Operator responsibilities for direct delivery.
19 C.F.R. § 146.40
in effectEffective: 2024-07-01(a) Arrival of conveyance. Upon arrival at a subzone or zone site of a conveyance containing foreign merchandise, the operator shall:
(1) Collect in-bond or cartage documentation from the carrier;
(2) Check the condition of any seal affixed to the conveyance, and if broken, missing or improperly affixed, notify the port director and receive instructions before unloading the merchandise;
(3) Check each incoming in-bond and cartage shipment to determine if the manifested quantity or the quantity on the cartage document agrees with the quantity actually received;
(4) Sign and date the in-bond or cartage documentation to accept responsibility for the merchandise under the Foreign Trade Zone Operator's Bond and to relieve the carrier of responsibility.
(5) Forward the in-bond or cartage documentation so as to reach the port director within 2 working days after the date of arrival of the conveyance at the subzone or zone site;
(6) Maintain a file of open in-bond manifests in chronological order of date of conveyance arrival to identify shipments that have arrived but the entire contents of which have not been admitted to the subzone or zone site; and
(7) Notify the port director, by annotation on the Customs Form 214, when the entire contents of a shipment have been admitted.
(b) Transportation by operator. If merchandise is transported to a subzone or zone site by the foreign trade zone operator from a location in the district (see definition of “district” at § 112.1) in which the subzone or zone site is situated, the merchandise is deemed admitted at the time the foreign trade zone operator picks it up. At the time of pick-up, the operator is responsible for:
(1) Receipting for the merchandise and recording on the appropriate document any discrepancies regarding quantity, condition or the status of the seals;
(2) Transporting the merchandise to the zone or subzone; and
(3) Ensuring that the zone records reflect that the merchandise is received in the zone.
(c) Admission of merchandise: alternative procedures—(1) Cumulative Customs Form 214. If the operator has an agreement with the Bureau of Census for direct transmittal of statistical information, he shall submit to the port director each business day a properly signed and uniquely numbered Customs Form 214 listing all merchandise except for domestic status merchandise admitted under § 146.43 recorded into the inventory control and recordkeeping system during the previous business day. The Customs Form 214 must contain a list of all in-bond (I.T.) numbers or the unique number of any cartage document, as well as the number of invoices for each I.T. or cartage document, pertaining to merchandise which has been entered into the system.
(2) Individual Customs Form 214. If a cumulative Customs Form 214 is not submitted as provided in paragraph (b)(1) of this section, the operator shall file with the port director each business day an individual Customs Form 214 and 214-A covering each shipment recorded into the inventory control and recordkeeping system during the previous business day. The forms shall be submitted within 10 days after the end of the month in which the merchandise was received in the zone, and no extension beyond that time will be approved by the port director.
(3) General order. Merchandise not admitted into a subzone or zone site as provided in this section within 15 calendar days after its arrival there shall be disposed of in accordance with the applicable procedures in § 4.37 or § 122.50 or § 123.10 of this chapter.
(4) Inventory control and recordkeeping system. The operator shall establish and maintain a continuing input quality control program to ensure that information concerning merchandise in admission documents, verified or corrected by counts and checks, is accurately recorded in the inventory control and recordkeeping system. Quantities recorded in the system, after allowance by the port director for any discrepancies, will be the quantities of merchandise for which the operator shall be held liable under its bond for admission to the subzone or zone site. A discrepancy involving a within-case shortage (or overage) need not be reported on Customs Form 5931, if the operator is able to report that information in another manner so that the port director can determine whether there is liability for the discrepancy under the bond of any party to the importation.
Source: eCFRURL: https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2024-07-01/title-19.xmlFetched: 7/26/2026