1. Purpose
Set who pays import duties on an international shipment, and understand why that choice changes which carriers will quote at all.
2. Scope
The incoterm on an individual order. Registering duty billing with a carrier is done in the carrier's own system, not here.
3. Roles & Responsibilities
Role | Responsibility |
|---|---|
Brand or account owner | Decides commercially whether they absorb duties or the recipient pays. |
Operations | Applies the setting and checks rates return afterwards. |
Ship Side Kick support | Adjusts any organization automation that forces the incoterm. |
4. When you need this
An international order shows only one carrier, or none at all.
A recipient has been surprised by a duty bill on delivery.
You are setting up a brand's first international lane.
5. Key concept: the incoterm is a rating input, not a paperwork detail
What people assume | What actually happens |
|---|---|
The incoterm only affects the customs paperwork. | It affects who will quote. A carrier that cannot bill duties to you will drop out entirely when the order demands that they do. |
DDP means duties are handled. | DDP means you pay them, and only works if duty billing is enabled on that carrier account. Without it, the carrier simply does not return a rate. |
Setting it on the order is enough. | If your organization has an international automation that writes the incoterm, it will overwrite your change within seconds and rates will not refresh. |
No rates means no service to that country. | Often it means one setting is excluding every carrier at once. Check the incoterm before concluding the lane is unavailable. |
6. Procedure
Open the order and find the incoterm setting.
Choose DDP if you are paying the duties, or DDU or none if the recipient pays on delivery.
Save and refresh rates.
If the setting reverts on its own within seconds, an organization automation is forcing it. Stop and ask Ship Side Kick support to adjust the rule; changing the order again will not hold.
If you chose DDP and a carrier you expected is still missing, confirm duty billing is enabled on that carrier account in the carrier's own system.
7. Verification
The incoterm still reads what you set after a rate refresh.
More than one carrier returns a rate, where you would expect more than one.
The commercial invoice reflects the chosen terms.
8. Constraints and caveats
Switching away from DDP moves a real cost onto your recipient. Treat it as a commercial decision, not a workaround for missing rates, and tell the brand before you do it.
Some carriers refuse whole destination countries regardless of incoterm. If one carrier is missing and others quote, suspect the destination rather than the setting.
Addresses matter as much as terms. A plus code or geocode in the street line where the real street belongs will fail address validation at some carriers and pass at others, which looks like patchy coverage.
An account offering only domestic services will never appear on an international quote. That is account configuration, not a rating problem.
9. Worked example
A 3PL had an order for one of its brands going to Vietnam that would only offer one carrier, and that carrier was failing on the commercial invoice.
Observation | Reading |
|---|---|
The incoterm was changed to none and rates did not update. | An organization automation rewrote it within about two seconds. The change never survived to the rate request. |
One carrier was absent despite being set up. | It was being excluded by the forced DDP setting, not by the destination. It quoted once the rule was adjusted. |
Another carrier rejected the address. | The street line held a plus code, with the real street in the second line. Address shape, not terms. |
A third carrier never appeared at all. | That account carries only domestic services. Nothing about the order would have changed it. |