DPU
Also known as: Delivered at Place Unloaded, DAT
DPU, Delivered at Place Unloaded, means the seller delivers and unloads the goods at the agreed place. It is the only Incoterm under which the seller has an unloading obligation.
Who arranges what under DPU?
The seller arranges the whole carriage, files the export declaration, brings the goods to the agreed place and unloads them there. Only after unloading does the risk pass. Until that moment damage, loss and delay in transit are for the seller, including damage during unloading itself. The buyer files the import declaration and pays the duties and VAT, as under DAP. Unloading is the only extra DPU places on the seller. If the seller has no forklift, no crane and no access at that place, they take on an obligation they cannot perform. DPU applies to any mode, including own transport. The place may be a terminal, a warehouse, a construction site or a quay, as long as the seller can actually unload there. That is why the name changed from DAT to DPU in 2020: the restriction to a terminal came off.
What changed compared with DAT?
DPU took the place of DAT, Delivered at Terminal, in Incoterms 2020. The substance has largely stayed the same; the restriction to a terminal has been dropped. Contracts that still say DAT [terminal] (Incoterms 2010) are valid if both parties meant 2010, but new contracts should have DPU in them. The place of delivery may now be any place, including a warehouse or a construction site, as long as the seller can unload there. The name change makes that explicit. Anyone still writing DAT in a contract under Incoterms 2020 is using a term that no longer exists in that edition. In the ICC order DPU sits before DDP, after DAP. That is not an earlier transfer point. DAP and DPU deliver at the same named place; DPU only sits later because the seller also unloads there. Charts that draw DPU at a warehouse and DAP further on at the buyer are drawing two places.
What should you watch under DPU?
The seller must be sure they can unload at the named place. If they have no equipment, no access or no staff there, the unloading obligation is a risk they cannot control. A construction site without a crane, a warehouse with a time window they cannot make, or a terminal where only the consignee may unload, makes DPU unworkable. If that is the case, use DAP and leave unloading with the buyer. That difference is the only reason both terms exist side by side. Anyone who agrees DPU and then lets the buyer unload because the driver has no forklift has done DAP under another name, with a risk point that no longer holds if something falls. Record in the contract what is present at the place: loading dock, forklift, crane, time windows, permission to enter the site. Also record who pays waiting time and standing charges if unloading cannot take place. On project cargo a missed unloading is a day of crane hire, and that bill belongs with the party who had the duty.
What does DPU mean for the customs value?
The DPU price contains carriage to the destination and unloading there. On import the intra-EU carriage and the unloading costs may come off the customs value, provided they appear separately from the invoice or the contract of carriage. Duties and VAT are not in it; the buyer pays those on the import declaration. That makes a specified invoice under DPU even more valuable than under DAP, because one extra cost item may be deducted. Without a specification you pay import duty on unloading costs incurred in the Netherlands. On heavy machines or project cargo that unloading is a substantial amount, not a rounding. On the import declaration the named place is the destination in the country of import, as under DAP. The difference sits in what the price contains, not in where the place lies. DPU terminal Rotterdam and DAP terminal Rotterdam are the same place with a different content: one price contains the unloading, the other does not.
What do you agree about the place of unloading?
Because the seller must unload, they need to know what awaits them there. Is there a loading dock, a forklift, a crane? May a truck enter the site and within which time windows? Who reports the shipment at the gate, and who holds the unloading permission if the goods are still under a T1? Record that in the contract, together with who pays waiting time and standing charges if unloading cannot take place. On project cargo and heavy machines that is not a detail: a missed unloading costs a day of crane hire. If the seller cannot carry that uncertainty, DAP is the better choice and you leave unloading with the buyer. Name the place down to the address, not down to the city. DPU Rotterdam leaves open whether the seller unloads at the terminal, at a depot or at the consignee, and each of those places has different rules for access and equipment. DPU [full address], Unloaded by seller (Incoterms 2020) leaves no room.
How does DPU appear on the import declaration?
On the import declaration you enter DPU as the delivery term, with the named place of destination in the country of import. Customs reads from that that the price contains carriage to that place plus unloading. The inland carriage and the unloading costs may come off the customs value if they appear separately. Ask on the invoice for three lines: goods, carriage to the EU border, carriage and unloading after that. Without that build-up the whole DPU amount stays in the value. At an audit the question is not whether unloading is in the price, but which part of it was incurred after entry, and that cannot be said without a split. DPU is not DDP. Duties and VAT do not belong in the price and not in a deduction. Anyone putting DPU on the declaration while the invoice says DDP, or the other way around, corrects the value in the wrong direction. Check the three-letter code on the invoice before the declaration goes out.
Which documents and pitfalls belong with DPU?
The document set is the same as under DAP, plus proof that unloading has taken place: a signed CMR, a tally, a warehouse receipt. The buyer files the import declaration and needs the papers before arrival if the goods already have to be declared on entry, or at unloading if they travel to the place under T1. The first pitfall is agreeing DPU at a place where the seller cannot unload. The second is still writing DAT under Incoterms 2020, a term that no longer exists in that edition. The third is confusing the risk point: until after unloading, damage is for the seller, including a pallet that falls off the forklift. Use DPU only if the seller actually does the unloading, with their own people or with a hired crew working for them. Let the buyer unload and it is DAP, and the contract must say that too. A term that does not match who drives the forklift is a dispute at the first damage.