Incoterms DPU: Delivered at Place Unloaded

Named Place Required: Place of Destination, Where Seller Unloads

Specify the precise point of destination to unload and deliver goods.

DPU Incoterm Obligations

Seller’s Obligations

• Goods, commercial invoice and documentation
• Export packaging and marking
• Export licenses and customs formalities
• Pre-carriage and delivery
• Loading charges
• Main carriage
• Delivery at named place of destination
• Unloading charges
• Proof of delivery
• Cost of pre-shipment inspection

Buyer’s Obligations

• Payment for goods as specified in sales contract
• Import formalities and duties
• Cost of import clearance pre-shipment inspection
• Onward carriage and delivery to buyer (depending upon named place)

This is a new rule for 2020. While it is often stated as simply being a change of name from
the previous DAT (Delivered At Terminal) it is in fact just that little bit more. DAT itself
was introduced 2010 as an expansion of DEQ (Delivered Ex Quay) to cover any mode of
transport. The implication in DAT was that the seller delivered the goods, unloaded, into
a terminal whether that be an open area of land such as a container yard or a covered
warehouse such as at an airport. Regrettably that explanation was not clear in the wording
of DAT though its location before DAP in the order of the 2010 rules tends to reinforce
that. The difference now between DPU and DAP is that it means any place including the
buyer’s premises and therefore is shown now after DAP.
Certainly for land transport within the Europe/Central Asian land mass it is feasible, and
with courier parcels delivery it represents what typically happens as the driver takes the
parcel from the truck and hands it to the buyer. It is even feasible for smaller airfreight
parcels which the truck driver can lift.
How it will turn out in practice for heavier packages by airfreight and cross-ocean container
shipments is yet to be seen. Not only must the seller’s carrier obtain from the buyer the
appropriate paper work to take possession of the goods from the airline or shipping
line but now it must also provide the means of unloading the truck at the destination
place. For a container this could mean providing additional labour and a forklift plus a
pallet jack for moving the goods within the container. Add to that potential insurance and
workplace safety issues when labour and machinery not employed or contracted by the
buyer operate within the buyer’s premises.

Get DPU guidance from  a TS-Trade Specialist