How does DAT work?

Delivery at Terminal is used when the seller’s responsibility includes the full delivery of goods up until the end terminal or port of destination, as well as the unloading of the goods. The seller pays for all of the expenses incurred until the place of delivery and the buyer pays for customs clearance and taxes at destination.

‘Terminal’ means a quay, warehouse, container yard or any road for rail, air or road.

As with all of the ‘D’ Incoterms®, the risks and responsibility of goods gets transferred from the seller to the buyer at the same point – the end destination. DAT was specifically designed to meet airport and port deliveries.

For ocean cargo and shipping goods by sea, any discharged containers are then moved to a container yards (CY), which is where containers are stored before they are moved to their final destination. Sellers are responsible for any destination terminal handling charges and the buyer only pays for customs clearance, duties and taxes.

Diagram: DAT  involves the seller delivering the goods up to the destination terminal or port, to then be off-loaded, at which point the liability of goods passes from seller to buyer. Source: InternationalIncoterms.Guru, J Montezuma, Creative Commons BY-SA CC 4.0

Benefits of the DAT Incoterm®

The key advantages of Delivery at Terminal are around convenience and reduced risk to the importer:

1. The supplier delivers goods to the destination place (importer doesn’t need to cover these costs)
2. The risk is transferred from the supplier to the importer once the goods have been dispatched and unloaded at a defined place at the destination
3. The supplier bears the responsibility for most of the carriage/transport of the goods from the origin to the destination
4. Less hassle and organisation for the buyer of goods

Critical issues of DAT:

The moment when goods are discharged from the means of trasport and placed inside the named terminal at destination.

Buyer and Seller Obligations of DAT

Benefits of DAT

The key advantages of Delivery at Terminal are around convenience and reduced risk to the importer:

1. The supplier delivers goods to the destination place (importer doesn’t need to cover these costs)
2. The risk is transferred from the supplier to the importer once the goods have been dispatched and unloaded at a defined place at destination
3. The supplier bears the responsibility for most of the carriage / transport of the goods from the origin to the destination
4. Less hassle and organisation for the buyer of goods

Testimonials

Case Study

Metal Supplier

A receivables facility structured by TFG was implemented so that our end customers in Germany could invoice us on their terms without burdening our cash flow, and we used DAT as the means of transport which was the most effective solution for our deliveries, and working with our Singapore based manufacturers.