Seller delivers to a named carrier — ideal for couriers, air freight and containerised sea freight.
Free Carrier (FCA) requires the seller to deliver the goods to a named carrier or another nominated person at a specified place. If the named place is the seller's premises, the seller is responsible for loading onto the collecting vehicle. If delivery is to any other place (e.g. a freight depot or airport), the seller is not responsible for unloading. FCA is suitable for all transport modes and is particularly recommended for air freight, road freight, and containerised sea shipments where the precise point of loading into a container matters. Incoterms 2020 added an option allowing the buyer to instruct their bank (under documentary credit) to issue an on-board bill of lading to the seller after loading — addressing a longstanding documentary issue.
FCA is the recommended term for courier shipments (DHL, UPS, FedEx, DPD, GLS), air freight, and FCL/LCL sea shipments where a freight forwarder handles the main leg. It gives the buyer control over carrier selection and freight costs while keeping the seller responsible for export clearance — which they are better placed to handle as the exporter of record.
FCA is not ideal when the buyer is inexperienced and wants the seller to manage all logistics end-to-end (use DAP or DDP instead). It is also not appropriate for bulk commodities loaded directly onto vessels at a port berth — use FAS or FOB for those.
No. FOB is only appropriate for sea and inland waterway freight where goods are physically loaded onto a named vessel. Courier shipments move through carrier hubs and are never 'on board a vessel' in the traditional sense. FCA correctly describes courier shipments: the seller hands goods to the carrier (the courier company), and risk transfers at that handover point.
The seller handles export customs clearance under FCA. This is one of the key advantages over EXW — the seller, as the exporter of record, can obtain the export declaration needed to support VAT zero-rating.
The named place is the specific location where delivery to the carrier occurs. It could be the seller's warehouse, a carrier collection depot, an airport cargo terminal, or any other agreed point. The more precisely defined the named place, the less ambiguity about when risk transfers.
Yes, and ICC specifically recommends FCA over FOB for containerised sea freight. Under FOB, risk transfers when goods cross the ship's rail — but containers are handed to the carrier at an inland container depot, long before loading onto the vessel. FCA accurately captures this modern container logistics reality.
Incoterms 2020 added a mechanism for the buyer to instruct their carrier to issue an on-board bill of lading to the seller after the container is loaded. This solved the problem where banks under documentary letters of credit required an on-board B/L, but under FCA the seller has already lost control of the goods. The 2020 update allows FCA to work with L/C financing.
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