Cargo Opened for Customs Inspection: What to Check After Release

A shipment that has cleared customs is not always the shipment that left the supplier. Some consignments are selected for physical inspection, and in the course of it packages may be opened, goods taken out and looked at, and the cargo closed up again. There is nothing wrong with that in itself, since it is part of importing. But repacked cargo is more likely to arrive with missing items, mixed cartons or damaged wrapping, and you need to know what you are looking at when the container reaches your site.

What to ask before delivery

Which shipments are inspected, how, and what paperwork is issued all follow customs requirements, so ask your customs broker. The questions worth putting to the broker before the container is delivered are practical ones:

• Was this shipment opened or inspected, and where?
• Which seals were applied afterwards, and what are their numbers?
• Is there a record of the inspection that you can have a copy of, as permitted?
• Were any packages taken out for sampling, or left at the terminal?

Write the answers down. They tell your inspector what to look for. Do not expect the broker to answer every question, since some information may not be available to him. What matters is to ask early and to note what was said, and when.

Signs of repacking

When the cargo arrives, look at it with this in mind.

• Seals: the number differs from the one on the shipping documents. That is expected after an inspection, but it must match what the broker told you.
• Tape and strapping: cartons closed with a different tape from the rest of the lot, tape laid over the original, or strapping missing.
• Labels: labels covered, torn or stuck back on, or shipping marks hidden.
• Stacking: cartons no longer in the pattern shown on the packing list, or pallets that lean or have been wrapped again.
• Contents: items placed differently inside the carton, loose accessories, missing manuals or inner packaging.

One sign proves nothing. A different tape on a single carton may come from the factory itself, but new tape, a re-stuck label and different stacking together in one part of the load form a pattern worth recording. The opening may also have covered a whole pallet rather than a carton here and there, so look at the pallet as a whole.

Photograph each sign together with the carton label, and record its position in the container.

A conditional example

A shipment of 120 cartons arrives. Seven of them carry brown tape, while the rest have the supplier's clear tape. You open all seven and count the contents against the packing list: five are complete and two are each short by 2 units. The record reads: "7 cartons re-taped; 2 of them 2 units short each, total 4 units; photographs 31 to 44." You do not write that anybody took anything. You send the facts to the broker, who is the person able to ask the right party what happened to the goods.

Keep the claims separate

If goods are missing or damaged after a customs inspection, the cause, and the party you should speak to, differ from those in a supplier's packing error or a carrier's handling damage. Go to the broker first, with the record, and ask how to proceed. Do not send a shortage notice to the supplier as though the packing were at fault until you know whether the cartons were opened on the way. Mixing the two makes the supplier's reply easy and your own position weak.

What a written record adds

Even when nothing is wrong, a short note that the cargo showed signs of having been opened, with photographs, protects you. If a problem appears later, say when the goods are sold on, you can show that the condition on arrival was already recorded, and that the cause lay somewhere other than your own warehouse. Keep the note with the shipment file, together with the broker's answers to the questions above.

In short

CargoChek does not handle customs procedures; those remain with your broker and with customs requirements. What we do on arrival is count the cargo, check its condition and photograph the signs of repacking or opening, so that you can discuss the facts with your broker on solid ground.