FCA (free carrier)
FCA FREE CARRIER
(… named place)
“Free Carrier” means that the seller delivers the goods, cleared for export, to the carrier nominated by the buyer at the named place. It should be noted that the chosen place of delivery has an impact on the obligations of loading and unloading the goods at that place. If delivery occurs at the seller’s premises, the seller is responsible for loading. If delivery occurs at any other place, the seller is not responsible for unloading.
This term may be used irrespective of the mode of transport, including multimodal transport. “Carrier” means any person who, in a contract of carriage, undertakes to perform or to procure the performance of transport by rail, road, air, sea, inland waterway or by a combination of such modes.
If the buyer nominates a person other than a carrier to receive the goods, the seller is deemed to have fulfilled his obligation to deliver the goods when they are delivered to that person.
This term has been designed to meet the requirements of modern transport, particularly such “intermodal” transport as container or ro/ro traffic by trailers and ferries. It is based on the same main principles as FOB except that the seller fulfills his obligations when he delivers the goods into the custody of the carriers at the named point. If no precise point can be mentioned at the time of the contract of sale, the parties should refer to the place or range where the carrier should take the goods into his charge. The risk of cargo loss or damage is transferred from seller to buyer at that time and not at the ship’s rail. “Carrier” means any person by whom or in whose name a contract of carriage by road, rail, air, sea or a combination of modes has been made. When the seller has to furnish a document, he duly fulfils this obligation by presenting such a document issued by the person defined as a earner”. This INCOTERM can be classified in a group where the main carriage is unpaid. The term is suitable for any mode of transport, including multimodal transport, and is also relevant to unimodal transport where the transport is either by air or by rail.
