Which Incoterms suit international heavy haulage?
FCA, CPT/CIP and DAP are above all suitable for international heavy transports; EXW and DDP are usually unfavourable, because they burden one side with permit, customs and escort obligations that it can barely control in a foreign country. The Incoterms 2020 of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) govern who bears transport, permits, customs, insurance and the transfer of risk – with heavy cargo, where permit costs and escort conditions are high, the right rule is worth real money. What matters is adapting the rule to the parties' actual ability to control, not the other way round.
Why standard rules are tricky with heavy cargo
Incoterms were conceived for container and general cargo, not for 120-tonne packages with a special permit. The key difference: in heavy haulage the permit is a route-specific official procedure that only a service provider with local knowledge can run efficiently. A rule that forces the buyer in the destination country to organise the permit in the country of dispatch – or vice versa – creates exactly the friction that delays heavy transports. Incoterms also only allocate obligations between buyer and seller; they replace neither the permit nor the contract of carriage nor the CMR.
EXW – Ex Works (not recommended)
Under EXW the seller merely makes the goods available; the buyer bears everything from the works onwards – including loading the heavy cargo, all permits and the export. For heavy cargo this is risky: a foreign buyer can hardly organise the German StVO §29 permit and the BF escort itself. FCA, under which the seller arranges loading and export, is the better option.
FCA – Free Carrier (recommended)
FCA shifts the transfer of risk to the moment the goods are handed over to the named carrier – loaded and export-cleared by the seller. That works well when the buyer engages an experienced heavy-cargo forwarder who manages permits and BF escort on both sides. Clear loading responsibility, clean transfer of risk.
CPT / CIP – Carriage (and Insurance) Paid To
Under CPT the seller bears the freight to the named place of destination, but risk transfers as early as handover to the first carrier. CIP adds a transport insurance policy to be taken out by the seller (under Incoterms 2020 at the higher ICC A cover). For heavy cargo of high value the insurance question is central – a standard transport policy does not automatically cover abnormal load risks.
DAP – Delivered at Place (often ideal)
Under DAP the seller delivers to the named place in the destination country, ready for unloading; import clearance is handled by the buyer. For project cargo via the Middle Corridor, DAP is often ideal, because one party – together with its heavy-cargo service provider – steers the entire transport chain including the permits of all transit countries and the ferry booking, while the consignee only handles the local import.
DDP – Delivered Duty Paid (use with caution)
DDP places everything on the seller, including import clearance and import duties in the destination country. On heavy transports to Central Asia or Turkey this is often impractical, because in a foreign customs territory the seller has little scope to act without an EORI equivalent and local representation. Only choose DDP if the service provider demonstrably covers customs clearance in the destination country.
Permit, customs and insurance – who bears what?
The rule of thumb: export formalities lie with the seller from FCA onwards, import formalities with the buyer up to DAP and only from DDP with the seller. The Incoterms do not expressly govern the special permit under StVO §29 – it belongs to the contract of carriage and is borne by the party that organises the transport on the section concerned. Insurance is only an obligation of the seller under CIP/CIF; under all other rules it should be expressly agreed. We advise you independently of the rule chosen, so that permit, T1/TIR customs documents and cover fit together seamlessly.
Practical tip: keep rule and contract of carriage apart
Incoterms govern the relationship between buyer and seller, not the relationship with the carrier. Alongside the trade rule you always need a clean contract of carriage with a CMR consignment note for the road leg and the appropriate customs documents – T1 for Union transit, a TIR carnet for third countries along the route. The most common practical mistake is to treat the Incoterms rule as a conclusive arrangement and to leave permit, insurance and customs status unagreed. That is why on every lane we check whether the chosen rule, the contract of carriage and the customs documents interlock without contradiction – particularly on transports to Turkey or Central Asia, where the A.TR movement certificate and local import rules come into play.
Unsure which rule suits your project? Tell us the lane and the value of the goods: +49 (0)30 2000 8 49 49 or hsnk@zammad.com.