FCA is often described as the modern, multimodal successor to FOB — both hand risk to the buyer relatively early, but FCA works for any transport mode while FOB is sea-only.
| FCA — Free Carrier | FOB — Free on Board | |
|---|---|---|
| Transport mode | Any mode | Sea/inland waterway only |
| Risk transfers | When goods are delivered to the named carrier or place | On board the vessel at the port of shipment |
FOB requires goods to be physically on board a vessel before risk transfers, which is a poor fit for containerised cargo (typically handed to a carrier at a container yard well before loading) or air/road freight, where there's no vessel at all. FCA solves this by transferring risk when goods are handed to the buyer's nominated carrier at an agreed location — which could be the seller's premises, a terminal, or a port, making it usable across sea, air and road.
You're shipping via container, air freight, or any non-vessel mode, or you want a cleaner risk-transfer point than 'on board the vessel' for containerised sea freight.
You're shipping traditional break-bulk or bulk cargo by sea where 'on board the vessel' is a genuinely meaningful, easily verified event.
Containerised cargo is typically handed to the carrier at a container yard or terminal well before it's loaded onto the vessel. Using FOB in this scenario creates ambiguity about when risk actually transfers, since 'on board' doesn't match the real handover point. FCA fixes this by transferring risk at the actual carrier handover.
Yes — FCA works for any transport mode, including air freight, road freight and multimodal shipments, unlike FOB which is restricted to sea and inland waterway transport.
Yes, FOB remains a valid Incoterm, but the ICC and most trade bodies recommend FCA for containerised cargo specifically because the risk-transfer point is clearer and better matches how container shipments are actually handled.
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