Question 1

What’s the difference between an AWB and a master AWB?

Accepted Answer

A master AWB (MAWB) is the contract of carriage between the consolidator and the carrier; the house AWB (HAWB) is the contract between the consolidator and each shipper on a consol. The MAWB names one routing, one ULD, one rate — the HAWBs map each contributing shipper onto that flight. The shipping line on the invoice references the MAWB; the SME shipper’s own proof of tender references the HAWB. Once an AWB is in flight, Track an AWB to follow the milestone log in real time.

Question 2

What fields must a commercial invoice carry for a clean cross-border tender?

Accepted Answer

A clean commercial invoice carries seller and buyer name/address, country of origin, HS code at the 6-digit level (HS-6), unit and total value, currency, Incoterms, and a declared reason for export. Anything missing — typically a country-of-origin or a unit-value — is a hold at customs before the ULD can be offloaded. Start a tariff-transparent quote so the line items are auditable on the invoice before the AWB is ever issued.

Question 3

How is a packing list different from a commercial invoice?

Accepted Answer

The packing list enumerates what each carton contains, the weight and dimension per piece, and the marks-and-numbers — it’s the physical manifest. The commercial invoice enumerates what each item is worth and the terms it ships under. Customs needs both, and they need to reconcile line by line; a 5% weight variance between the two is enough to flag a consignment for inspection.

Question 4

Do I need a house air waybill on every shipment?

Accepted Answer

A house AWB is required on every consol-shipped leg — the consolidating forwarder creates one per contributing shipper and binds to the MAWB the carrier sees. A direct AWB is only required on non-consol tenders where there is no consolidator in the routing.

Question 5

What is a shipper’s letter of instruction (SLI)?

Accepted Answer

An SLI authorises the forwarder to lodge a customs declaration on the shipper’s behalf — it carries the shipper’s EORI, the broker’s authority, and the country pair. It’s not optional: a missing SLI is the most common reason a same-day tender slips a day into the next-week flight.

Question 6

How granular does my HS code need to be?

Accepted Answer

Cross-border tenders require HS at the 6-digit level (HS-6 / HTSUS-6 in the US). A 4-digit code is enough to clear a basic declaration, but tariff differentials and any free-trade-agreement eligibility are decided at the 6-digit level — a wrong HS-6 is the most common reason a quote-time go becomes a hold-time re-quote. Start a tariff-transparent quote and the HS-6 policy is read off the line, not reverse-engineered after booking.

Question 7

Why is country of origin backed off rather than the port of loading?

Accepted Answer

Country of origin is a tariff fact — it determines the duty rate, the eligibility for FTA preferences, and which sanctions screen applies. The port of loading is an operational fact; it tells the carrier which routing to apply but doesn’t move the duty line. The two are independent and a quote that confuses them is structurally wrong, not just imprecise.

Question 8

What is CASS and why does it show up on westbound tenders?

Accepted Answer

CASS (Cargo Account Settlement System) is the IATA-managed settlement layer for airline-to-agent commissions and a per-ULD surcharge stack that varies by lane and month. ETS is the EU Emissions Trading System surcharge — it applies to flights operating inside the EU/EEA and travels as a per-kg-fuel surcharge. Both are real line items, neither belongs inside the per-kilo headline rate.

Question 9

What makes a cross-border quote “tariff-transparent”?

Accepted Answer

A tariff-transparent quote lays out each cost factor — chargeable weight, lane, fuel, security, country-of-origin duty estimate — on its own line before commit. The SME booker can audit line by line at quarter-end, not after the integrator has closed the master AWB and hidden incidental surcharges inside a single per-kilo number.

Question 10

How does ETS differ from CBAM on a European leg?

Accepted Answer

ETS is the airline-operating carbon surcharge — a per-kg-fuel line item that shows up on the air waybill. CBAM is the carbon border adjustment mechanism that price-protects EU manufacturers against higher-carbon imports; it applies to the goods, not the flight, and shows up on the customs declaration. They’re two different carbon instruments and a clean quote names both.

Question 11

What’s the rule on lithium batteries as cargo?

Accepted Answer

Lithium-ion (UN 3480) and lithium-metal (UN 3090) cells and batteries are accepted on cargo aircraft under IATA DGR section II/II — but only with a shipper’s declaration, a tested 1.2 m drop (UN 38.3), and a state-of-charge cap (30% for batteries alone, no cap for batteries packed with equipment). Standalone lithium-ion on passenger aircraft is forbidden; a missed state-of-charge on a cargo tender is the most common reason a shipment is offloaded at the destination ramp.

Question 12

How do I tell if my consignment is dangerous goods (DGR)?

Accepted Answer

Walk the four-question test IATA publishes: is it radioactive, flammable, explosive, or corrosive? If any answer is yes — including dry ice (UN 1845), magnetised material (UN 2807), or lithium-content above 100 Wh — a shipper’s declaration is required and a DGR-competent acceptance agent must confirm the tender. The rule is non-negotiable; a DGR-consignor that hasn’t been vetted is a flight-wide risk.

Question 13

Is dry ice its own declaration, and how much can I carry?

Accepted Answer

Yes — dry ice is UN 1845 (Class 9) and the consignment must declare the kg of dry-ice per ULD and per parcel. The airline cap is usually 200 kg per ULD commercial and lower on a few passenger-freighter combi routings; exceeding it means a split tender. The consignment’s own outer packaging has to permit CO₂ venting — a sealed carton with dry ice is the textbook failure.

Question 14

What items get excluded from a pharma cold-chain tender?

Accepted Answer

A pharma-cold-chain tender excludes ambient-stable goods (commodities with no GDP-controlled shelf life), biologicals that can’t trace temperature data to a CEIV-aligned TMS, and any consignment without a shipper-side chain-of-custody log. A 2–8 °C lane is a CEIV-Pharma process tender, not an insulated-pack tender — the inclusion test is at the carrier, not the box.

Question 15

Are restricted items the same across all three corridors?

Accepted Answer

No — each corridor has its own restricted list. Cross-border eCommerce (C-01) excludes lithium standalone, weapons, and perishables. Pharma cold-chain (C-02) excludes all DGR incompatible with GDP audit and any commodity without a chain-of-custody log. Underserved-lanes (C-03) excludes anything requiring a standard integrator slot — the corridor is named-capacity on lanes the integrators won’t run on schedule. A cross-corridor reject reason is rarely the rule — different corridors, different rules.

Question 16

When is C-01 the right corridor — SME cross-border eCommerce?

Accepted Answer

C-01 fits parcel-consolidated weight moving on a recurring calendar — a consol from PVG to LAX, a HKG↔JFK replenishment, an IN-bound flow on a DTC brand. The corridor is integrator-priced when the volume is thin; on a tariff-transparent walk-through, C-01 gives the shipper per-ULD tracking and a per-ULD invoice. The line item right for a C-01 tender is observable index risk; the line item wrong is a per-kilo headline that hides CASS, ETS and security surcharges inside it. Pair this with the documentation-basics section when deciding what the invoice has to carry.

Question 17

When is C-02 the right corridor — pharma cold-chain?

Accepted Answer

C-02 fits temperature-controlled volume that needs a per-ULD temperature log — clinical-trial material at 2–8 °C, biologicals at -20 °C, vaccine lots at 2–8 °C. The corridor assumes CEIV-Pharma process discipline and a per-ULD data logger. A consignment that can’t trace to a temperature log doesn’t qualify; it’s a C-01 tender with extra insulation, not a C-02 tender. The HS-6 / country-of-origin rules around clinical-trial imports are covered in the customs-basics section.

Question 18

When is C-03 the right corridor — underserved O/D pairs?

Accepted Answer

C-03 fits origin–destination pairs the integrators won’t run on schedule — second-tier pairings, named-capacity lane commitments, recurrent-but-non-core lanes. The trade is a block-space discount for a frequency commitment: the SME ships on a known departure, on a known day, with predictable exercise of a known option. The corridor’s currency is reliability, not per-kilo rate. The DGR / dry-ice / lithium exclusions that gate C-03 are itemised in the restricted-items section.

Question 19

How do I tell which corridor a shipment belongs to?

Accepted Answer

First, identify whether the consignment is parcel (C-01), temperature-controlled with a per-ULD data log (C-02), or an O/D pair that the integrators won’t run on schedule (C-03). One consignment can only belong to one corridor at a time — the “right” corridor is the first qualifying tier, not a stack of all three. When in doubt, the simplest test is: does the consignment need a controlled-temperature audit? If yes, C-02. If no, does the O/D pair exist for the integrators? If no, C-03. If yes, C-01.

Question 20

How do I start a cold-chain quote?

Accepted Answer

Use the cold-chain variant — it carries the temperature range as its own field (2–8 °C or -20 °C), the GDP / CEIV process readiness as a checkbox, and the per-ULD data-logger requirement as part of the lane intake. For non-temperature-sensitive lanes, /quote is the right entry. The two forms share the same back-end; the differentiation is the intake, not the throughput.

Help & FAQ

Documentation for your next tender.