CFS - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQS)

A Container Freight Station facilitates Exim trade and makes intermodal transportation more effective. It also optimizes the process of consolidating Less than Container Load (LCL) shipments and transporting them as well as handling and storing import and export cargo with appropriate safety measures, documentation formalities and tracking facilities.

A Container Freight Station is important because it offers a centralised location, situated close to or in the vicinity of a port, where importers and exporters can send their LCL shipments with the assurance that their cargo will be securely handled, stored and transported to its destination.

A CFS helps to decongest ports and terminals, frees them of several customs processes and formalities by getting them completed at the CFS itself and helps make operations quick, smooth and seamless.

An Inland Container Depot (ICD) is a warehousing and cargo transit facility just like a Container Freight Station (CFS), but is situated in the hinterlands and not near a port like the CFS. Additionally, a CFS comes under the purview of the customs while an ICD can operate as an independent entity.

A bonded warehouse is a space for import cargo to be stored before customs clearance has been completed. For businesses that might not have the financial wherewithal to pay the requisite customs duty all at once, or have the space to store the entire shipment, the goods can be stored in a customs bonded warehouse and the customs clearance can be completed over time depending on the supply chain requirements and financial feasibility of the business. cargo with appropriate safety measures, documentation formalities and tracking facilities.

Export activities carried out at the Container Freight Station (CFS) include unloading and receiving the goods, customs clearance, stuffing containers, sealing the container, transporting it to the port for export as per schedule.

Import activities carried out the Container Freight Station (CFS) include receiving the container from the port, offload and de-stuff cargo, facilitate cargo clearance and payment of customs duty to be done by the importer, get endorsement from customs, and release the goods to the importer.

Container Freight Station (CFS) charges means the fee that a CFS charges for the various services it provides like receiving cargo, storage, stuffing it onto containers, transporting it to the port as well as de-consolidating import cargo, handling, loading it onto trucks, transporting it to its destination, and many others.