Shipping Goods Back: US Customs Fees

[taxout]

I'm trying to get a handle on all the costs involved in shipping a full container of household goods back to the US. It's not easy!

 

Looking into this, one expense I hadn't expected to find is a customs fee for a full search of the container, known as an A-TCET inspection.

By computer or by random or by some other process, your container can be selected for an A-TCET inspection, in which case it's trucked under bond to a private facility under contract with customs, where everything is unloaded and set out for customs inspection. While you don't pay for the time of the customs inspector himself, you do bear all the charges of moving and unloading your container, including all sorts of miscellaneous fees of the inspection facility, as well as demurrage on the container.

 

From what I gather, if your container is selected for an A-TCET inspection, these additional costs can add thousands of dollars to your shipping expense.

 

This seems to add the element of a reverse lottery to shipping back to the US: if your number comes up, you PAY. And it makes it hard to estimate just what total shipping costs will be. Of course it also introduces the risk of breakage and damage if everything is unloaded and opened.

 

Has anyone encountered this inspection cost when returning to the US? I'd like to get some sense from others of the likelihood of having to pay it and the average cost. And whether the inspection damaged any goods.

[Dan O]

The A-TCET inspection is primarily to catch contraband or items that present a security issue or threat for the USA. They target specific types of importer that suddenly change the types of materials that they are importing or know trafficing or terrorist areas. The chance of you being subjected to this type of inspection as a 1 time shipper of household goods is very low. If you are using a reputable export broker\company to handle your FCL then he will be able to tell you the average cost of this type of inspection and the chance of it occurring. Key here is proper documentation of the contents and the quality of the company you use. Don't go with a low ball company just because they are cheap. Back in 2017 the cost on average was about $3900 for a full container inspection. If they have to do a more intrusive inspection where they dismantle the contents for hidden items then it could be much more. I suspect your not shipping questionable items with your household goods and you're not a repetitive importer of goods for sale or a highly questionable area like a known drug exporting  or terrorist area which is in general where they are looking.

[taxout]

Thanks, that's what I was hoping. I asked because I read suggestions on some forums that household goods shipments were at higher risk of being picked out than commercial shipments. And that maybe Asian ports in general raised a bit of a red flag.

 

It's just that the risk of an extra $4000-5000 fee, maybe more, starts to change the calculus whether to ship a whole apartmentful of stuff.

[Dan O]

I can understand the concern. It's a lot of extra expense that would be unexpected. They typically average between 3 to 5 % of containers. Given the number of containers that are arriving and the manpower required they don't waste their time needlessly as it's pretty labor intensive. The key is a good export broker company with proper detailed documentation.