These are supplements, not substitutes. Every explanation on this site stays public and free to read. These checklists are the working documents behind those explanations — the lists you print, mark up in a meeting, and hand to whoever owns the gap.
Gated download, email required
The dimensions and weights where container stops working and breakbulk starts.
Give a work email and the full sheet opens on the page — printable and saveable as a PDF from your browser. No sequence is triggered by the download.
Get the threshold sheetGovernance, records and controls
A governance and readiness checklist for companies deciding whether they are organised enough to run a duty drawback programme — data, records, ownership, controls, training and retention. It is not an eligibility checklist and makes no determination about any shipment, entry or claim.
Who it is for: Trade compliance leads, controllers, supply-chain directors and operations managers at importers and manufacturers who are considering, restarting or auditing a drawback programme.
Where quoted cost and real cost diverge
The line items that turn a clean quote into an ugly invoice: origin and destination charges, CFS handling, demurrage and detention, equipment, inland, duty assumptions, customs timing, exceptions and delivery constraints. Built for people who have to defend a landed-cost number.
Who it is for: Buyers, sourcing and category managers, controllers and operations leads who approve freight quotes and then have to explain the variance.
Before the first crane picks
The pre-move discipline behind out-of-gauge, flat-rack, breakbulk and project cargo: verified dimensions and weight, centre of gravity, lifting and lashing, equipment and terminal capability, route survey, permits, vessel mode, insurance and final-mile constraints.
Who it is for: Project managers, plant and equipment engineers, exporters of machinery, and logistics leads planning a heavy-lift, oversized or breakbulk move.
Where container stops working and breakbulk starts
The dimensions and weights at which standard container equipment stops being the right answer, and the questions that decide flat rack, open top, breakbulk, ro-ro or heavy lift instead. Reference figures only: confirm every limit against the actual equipment, vessel and terminal offered on your sailing.
Who it is for: Exporters of machinery, plant and equipment engineers, project managers and logistics leads sizing a move before they ask for a rate.
Trade-compliance content on this site is educational and is not customs, legal or tax advice. Raja Torain is not a licensed customs broker and does not file customs or drawback claims.
If a line on one of these checklists has no owner at your company, that is usually the conversation worth having.
Or keep reading: freight answers, operating checklists or the Logistics Decision Brief.
About the author
Raja Torain
International logistics and trade operations practitioner. Writes about freight forwarding and NVOCC operations, complex and project cargo, tariff and landed-cost exposure, and the records behind duty drawback programmes. More about Raja.