Bonded and in-bond trucking in Miami

The three in-bond entries, in plain words

An Immediate Transportation entry, an IT, moves uncleared freight from the port where it arrived to another port, where it will actually be entered and cleared. A Transportation and Exportation entry, a T&E, moves freight through the United States to be exported from a different port; it was never destined for the US market at all. An Immediate Exportation entry, an IE, sends freight back out from the same port it arrived at.

Your customs broker or forwarder files the in-bond in ACE. The carrier hauls it. Out of PortMiami and Port Everglades the short IT runs a few miles to a bonded warehouse or a container freight station in Miami-Dade or Broward; the long one runs up the state to Jacksonville or beyond, and a T and E leaves the country from a port somewhere else entirely. Knowing which of the three you are holding tells everyone what happens at the far end, and it is the first thing to say when you ask for a rate.

The clock and the bond

In-bond freight has 30 days to be delivered to CBP at the destination or export port, 60 by barge. Time the government spends examining the freight does not count against it, but nothing else stops the clock, and diverting the move or filing a new in-bond does not restart it. Arrival must be reported to CBP within two business days. Miss the window and it becomes what the regulation calls an irregular delivery, which means liquidated damages assessed against the bond.

The bond is the other half. Moving in-bond freight requires a CBP custodial bond, the Activity Code 2 bond that covers bonded carriers, cartmen and warehouses, and every in-bond move on this network runs under one. It is also why the cheapest quote in your inbox may not be a legal option for this particular load: plenty of perfectly good drayage outfits simply cannot touch bonded freight.

The 2017 rewrite, and the second deadline nobody mentions

The in-bond process people describe from memory is usually the pre-2017 one. CBP Decision 17-13, published September 28, 2017, rewrote it. The paper CBP Form 7512 was eliminated and the in-bond application became an electronic filing in ACE. The transit time was standardised at 30 days for every mode except pipeline, with barge at 60, replacing a patchwork of port-by-port practice. Arrival has to be reported to CBP within two business days, along with the FIRMS code for where the freight physically is, and failing to report it is itself an irregular delivery even if the truck was on time. ACE now links each leg to the last, so a second in-bond closes the first automatically and a diversion is visible rather than quiet.

Here is the part that catches people, because the 30-day transit clock gets all the attention: once the shipment arrives, you have 15 calendar days to enter it, export it or admit it to a foreign-trade zone. Arriving inside the window is not the finish line. A box that lands at a bonded warehouse on day 12 of 30 and then sits while someone decides what to do with it has a second deadline running that nobody set a reminder for, and that one is measured from arrival.

Neither clock is ours to file against, and neither is your warehouse's. The in-bond belongs to whoever filed it. What we can do is tell you the arrival date we reported and hold you to the calendar, which is usually all it takes.

Seals, and why the driver will not just open the doors

The container is sealed at origin and the seal must arrive intact. Only a responsible agent of the carrier may break a seal in transit, only for safety or preservation of the freight, and the replacement seal gets reported to CBP. Bonded cargo sharing a trailer with ordinary freight carries warning labels so nobody handles it as ordinary freight by mistake.

This is why a bonded move is planned rather than improvised. The receiver cannot peek, the driver cannot cross-load at will, and a well-meaning warehouse that opens the box early has just created a customs problem where there was none.

Where it goes when it is not going far

A lot of in-bond freight is not crossing the country; it is going a few miles, off PortMiami or Port Everglades to a bonded warehouse or a container freight station somewhere in Miami-Dade or Broward, to sit until someone clears it or re-exports it. Our warehouse sits a short run from the ports with over 50 dock doors, which makes the short bonded shuttle, terminal to door, one of the most routine moves we run.

If the freight has already cleared and just needs to move, none of this applies and you want ordinary container drayage. If you are not sure whether it has cleared, say so and it gets checked before anyone books a truck, rather than found out at the gate.

Where in-bond moves go wrong, and how each one is avoided

The wrong entry type. Someone files an IT because the freight is moving, when the freight is actually leaving the country and wanted a T&E, or the reverse. Changing it afterwards is a filing problem at the far end and it does not restart the clock. Say what happens to the freight at destination when you ask for the rate, not what vehicle you want, and the entry type follows from that.

The seal. It has to arrive intact, only a responsible agent of the carrier may break one in transit and only for safety or preservation, and a replacement gets reported. The failure mode is almost never a driver: it is a well-meaning warehouse that opens the box on arrival because the paperwork looked like an ordinary delivery. Tell the receiving facility in writing that the freight is in-bond before it arrives, and mark the delivery order.

The quiet delay. In-bond freight that sits waiting on a customs decision, a payment, or a warehouse slot is still burning the 30-day transit clock and then the 15-day clock after arrival. Government examination time does not count against transit, but nothing else stops it, and diverting the move or filing a fresh in-bond does not reset it. If a move is going to stall, the answer is usually to arrive and start the second clock deliberately rather than to leave the freight in transit hoping.

The one that actually costs money is an irregular delivery: late arrival, an unreported arrival, a broken seal without a report, freight that cannot be accounted for. It is assessed as liquidated damages against the custodial bond, which means it lands on the bonded party rather than on whoever caused it, and it is a slow, documented argument to mitigate afterwards. Every item above is cheaper to prevent than to petition, which is the entire reason a bonded move is planned in advance instead of improvised at the gate.