CPT — Carriage Paid To
The version of CFR for any transport mode. The seller pays carriage to the destination, and risk passes to the first carrier at origin.
- Group
- C — Main carriage paid
- Transport mode
- Any mode, including multimodal.
- Named place
- The place of destination the seller has paid carriage to.
- Main carriage paid by
- Seller
- Risk passes
- Delivery to the first carrier
- Export clearance
- Seller
- Import clearance and duties
- Buyer
- Seller must insure
- No obligation on either party. Arrange your own cover.
- Unloading at destination
- Buyer.
CPT works for any transport mode and any combination of modes. The seller books and pays for carriage to the named destination. Risk passes when the goods are handed to the first carrier. In a shipment with several legs, that may be a truck collecting from the factory, long before the goods reach a port or airport.
People who treat CPT as a delivered term miss that first-carrier point. The seller pays for carriage all the way to the destination. The seller's risk ended when the first carrier took the goods.
There is no insurance obligation under CPT. If the buyer wants the main carriage insured, they arrange it themselves or agree CIP instead.
If there is a pre-carriage leg, risk passes to the first carrier. Not at the port, and not at the airport. A seller who arranges a truck to the terminal has already transferred the risk when that truck takes the goods.
Always write the rule with its named place and the version — CPT [named place], Incoterms 2020. The rule says nothing about when ownership transfers; that is for your sales contract.