for LCL this is tied to the preparation of the pallets and the loading of the goods. |
| EDI Charge | This charge is applied when a forwarder organizes the exchange of electronic data to ports/customs or other government entities that need the information. |
| Line Items for Warehousing & Fulfillment | |
| Inbound Pallet Handling | This is a charge tied to the handling of pallets being delivered into our inbound warehouse network. |
| Storage | This is for the storage of goods within our warehouse network. |
| Case Labeling | This is a charge for the labeling of goods at our warehouse. |
| Transportation to Reserve Storage / Cross-dock | This is a fee for the service used to move goods within the Flexport warehousing network from facility to facility. |
| Receiving Fee | This is the fee charged by our network for the goods to be received at the warehouse. |
| Fulfillment Fees | These are the costs associated with fulfilling your merchandise based on the requirements indicated for your goods. |