A New 2020 Incoterm: DPU Delivered At Place Unloaded

DPU Delivered At Place Unloaded Incoterms 2020 is the new Incoterm introduced with the Incoterms 2020 publication, and replaces DAT Delivered At Terminal.

DPU is the second Incoterm of the D group, which comprises three Incoterms sharing two important features:

  1. The level of responsibility for the seller is the highest.
  2. The place of delivery, both in terms of risk of transfer and transportation, occurs always at destination.

As a result, such Incoterms are usually the most convenient for wholesale importers.

How DPU Incoterms 2020 Works

DPU is written: DPU Delivered At Place Unloaded (named place of destination).

Stating place instead of port, as many Incoterms do, allows DPU to be used with any mode of transportation: waterway, airway, railway, road transport.

As the name would suggest, DPU happens to be directly after DAP Delivered At Place Incoterms 2020. The difference of course is that, under DPU, the seller is also responsible for off-loading the goods.

Therefore, delivery is complete when the goods are placed at the disposal of the buyer at the named placed of destination, off-loaded. Moreover, the seller must pay for transport costs up to that place.

As per DAP, DPU does not make the seller responsible to pay for customs clearance, duties, or taxes.

DPU Delivered At Place Unloaded Incoterms 2020

The requirement that the seller must deliver the goods to the buyer off-loaded is a particularly important one, because DPU is the only Incoterm that places the onus of off-loading on the seller.

What that means is that the seller is responsible for risk of loss or damage to the goods until these are put at the disposal of the buyer off-loaded from the carrier.

Globartis Research

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