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Freight, Import and Customs Guides for Australian Businesses
Practical, Australia-specific guides written by the people who lodge the entries and chase the containers. No fluff, no gated PDFs, no advice we would not give a client on the phone.
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The four guides most importers need first
If you are new to importing, or you have been importing for years without ever being shown how the numbers work, these four are the place to start. Together they cover who pays for what, what you will be charged, how much duty and GST you will owe, and what will physically fit in a container.
Incoterms Explained
EXW, FOB, CIF, DAP, DDP and the rest — what each one actually commits you to, and which ones cost Australian importers money.
Import Duty & GST
How duty and GST are calculated on Australian imports, with worked examples and the free trade agreement concessions people miss.
Freight Costs Explained
Every charge that appears on a freight invoice, what triggers it, and which ones you can actually control.
Container Sizes & Types
Internal dimensions, capacities, payloads and pallet counts for 20ft, 40ft, high cube, reefer, flat rack and open top.
Freight FAQs
The questions we answer most often, from minimum shipment sizes to what happens when a container is held.
Blog
Commentary and practical notes on importing, exporting, customs and freight markets.
Guides
The complete guide library
Written for Australian importers and exporters, updated as rules and rates change, and deliberately practical. If a guide does not answer your question, ask us and we will answer it directly.
Start here
- Importing to Australia — complete step-by-step guide — permits, classification, duty, Incoterms, freight, documents and clearance, in the right order
- Exporting from Australia — complete step-by-step guide — declarations, EDNs, certification, payment methods and destination requirements
- Freight planning — realistic lead times by lane, how much buffer to allow, and shipment frequency
- Landed cost explained — every line in the number, with a worked duty and GST example
- Demurrage and detention — the two charges that quietly ruin container budgets, and how to avoid them
Customs and compliance
- Import duty and GST — how the customs value becomes a tax bill, and how deferred GST works
- Tariff classification and HS codes — how your duty rate is decided, and why you carry the liability
- Shipping documents explained — what every document must show, and why entries get held
- Australian biosecurity requirements — what triggers inspection, ISPM 15 timber, permits and stink bug season
- Free trade agreement duty claims — claiming origin properly so the concession actually applies
Commercial terms and cost
- Incoterms explained — FOB, CIF, EXW, DDP and where cost and risk actually transfer
- FOB versus CIF for Australian importers — why FOB is usually the better default
- Freight costs explained — every charge in a landed cost and what moves it
- Avoiding demurrage and detention — the two charges that quietly ruin freight budgets
Equipment and ports
- Container sizes and types — internal dimensions, nominal capacities and realistic payloads
- Australian ports guide — Brisbane, Port Botany, Melbourne, Fremantle, Adelaide and Darwin
- Container shipping — FCL and LCL compared, with the honest crossover point
- Out-of-gauge cargo — flat racks, open tops and breakbulk, and what oversized freight does to a quote
Lanes and industries
- Trade route guides — Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Germany, the UK, New Zealand and more
- Importing from China and importing from the USA — Australia’s two largest import lanes
- Industry freight guides — mining, construction, manufacturing, government, retail and medical
- Case studies — how we approach representative shipments
Questions and updates
- Freight FAQs — the questions we answer most often, in one place
- Blog — commentary on rates, rules and market conditions
A note on advice
How to use these guides
Everything here is general information for Australian businesses, written to help you ask better questions. It is not customs, tax or legal advice, and it cannot account for the specifics of your goods, your supplier or your contract. Tariff rates, concessions, biosecurity conditions and free trade agreement rules all change, sometimes at short notice.
Before you commit to a purchase order, get the position confirmed for your actual goods. That is a free conversation with us and it is usually the cheapest twenty minutes in the whole transaction.