How to book an ocean container. From the quote to the empty return in eight steps.

Step 1: Choose FCL or LCL and the container size

Full container when the cargo fills most of a box or must stay sealed. Shared container for a few pallets.

FCL (full container load) gives you the whole container: the supplier loads and seals it at origin, and nobody opens it until it reaches your door or a customs exam. LCL (less than container load) puts your pallets in a container with other importers’ cargo. It costs less for small volumes but adds a consolidation warehouse at each end and a week or more of handling. From roughly 10 pallets or 15 cubic meters, FCL is usually the cheaper and faster choice. Under that, international pallet shipping prices shared container space and air side by side.

The three dry container sizes you will be offered:

• 20 ft standard (20DV): about 33 cubic meters, roughly 10 standard pallets on the floor. The box for dense, heavy cargo.
• 40 ft standard (40DV): about 67 cubic meters, roughly 20 to 21 pallets on the floor.
• 40 ft high cube (40HC): about 76 cubic meters, the same floor as a 40DV with an extra foot of height. The default for most consumer goods.

Weight is governed by the truck, not the ship. US road limits cap cargo at about 44,000 lb in a 40 ft container and about 38,000 lb in a 20 ft. Heavier loads need a tri axle chassis and an overweight permit on the drayage leg, so tell the booking the real weight.

Step 2: Settle the Incoterm with your supplier

The Incoterm on your purchase order decides who books each leg and where the risk transfers. Get it onto the commercial invoice before anyone books a vessel.

• FOB (free on board) origin port. The most common term for Asia imports. The supplier trucks the loaded container to the port and clears export; you book the ocean leg and everything after it.
• EXW (ex works). You book the pickup at the factory as well, plus export clearance. More control, more paperwork at origin.
• CIF or CFR. The supplier books the vessel to the US port. You take over at arrival: customs entry, drayage and delivery. Watch for destination charges that the supplier’s forwarder bills at arrival.
• DDP (delivered duty paid). The supplier handles everything to your door including duty. Rare for containers and hard to audit.

Step 3: Gather the booking details

A container booking prices in seconds when it carries the full lane. It goes to a quote desk when it does not. Have these ready:

• Origin port, as a city or its UN/LOCODE (Shanghai, Ningbo, Shenzhen, Ho Chi Minh City, Nhava Sheva, Kaohsiung, Busan).
• Destination: a US ZIP for port to door, or a US port for port to port.
• Cargo ready date: the day the supplier can hand over the loaded container.
• Container size and count.
• Commodity description and HS code (the tariff classification that sets your duty rate).
• Gross weight and volume, and whether anything is hazardous (dangerous goods need a declaration and limit the carriers).
• Importer of record: the legal name, address and EIN that goes on the customs entry.

Step 4: Get the quote and read what it includes

Ocean quotes come in three shapes: port to port, port to door, and door to door. Port to port looks cheapest and leaves the most to add. Ask for port to door and check that the price itemizes:

• Ocean freight for the container on the named sailing.
• Origin charges: terminal handling, documentation and export filing.
• Destination charges: terminal handling, delivery order, and the customs entry and ISF filing fees if the forwarder files them.
• Drayage from the terminal to your door, with the chassis days it includes.

Four things are billed to the importer and never sit inside a freight rate: the duty on the goods, the merchandise processing fee (MPF), the harbor maintenance fee (HMF), and any customs exam. The customs bond, single entry or continuous, is a fifth line you buy once. On Warp the booking options show the ocean leg, origin, destination and drayage as separate figures, and the licensed forwarder partners that carry the ocean leg file the entry and ISF; duty bills to you after arrival.

Transit is part of the price. On the Shanghai to Los Angeles lane, the September 2026 captures ran 18 to 39 days port to door depending on the tier; Shanghai to the New York area ran 28 to 43. Faster tiers cost more. Pick the tier against the date the goods need to be on your floor.

Step 5: Book the sailing

Confirming the quote books space on a named vessel and voyage. The booking confirmation is the document the supplier needs, and it carries three deadlines that decide whether your container makes the ship:

• Cargo cutoff (CY cutoff): the last day the loaded container can be gated into the origin terminal.
• Documentation cutoff (SI cutoff): the deadline for the shipping instructions that become the bill of lading.
• VGM cutoff: the verified gross mass of the loaded container has to be declared before loading.

Send the confirmation to the supplier the day you get it. Their trucker picks up an empty container from the depot, the factory loads and seals it, and the trucker returns it to the terminal before the cargo cutoff. Missing a cutoff rolls the container to the next sailing, usually a week later.

Step 6: File the paperwork

Five documents move every container into the US:

• ISF (Importer Security Filing, the 10+2). Due to US Customs at least 24 hours before the container is loaded on the vessel at origin. Late filings carry a penalty. Your forwarder or customs broker files it from the supplier’s and the carrier’s data.
• Commercial invoice: seller, buyer, Incoterm, HS codes, unit values and currency.
• Packing list: cartons per pallet, weights and dimensions, matched to the invoice.
• Bill of lading: the carrier’s receipt and the title document. An original has to be surrendered to release the box; a telex or express release avoids couriering paper.
• Customs entry: filed by a licensed customs broker before arrival under a single entry bond or a continuous bond. The entry is where duty, MPF and HMF are calculated.

Step 7: Track the container and clear customs

Track by container number or bill of lading number. The milestones that matter: gated in at origin, loaded, departed, any transshipment port, arrived, discharged, customs released, freight released, and available for pickup. The last two are the gate: the terminal will not release a container until customs has cleared it and the ocean carrier has confirmed the freight is paid.

The terminal grants a few free days after discharge. The last free day is the most important date in the whole move. Demurrage starts the next morning and compounds daily, so the drayage pickup should be booked before the vessel arrives, not after.

Step 8: Pull the container and return the empty

Drayage is the truck move from the terminal to your door. The carrier pulls the box on a chassis, delivers it, and either waits while you unload (a live unload, usually two free hours) or drops the container and comes back for the empty (a drop and pick, which costs more but takes the pressure off your dock). The empty has to be back at the port inside the carrier’s free days or per diem runs. The full drayage process is at /how-to-book-drayage.

If the container is going to several destinations, skip the door delivery: send it to a transload dock, have it unloaded onto pallets, and ship LTL from there. On Warp that is port pickup from 10 US container gateways, container unloading and palletization at a Warp dock, storage by the pallet day, and LTL distribution to every destination, booked as one plan.

How to book an ocean container on Warp

An origin port, a container size and a US ZIP. The booking options land priced.

• In the form above, keep Shanghai or pick another origin port, and keep the 40 ft high cube or change the size and count.
• Type the US ZIP the container is going to.
• Review the booking options. Each one names its sailing, its transit, and the ocean, origin, destination and drayage figures.
• Book. Licensed forwarder partners carry the ocean leg and file the ISF and the customs entry; duty, MPF and HMF bill to you after arrival.
• Everything after the box lands runs on the Warp network: drayage from the terminal, unloading and palletization at a Warp dock, and LTL to your stores or customers.

Common container booking mistakes

• Comparing a port to port rate with a port to door rate. Add the destination charges and drayage before deciding.
• Filing the ISF late. The 24 hour rule is counted from loading at origin, not from arrival.
• Booking the drayage after the vessel arrives. The last free day arrives faster than a trucker can be scheduled.
• Overweight in a 40 ft. The ocean carrier accepts it; the US road does not. Split dense cargo across two 20 ft boxes.
• An original bill of lading in the wrong city. Ask for a telex release unless a letter of credit requires paper.
• A door delivery for cargo bound for ten stores. Transload and ship LTL instead of unloading one container ten times.