DPU Incoterm: Delivered at Place Unloaded Explained

A seller quotes "DPU buyer's plant" because the customer wants one landed price. The container reaches the plant gate on a Friday afternoon, the buyer's forklift cannot lift the crate, the haulier's driver refuses to wait, and nobody priced a mobile crane. The goods are still the seller's risk, the truck is on detention, and the buyer's import entry is stuck because it never got the freight split it needed.

Delivered at Place Unloaded works well when the seller can actually unload at the named point and the invoice shows each cost leg. Get those two things right and DPU gives the buyer a single delivered price, puts handling damage on the party that controls the handling, and keeps customs values defensible in both the US and India.

• What this guide covers: where delivery, risk and cost stop under the Incoterms 2020 DPU articles, how DPU differs from DAP and DDP, and who does the unloading, the import entry and the insurance.
• What it adds: how US and Indian customs value a DPU price, a two-direction worked example in dollars and rupees, a timestamped failed delivery, and the contract and order-entry checks that keep DPU from going wrong.

DPU in one line: the seller's duty ends with goods on the ground

Under DPU the seller carries the goods to the named place, unloads them from the arriving vehicle, and places them at the buyer's disposal; that is the moment of delivery and of risk transfer. The ICC calls DPU the only Incoterms 2020 rule that requires the seller to unload at destination, and it advises using DAP instead when the seller should not bear unloading risk and cost.

DPU replaced Delivered at Terminal (DAT) in Incoterms 2020. The ICC renamed the rule to make clear that the destination can be any place, not just a terminal, and moved it after DAP in the list because delivery under DAP happens before unloading. A DAT quote carried over from an old price list should therefore be rewritten, with the full address and unloading point spelled out.

The broader Incoterms handover SOP for brokers, carriers and shippers maps dock duties across several rules. This article stays with one rule and answers the questions a founder or supply chain manager asks before agreeing to it: can we unload there, who files what, and how will customs read the price.

Where delivery, risk and cost stop under articles A2, A3 and A9

All three stop at the same instant: when the last package is off the arriving vehicle and standing at the agreed point within the named place. Until then the seller pays and the seller carries the risk; from then on the buyer does, unless the buyer's own default moved risk earlier.

• Named place versus agreed point: the named place is the address in the term, such as a plant in Chakan; the agreed point is the bay, dock or laydown area inside it. If no point is agreed, A4 lets the seller pick the point that best suits it.
• Arriving means of transport: unloading is from whatever vehicle arrives, which may be a truck, a rail wagon or a barge. The seller does not have to move the goods further, such as into a warehouse rack.
• Buyer default under B3: if the buyer fails to give the B10 notice of when or where it will take delivery, risk passes from the agreed date or the end of the agreed period, provided the goods are clearly identified as the contract goods.
• Buyer default on import formalities: the ICC explanatory note says goods held at a port or terminal because the buyer did not clear them stay at the buyer's risk during the hold.

Incoterms 2020 DPU article A2 makes delivery complete only after the seller unloads goods from the arriving vehicle at the agreed point, so a delivery receipt in the seller's transport management system should record the unload finish time, not the gate-in time; a two-hour gap between those timestamps is two hours of seller risk.

Cost allocation follows the same line. Under A9 the seller pays every cost relating to the goods and their transport until they are unloaded and delivered, plus export duties and clearance. The buyer's B9 list contains no unloading item at all, which is the clearest textual difference from DAP, where B9 makes the buyer pay unloading unless the carriage contract put it on the seller.

DPU against DAP and DDP: three destination rules, three unloading answers

All three rules deliver at the destination and none obliges either party to insure. They differ on two questions only: who unloads, and who clears the goods for import. Choose the rule by answering those two questions for the actual site, not by habit.

A sibling article explains why FCA usually beats EXW at the origin end; the same logic runs in reverse here. Put the handling duty on whichever party already owns the equipment and the people at that dock, then price it openly instead of leaving it to whoever happens to be standing nearby.

Unloading at the buyer's site: equipment, crews and access windows

A DPU seller is promising to perform physical work on someone else's premises. That promise needs a written unloading plan agreed before dispatch, because a missing crane or a closed gate on the day is still the seller's risk and the seller's cost.

• Lifting method: state whether the haulier's tail-lift, a hired forklift or a mobile crane does the unloading, with its rated capacity against the heaviest piece and its centre of gravity.
• Site access window: record gate hours, the receiving contact, permits to enter and any induction the buyer requires before a crane can set up.
• Ground and laydown point: the agreed point should be hardstanding that takes the outrigger loads; if the buyer cannot confirm it, name a different point.
• Subcontractor liability: Incoterms decide who bears the risk to the goods, not who is liable for injury or damage to the buyer's building, so the sales contract needs its own indemnity and insurance clause.
• Proof of unloading: a signed unload record with the finish time, photographs and the package count closes delivery under A2 and starts the buyer's risk.

Delivery to a terminal is the simplest DPU case. The terminal operator lifts the container off the vessel or truck as part of a service the seller already buys, so the seller is not sending its own crew. The named place should still identify the terminal, the container freight station or yard, and whether delivery means the container on the ground or the cargo destuffed.

Import clearance stays with the buyer, so a stalled entry shifts risk

DPU leaves import formalities entirely with the buyer under B7(b): the import entry, licences, duties and taxes. A seller who wants to clear goods into the buyer's country should use DDP instead, which the ICC note itself suggests for that case.

In the US the buyer, or its customs broker, normally acts as importer of record and files the entry. In India the importer presents the bill of entry under section 46 of the Customs Act, 1962. Either way, the seller's job is to make the buyer's filing possible by supplying a commercial invoice and packing list that carry every value component customs will ask for, plus advance notice of the vessel and arrival date.

• Hold at the port: when the buyer's entry is late or rejected, the goods sit at the terminal before the seller can unload them at the named place. The ICC note puts the risk during that hold on the buyer, but the seller's carrier still runs demurrage and detention clocks.
• Who pays the waiting: B9 makes the buyer pay additional costs caused by its failure to meet B7, provided the goods are identified. The sales contract should say how the seller invoices those costs and on what evidence.
• Restricted goods: if the goods need an import licence, the seller should not ship until the buyer confirms it holds one, because a seized shipment never reaches the agreed point.

Incoterms 2020 DPU article B7(b) gives the buyer every import formality, so a seller's order-entry rule should block shipment until the buyer's US importer of record or Indian bill of entry filer is named; on a 21-day ocean lane that check should close at least 5 working days before arrival.

Valuing a DPU price at US and Indian customs

A DPU price bundles the goods with ocean freight, destination handling, inland haulage and unloading. Both the US and India value imports by stripping or adding transport costs at a defined point, so the invoice must show each leg separately or the importer pays duty on costs that should not be in the value.

• US import value: the price actually paid or payable excludes transportation, insurance and related services incident to the international shipment, under 19 U.S.C. 1401a(b)(4)(A). Section 1401a(b)(3) also excludes transportation after importation, but only when that cost is identified separately, so a DPU invoice with one delivered figure loses that deduction.
• Indian import value: Rule 10(2) of the Customs Valuation (Determination of Value of Imported Goods) Rules, 2007, as substituted in 2017, adds transport, loading, unloading and handling associated with delivery to the place of importation, plus insurance to that place. That place is defined as the customs station where goods are cleared, so the inland leg and unloading at the buyer's plant fall outside the wording.

Rule 10(2) of India's Customs Valuation Rules, 2007 deems freight at 20% and insurance at 1.125% of FOB value when either cost is not ascertainable, so a DPU invoice hiding both adds 21.125% of FOB to the bill of entry assessable value.

Exports follow similar logic in both countries. A US exporter selling at a delivered price reports Electronic Export Information value by subtracting the cost of loading on the exporting carrier and all freight, insurance and other costs beyond the port of export, under 15 CFR 30.6(a)(17)(ii)(C). An Indian exporter declares the transaction value for delivery at the time and place of exportation under section 14 of the Customs Act, which again means removing the post-port legs of the DPU price.

One machine sold DPU each way, priced in dollars and rupees

The same cost build serves the seller's quote, the export declaration and the buyer's import value; only the cut-off point differs. The figures below are illustrative, using one 40-foot load each way and an exchange rate of ₹88 to the dollar for the rupee columns.

Case A is an Indian pump maker in Coimbatore selling DPU to a buyer's distribution centre in Memphis, Tennessee, via Chennai and Savannah. Case B is an Ohio machine builder selling DPU to a buyer's plant in Chakan, near Pune, via the Port of New York and New Jersey and Nhava Sheva. Destination port charges are left out of the customs columns because their treatment is a broker's call on the facts.

Two lessons come out of the arithmetic. In Case A, an invoice that does not separate the inland leg keeps $2,050 of post-importation trucking in the US value; at an illustrative 2.5% duty rate that is about $51 of avoidable duty per container, small alone but material across a year of loads. In Case B, missing freight and insurance figures inflate the Indian assessable value by $24,116, about ₹21.2 lakh, before any duty rate is applied.

The Indian FOB in Case B is $138,300 because the origin terminal loading stays inside FOB for Indian purposes, while the US EEI value of $137,900 excludes loading on the exporting carrier. Small differences like this are why each declaration should be computed from the same itemised cost table rather than re-keyed from the headline price.

A crane that never arrived: one DPU delivery traced hour by hour

Most DPU disputes start with an unloading plan that existed only in an email. The trace below follows Case B with the crane booking left informal; the times, document numbers and transactions are illustrative.

1. Day 1, 09:40 at Nhava Sheva: the buyer's broker files bill of entry 4471902 using the seller's invoice INV-OH-2231, which shows only the $146,700 DPU price. Assessment applies the deemed 20% freight and 1.125% insurance, and the buyer disputes the duty with the seller by email.
2. Day 3, 16:15 at the CFS: the corrected invoice with a freight split arrives; the broker requests reassessment and out-of-charge follows at 18:50. Two days of port storage accrue, which B9 lets the seller recover only if the delay was the buyer's default.
3. Day 4, 11:30 at Chakan gate: the truck arrives on trip sheet TS-88213. The plant's 5-tonne forklift cannot lift the 11-tonne machine skid, and the crane the seller's forwarder "had on standby" is committed elsewhere.
4. Day 4, 17:00 at bay 2: the haulier charges detention and leaves the trailer. The goods remain on the trailer, not unloaded, so under A2 and A3 they are still the seller's risk overnight in an open yard.
5. Day 5, 10:20 at bay 2: a 50-tonne crane arrives at a premium day rate; unloading finishes at 12:05 and the plant signs unload note UN-0457. Delivery and risk transfer happen here, and the seller absorbs the crane premium and detention.

With a confirmed crane booking tied to the vessel arrival, and an itemised invoice issued with the shipping documents, the same shipment would have cleared on Day 1 and unloaded by noon on Day 2. The control is not complicated: the unloading plan and the cost split are both fields on the sales order, checked before the container leaves Ohio.

Contract wording and order-entry checks that make DPU workable

A DPU term is only as good as the named place and the side documents that support it. Write the term as "DPU [full address, bay or laydown point] Incoterms 2020", then attach an unloading schedule that both parties sign before dispatch.

Seller's cost of choosing DPU over DAP for one delivery

  dC = U + (p x L) + (h x D)

  U  = unloading cost the seller must buy (crew, forklift, crane), in USD or INR
  p  = probability of handling damage during unloading (0.00 to 1.00, from history)
  L  = expected loss if damage occurs, net of the seller's insurance recovery
  h  = expected hours of waiting at the named point beyond the booked window
  D  = detention or crane standby rate per hour

Quote DPU only if the price uplift over DAP is at least dC.
Example (Case B): U = 1,500; p = 0.02; L = 9,000; h = 3; D = 120
  dC = 1,500 + 180 + 360 = $2,040 per delivery

The formula makes the seller price the risk it is accepting rather than treating unloading as a courtesy. Where the buyer refuses to pay an uplift of that size, that is usually a sign the buyer can unload itself and DAP is the better term for both parties.

Order-entry control for DPU sales in the seller's ERP should reject release when the Incoterms 2020 named place lacks an agreed unloading point or the invoice carries one delivered figure; in the illustrative Chakan case those two fields would have prevented 2 days of port storage and an overnight wait on an open trailer.

Insurance, revenue timing and records once the goods are unloaded

Neither party must insure under DPU, yet the seller carries transit and unloading risk to the agreed point, so in practice the seller buys its own cover to that point. The buyer's risk, and the buyer's cover, start only after the unload record is signed.

• Seller's own cover: the policy should run warehouse to the named place including the unloading operation, since a cover that ends at "arrival" leaves the riskiest step uninsured. For handling a claim if something goes wrong, see the marine cargo insurance claim process.
• Revenue timing: control usually transfers late under a delivered term, so goods afloat at period end often remain the seller's inventory. The guide to shipping terms and revenue recognition covers the US and Ind AS indicators.
• Delivery evidence: keep the signed unload note, photos and the haulier's trip record together with the invoice. That bundle answers the buyer's damage claim and supports the revenue cut-off.
• Customs records: keep the itemised cost table used for the export value and the buyer's import value; it is the single document that explains both declarations if either customs authority asks.

When DPU is the right term and when DAP is safer

Use DPU when the seller already controls the unloading, can price it, and can stand behind it with equipment and insurance. Use DAP whenever the buyer has a working dock, and DDP only when the seller can lawfully act as importer in the buyer's country.

Founders choosing an operating model should treat DPU as a service line, not a pricing convenience. If your team can run destination unloading reliably, DPU can win orders that DAP would lose. If you are evaluating software to hold named places, unloading schedules and itemised invoices in one order record, you can share your requirements with us, and the wider logistics and supply chain library covers the neighbouring Incoterms and customs workflows.