Containers, shared boxes, and FCL vs LCL

Everything about the equipment on a filing: where containers are declared, what happens when two house bills travel in the same box, why the weights differ between levels, and which of it the app fills in for you.

Where do I enter my containers — on the master consignment or the house bill?

On the master consignment, in both the guided wizard and the full form. The master B/L lists every container once — number, size and seal — because that is the list customs treats as the filing's containers: it is mandatory on a CSN entry, and every accepted filing on record has each house bill's boxes drawn from it.

In the wizard the master bill is the first screen, and its containers are a table on it — one row per box, as printed on the bill: number, size, seal, and — optionally — the weight and package count the master bill prints for the box. Each house bill then ticks the containers it is in and types only its own share of each — this bill's packages and this bill's weight in that box. The master's weight and packages per box are then checked against the house bills: where you typed the master bill's figure, the table says beside it whether the house bills add up to it; where you left it blank, it is added up for you from the shares, with the arithmetic beside it (99 + 252). Load status is filled in for you too: each house bill's from how many bills share the box, and the master's FCL, which stays FCL until you change it on the master — the house bills never move it. The review screen repeats the check box by box, with the sums written out.

In the full form the master has its own Equipment list. Add the containers there, and each house bill offers Same containers as the master consignment, ticked by default, or Copy only some… to tick the ones this bill is in. Untick the link and the house keeps its own list.

If your filing is a master bill on its own with no house bill under it, the containers go on the master, because there is nowhere else for them to go — and then the weight, packages and load status on each row are yours to type, since there are no shares to add up.

One thing the full form does not do for you. On a consolidation where house bills share a box, the full form will not add the house bills' shares up onto the master's row — that roll-up only runs in the wizard. Put the summed weight and package count on the master's row yourself (see the table below). If you would rather not think about it, file consolidations through the wizard.

I have one house bill in all the master's containers. Do I type every weight twice?

No. Type the figures once, on whichever bill you are transcribing, and the app carries them across:

Typed on the master screen — the weight and packages the master bill prints for each box — they appear on the house bill's rows as its share, because a bill that is alone in a box has the whole box. The row says filled in for you — the master B/L gives this box's figure.Typed on the house bill — this bill's share of each box — they are added up onto the master's rows, and the bill's own package count and gross weight are added up from them too, so a nine-container bill is typed nine times, not nine times plus the totals.

If you described the bill as a master on its own first and only then pressed Add HBL, nothing is lost either: the parties, goods, route and each container's figures move onto the new house bill, which is put in every container listed, and the master keeps its number, the line and the container list. The screen says so when it happens.

The master B/L and my house bill disagree about a container. Will the app tell me?

Yes — this is the check the master screen's weight and package columns exist for. Type each box's figures as the master bill prints them on the master screen, and each bill's share as the house bill prints it on the house screen. Wherever the two do not add up, the app says so in three places: beside the master's cell (house bill says 9,500), under the house bill's container table (the master B/L says 10,000 kg, but this bill's share is 9,500 kg and it is the only bill in the box), and on the review screen, where every box is listed with the master's figure, each bill's share, the sum, and a tick or a cross.

A cross blocks filing, deliberately. The master's row is the whole box and each house row is a bill's share of it, so there is no honest filing in which they differ — customs re-adds the shares and compares them with the master, and a filer who found the disagreement through a customs penalty asked for this check. It catches the case a bill-level total cannot: two containers whose weights are interchanged between the master and the house, where every total still agrees.

To settle it, correct whichever bill is wrong. If the house bill came from an overseas agent and the master is right, have the agent reissue it; if the master figure is the one mistyped, change it on the master screen — or press Use the house bills' figures on the master there, which hands those cells back to the app to add up from the shares.

My house bill only carries some of the master's containers

In the wizard, tick only those. The house bill's container section lists every box on the master; a tick puts this bill in it, an untick takes it out. The box's identity — number, size, seal, ownership — is locked on the house bill because it is the master's to change; what you type on the house is this bill's share. While it is the only house bill on the master, This bill is in all N containers ticks every box in one click.

In the full form, untick Same containers as the master consignment, then choose Copy only some…. You get the master's containers as a checklist — tick the boxes this bill actually carries and press Copy. Only those come across, and the house bill keeps its own list from then on. Then enter this bill's weight and package count on each row, because what came across is the box's identity, never anyone's share of it.

Two of my house bills are in the same container. How do I tell customs that?

By giving both house bills the same container number. That is the only thing in the message that records a shared box — there is no separate "shared" tick, and no field that links one bill to another. Identical numbers mean one container; a single wrong character means two.

Because retyping an eleven-character number on a different screen is exactly where that goes wrong, the app never asks you to. In the wizard both house bills tick the same row of the master's list, so the number is spelled identically by construction and the container's details come down from the master. In the full form the container field offers the boxes already on your filing as you type; pick one and the two bills are on the same box, with the box's details carried across. Type a new number and you get a new box.

What weight and package count do I put on a shared box?

Your share of it, not the whole box.

Each house bill declares the part of the container that belongs to it. The master consignment then shows the total. A real accepted filing looks like this — one container, two house bills:

Putting the whole box's weight on both bills would declare the cargo twice, and the totals are among the things customs compares against the carrier's own manifest.

Why does my house bill say LCL when the master says FCL for the same container?

Because the two are describing different things, and both are right.

The house bill's load status describes that bill's share. Two shippers sharing a box means neither has a full container load, so each says LCL.The master's describes the box. It is full — it just happens to be full of two people's cargo — so it says FCL.

This is what accepted filings do. It looks like a contradiction and is not. The master's FCL is the usual answer rather than a rule — of the accepted filings we have read, 53 file a shared box FCL on the master and 3 LCL — so the platform suggests FCL there and keeps whatever you choose. The house bills' LCL on a shared box is not a choice: every accepted filing has it.

On the line's SAM, is a box two master lines share FCL or LCL?

Usually LCL — on each line that names it, and on the vessel's container list. That is how every arrival manifest on record files a box two or more master lines share. But customs has also accepted a departure manifest (October 2026) that filed one FCL on both its lines and on the vessel's list — each line quoting its own export CSN, which carried the box FCL too. What matters is that every line agrees with the CSN it quotes (399/237) and that the vessel's list says what its lines say. A manifest built here does that: the list follows the lines when they all say one thing, and says LCL when they differ. Lines that disagree about a shared box, or a list that says what none of its lines do, get an amber note in the Checks tab; no refusal for either has been seen. This is the line's manifest, where each master B/L is a line. On your CSN the shape is different: a box shared by house bills is FCL on the master and LCL on each house bill (see below). And a box shared by two shipping bills on an export is suggested LCL too — ask the line what its departure manifest carries for it.

Why can't I change the load status on a shared container?

Because on a shared box it is not a choice. If two house bills declare cargo in one container, neither of them has a full container load — that is what the words mean, so the app fills in LCL and locks it, and tells you which other bill it is shared with — in the wizard, in the Also on column and in a line under the table.

The way to change it is to change the sharing: take the box off the other house bill, or give this one a different container number. Once only one bill is on the box, the field is yours again. An uploaded file whose house row on a shared box is not LCL gets an amber note.

My house bill has a box to itself. Why does it say FCL, and can I change it?

One house bill on a container means that bill has the whole box, so the app fills in FCL.

You can change it. Unlike the shared case this is a very good guess rather than a certainty: a lone bill on a genuinely part-full container is legitimately LCL. It is rare — a filer with four years of these has met it once — so FCL arrives filled in and the unusual filing changes it. Change it on the master bill's container row, and the house bill follows: on a box one house bill is in, the two rows are the same load. A house bill never changes the master for you. If you set LCL on the house bill alone, both rows show an amber note, and the master's offers one click to take LCL across.

How many containers does the master consignment say I have?

Distinct boxes, not rows. Three house bills sharing two containers between them is two containers on the master, not three. The app counts them that way, and the count it shows you is the number that goes on the filing.

One house bill, several containers — is that allowed?

Yes, and it is common. A house bill can carry any number of boxes, and each one carries its own weight and package count for that bill. A box can also be shared with a different house bill at the same time — one accepted filing has a house bill with two containers, each of them shared with a different other bill.

The app warned me about my container number. What does that mean?

Container numbers carry a built-in check: the last digit is calculated from the ten characters before it (the ISO 6346 standard). When they disagree, something has almost certainly been mistyped or misread, so the app says so and tells you what the last digit should have been.

It does not stop you filing. Plenty of real equipment has no valid ISO number — shipper-owned boxes, trailers, breakbulk — and the message has equipment types for exactly those. If your number is right and the check still complains, keep it.

What if my equipment is not a container?

Set the equipment type to what it actually is — breakbulk, blocks, chassis, trailer, or onboard equipment. The identifier field then holds whatever identifies that equipment. The container number check stays quiet for anything that is not shaped like a container number.

What about an empty container?

Declare it with load status EMP and a package count of zero, so an empty box can be declared honestly.

How do I file empty containers being repositioned — a whole shipment of empty boxes?

A real filer's declaration shows the pattern end to end: every box EMP with zero packages and its tare as the container weight, zero packages on the document and item lines too, the goods described as empty containers under HS code 86090000, the package type given as CON (container), and the document's gross weight carrying the containers' combined tare. The app accepts zero in every one of those places for exactly this case. (Drawn from a real filing whose acceptance we have not seen confirmed — treat it as strong practice rather than a guarantee.)

The app does mark the tare weight as worth checking, in amber, and it does not block: ICEGATE publishes error 128, "Weight > 0 for Empty Container", and no acknowledgement anybody has shown us either accepts or refuses a tare declared that way. If the figure is the box's own tare, leave it — that is the pattern above. If you want it off, clear the container's own weight field — Container weight on the equipment row, cntrWeight in the file — rather than typing 0; a weight of zero is refused as a typo, and that field is optional. This is not the bill's Gross weight (trnsprtDocMsr.grossWeight), which is a different field and is where the tares are added up.

The package count is a genuinely open question and the app says nothing about it either way. ICEGATE's error list carries both 127 ("Total Pckt > 0 for Empty Container") and 295 ("Total Pckt in Empty Cntr Should be Mentioned As One"), which point in opposite directions, and no filing on record settles which one is enforced. Every empty-container filing we have seen writes 0.

What size code do I use?

The four-digit size and type code as it appears on the box itself — 2210 for a common 20-ft dry box, 4400 or 4510 for a forty-footer. Accepted filings on record carry seven codes — 4400, 2210, 2200, 4510, 4200, 4410 and 4210 — and the app's picker offers those plus the few more seen on carriers' own manifests or on filings whose outcome we cannot read. Take the code from the container door or from the shipping line's paperwork for that box, not from shorthand like "40HC", and not from another line's equivalent: lines differ, and so do boxes. The field is optional, and typing a code the picker does not list is fine. Under the field the app says what the code you typed means, as one container terminal's own list reads it — 4510 "40 ft dry, 9'6" high" — and turns amber if what you typed is booking shorthand (40HC, 20GP) rather than a code; neither note stops you filing. Customs compares it with the shipping line's manifest, and since ICES Advisory 38/2026 (21 September 2026) customs says the ISO code is validated on the manifest side only; whether that is the 236/705 comparison is our reading — the advisory names no codes — and one refusal since fits it: on 3 October 2026 a line's SAA was refused 398 (Eqmt Size Not Match With Referred Eqmt Size of CIN) for a size unlike the CSN it quoted — where the CSN's size matched both bills of lading, so take the code off the box rather than guess, whichever filing a wrong one would cost. See Equipment size for what is actually known about the digits, including why one 40-ft high cube is 4400 and the next is 4410, and how to recognise an open top, a reefer or a flat rack from its last two digits.

Do I need seal details and a container agent code?

The seal type and number go on each box when it is sealed — most are bottle seals, some are electronic. In the guided steps both are columns of the master's container table, and the seal type fills itself as a bottle seal (BTSL) once a seal number is typed, so you only change it for an electronic seal. The rest of a box's details — type, shipper-owned, agent code — are the same on nearly every container and stay under More. The container agent code is the party responsible for the equipment; on a consolidation it is the master bill's consolidator on every filing on record, and the app fills it in from the master's Consolidator PAN for you, on every container. It is never mandatory, so a blank costs nothing.

Must the seal number be the same on the master and the house bill?

Yes. A box has one seal, and customs refuses a filing that gives it two numbers, under two codes: 703 "BL and HBL SealNo Does Not Match" and 701 "Multiple SealNo for Equipment-Id". Read by their words, 703 is the master bill and a house bill disagreeing about a container's seal, and 701 one container carrying more than one seal number across the bills that name it — that reading is ours, and which difference draws which code is not settled. The fix is the same for both: one seal number on every bill that names the container. Neither code is in any list ICEGATE publishes; both came back on refused CSNs in September 2026, and none of the 245 accepted CSNs we measured carries a mismatch. The guided steps keep the seal in step from the master to its house bills for you; on a file you upload or edit by hand, the app blocks a master/house difference and warns about two house bills that disagree.

I corrected the consolidator PAN. Does the container agent code follow it?

Yes, in the guided steps. Every container whose agent code was the old PAN takes the corrected one, and the house bills' rows follow the master's. This holds whether you correct it in the same sitting or after reopening the draft. A container whose agent you had set to some other party is left alone, because that was your own entry.

In the full form, no — each container's agent code is a plain field there. Correct the PAN under Master consignments → Master consignment 1 → Master consignment reference, then check each container under Equipment: the app marks any container whose agent code is not the master's consolidator PAN as worth a look, naming both values, so a stale one is easy to spot. The same check runs on the review screen of the guided steps and on any file you open in Check an ICEGATE file.

How do I see the whole picture of my filing?

Above every step the wizard shows one line: the master B/L, its containers with the house bills each is on, and the house bill you are on. A container no house bill has ticked is marked there and on the master's table — not on any bill yet — so a box that is on the master and on nobody's house bill is never a surprise at review. Each part of the line is a link: the master B/L goes to the master screen, a container goes to the first house bill it is on, and a house bill goes to that bill. The review screen lists the master's containers the same way, with where each figure came from.

A container on the master is on no house bill. Is that a problem?

It is not a rejection by itself — customs does not require every master box to appear on a house bill — but on a consolidation it almost always means a tick was missed, so the wizard says so: the row is marked on no house bill yet on the master's table and in the line above every step, and the review lists it with pick this container on a house bill. Open the house bill the box is in and tick it. If the box genuinely belongs to no house bill, you can file as it stands.

Is the container weight with or without the container's own tare?

Without. The CSN message guide calls the field the verified gross mass but defines it as the weight of the cargo including its packing, dunnage and bracing — and says outright that there is no tare weight in it. So it is not the VGM figure given to the line and the terminal, which includes the empty container; the two differ by the tare printed on the container door. (The message ports send customs defines its own container weight with tare. That is a different message; do not carry its definition into a CSN.) When the shipping lines told CBIC in 2019 they would put VGM in this field, CBIC did not correct them — so expect a line's manifest to carry a heavier figure than your CSN for the same box, and do not "fix" yours to match. Customs' published cross-checks between the two filings do not compare weight. An empty container is the one place filers do put a tare in this field — see the empty-container sections above.

Do exports treat containers differently?

Mostly no — containers are listed on the master bill, each line under it ticks the ones its cargo is in and gives its share — but four things are worth knowing on an export (SCX):

Every line must list its containers. The message guide's field table marks a house line's equipment optional; customs' own table of which blocks each kind of bill carries lists equipment for every export line, and a line with none was refused 239 (with 381 for containerised cargo).Load status means how full the box is (FCL full, LCL part-loaded, EMP empty), and the shipping line's departure manifest must say the same thing for the same box or the line is refused 237. Every container on every export seen accepted is FCL.A box shared by two shipping bills is accepted both ways on an export. Customs' public record (October 2026) shows exports with one container on several shipping-bill lines accepted in two shapes: FCL on the master with LCL on each shipping-bill line, and FCL on every row — two consolidations sharing one box, each line carrying its own share of the weight, with the line's departure manifest FCL on both its lines too. No customs document says which is right. The app suggests LCL on a box two of your shipping bills share — the shape most files take — suggested, not locked. What decides a refusal is 237: ask the line what its departure manifest will carry for the box, and file the same.A weight that does not add up warns; packages that do not add up block. On every accepted export consolidation seen, each master container's weight equals its lines' shares exactly — so make yours agree. But customs' published cross-checks cover packages, container count, and each container's type, number, size, load status and shipper-owned flag, not weight; no published rule says a master box's weight is the sum of its lines'; and one refused export whose boxes disagreed by a few hundred kilograms was told about other errors and nothing about weight. So the app warns about a box weight that disagrees between the master and its house bills or lines rather than blocking — on an import as well as an export, since 2026-09-20. Package counts are different: 221 and 225 are published and have been seen, and block everywhere. The usual cause of a weight disagreement is averaging a line's cargo across its boxes instead of typing each box's real share.

For bulk or liquid cargo the equipment identifier need not be a container number: CBIC's clarifications say any identification of what carries the cargo — a berth number, a tank — will do. More in exports: filing an SCX, shipping bills and PCINs.

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