The most common reason a container does not move on the day a customer expected is not a truck, a driver or a terminal slot. It is paperwork. A box can be sitting at CN Brampton, released by the rail and ready for pickup, and we still cannot touch it until Canada Border Services has released it and the terminal has lifted the hold. This post walks through what has to happen between the ship docking and our driver hooking the chassis, so you know what to chase and when.
An import container needs two separate green lights before drayage can happen. The first is customs release, which means Canada Border Services Agency has accepted the entry your customs broker filed and has no further interest in the shipment. The second is the carrier or terminal release, which means the steamship line has been paid, the bill of lading has been surrendered, and the rail terminal shows the box as available. Either one missing and the box stays where it is.
Most delays we see are on the first one, and most of those are because the broker did not have what they needed early enough.
A customs broker files the entry with CBSA on your behalf. To do it they need the commercial invoice, the packing list, the bill of lading, the certificate of origin if the goods are claiming a preferential tariff, and any permits the goods require. The broker can file before the vessel arrives. Pre-arrival review is the normal way to do it, and a shipment filed early is usually released electronically before the container is even off the ship.
The ones that go wrong are filed late. If the documents reach the broker after the container has landed at the terminal, the box is already burning its free time at the rail while the entry is being prepared. A few days of that and you are into demurrage, which we covered in avoiding demurrage and detention. Send your broker the documents the day the supplier sends them to you, not the day the ship arrives.
CBSA can select a container for examination. That can be a document review, a scan at the terminal, or a full de-stuff exam at a bonded warehouse where the box is opened and the contents are checked. You do not get to choose and your broker usually cannot speed it up. What matters is that an exam puts the box on hold, the free time at the terminal keeps running in most cases, and the exam and the move to the exam site are billed back to you.
When a box is flagged we tell you right away, because the delivery appointment you booked is not going to hold. If the box gets released late in the day after an exam, we pull it to our yard at 7035 Ordan Drive and deliver first thing the next morning rather than let it sit at the terminal another night.
Once customs is clear, the steamship line has to release the box to the trucker. That means the ocean freight and any destination charges are paid and the original bill of lading has been surrendered, or a telex release or express bill is on file. If the line has not been paid, the terminal will show the container as on hold even though customs is done. This is the one people miss, because it looks like the box is ready in the tracking system and it is not.
At CN Brampton and CP Vaughan the box then shows as available in the terminal system, and we book a pickup slot. The slots fill, so a box that clears at 3 p.m. on a Friday often cannot be pulled until Monday. Clearing early in the week is worth real money.
Our dispatch system keeps the customs paperwork on the order, so when the release comes through from your broker it is attached to the work order the driver sees. Send it to dispatch the moment you have it and the box goes in the queue for the next available slot.
Sometimes a container moves before customs release, in bond, to a bonded warehouse or a sufferance warehouse where the entry gets completed. That is a different move with its own paperwork, and the trucker has to be bonded to do it. We handle in-bond moves to and from sufferance warehouses in the Mississauga and Brampton area, and the container is tracked under its cargo control number until it clears. If your broker suggests an in-bond move to beat terminal demurrage, call us before they file it so the trucking is lined up.
An export container needs a Canadian export declaration filed before it goes to the terminal, and the terminal will refuse the box without the booking from the line and the export clearance on file. The rail terminal also has a cutoff, and a box that misses it rolls to the next vessel. Give us the booking, the cutoff and the export declaration number when you order the empty, and we build the pickup and the return around the cutoff.
Send your documents to your broker the day you get them. Make sure the line is paid before the box lands. Give dispatch the container number, the release and the delivery details together. If a box gets picked for exam, expect the appointment to move and let us know as soon as you hear. Do those four things and the container is on a chassis the first day it is available, which is the only way drayage out of the GTA terminals is ever cheap.
Send dispatch the container number and your broker's contact and we will line up the pickup for the day it releases. Same-day quotes at 289-723-2174.
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