A shipping cut-off is the latest date and time by which one specific task must be done for cargo to travel on a planned vessel or flight. There is not one cut-off but several: the full container must be at the terminal by the CY cut-off, the shipping instructions must reach the carrier by the SI (documentation) cut-off, the container weight must be declared by the VGM cut-off, and dangerous goods, reefers and LCL cargo each have their own, usually earlier, deadlines. Most of these are set by the carrier and terminal for each sailing and printed on the booking confirmation. A few, such as the US 24-hour rule and the EU ICS2 entry summary deadlines, are set by customs law, and the carrier builds its own cut-offs backwards from them. The key takeaway: the binding number is the one on your booking confirmation for that vessel, and the earliest cut-off on it, not the sailing date, is your real deadline. This guide explains what each cut-off is and who owns it; for tactics on keeping cargo on board, see our guide to rolled cargo prevention and how shippers avoid missed sailings.
Who sets a cut-off, and what it is measured from
Three parties set the deadlines a shipment runs into, and it helps to know which one owns each, because that decides who can move it.
- The terminal decides when it will start receiving export containers for a vessel and when its gate closes for that call. It needs the box in the yard early enough to plan the load sequence.
- The carrier (the shipping line or airline) sets the documentation, VGM, dangerous goods and reefer cut-offs, and publishes the terminal's gate cut-off on the booking. It needs time to build the manifest, plan stowage and file data with customs.
- Customs authorities set advance-filing deadlines in law. These are not negotiable and are usually measured from loading at the foreign port, not from arrival.
The Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA), the industry standards body for container lines, lists the common cut-offs as gate-in, documentation, VGM, dangerous goods and reefer, and notes that the exact times vary by terminal, carrier, shipment and equipment type. Its booking data standard carries separate fields for the documentation cut-off, the VGM cut-off, the FCL delivery cut-off, the LCL delivery cut-off and the earliest full-container delivery date. Those are the fields to look for on your own booking.
One detail is easy to miss: cut-offs are not always counted back from the vessel's departure. Some carriers and ports count them from the vessel's estimated arrival or berthing, which can be a day or more earlier than sailing. Maersk's Singapore export page, for example, expresses every cut-off as hours "before vessel arrival". If the vessel is delayed, the carrier normally reissues the cut-offs; if it arrives early, they can come forward.
The ocean freight cut-offs, one by one
Earliest receiving date (ERD)
The ERD, also called the earliest return or receipt date, is the first day the terminal will accept a full export container for a given vessel. It is the opening of the window, not the close. Gate a container in before the ERD and it may be refused, or it may sit in the yard accruing export storage or demurrage. The terminal sets it, and it moves with vessel schedules, weather and congestion. In North America, Maersk stopped printing the ERD on booking confirmations from 28 February 2022 and directs customers to each ocean terminal's website instead, while still publishing the cut-off itself on the booking. Maersk's notice also says it charges export demurrage only if a container gates in before the terminal's posted ERD and then exceeds free time.
CY cut-off (port, gate-in or FCL cut-off)
The container yard cut-off is the latest time a loaded FCL container can enter the terminal gate and still be planned onto the vessel. Carriers call it the port cut-off, gate-in cut-off, FCL cut-off or simply "the cut-off". It is the deadline most people mean when they say "cut-off", and it is the one most often confused with the sailing date. How far ahead of the vessel it falls varies widely: from a few hours at a high-throughput transhipment hub to a day or more at many gateway ports. Weekends, public holidays and terminal gate hours can pull it earlier in practice, because a gate that closes at 17:00 on Friday is effectively your cut-off for a Sunday call.
SI or documentation cut-off
The shipping instruction cut-off is the latest time the carrier will accept the shipper's instructions for the bill of lading: shipper, consignee, notify party, cargo description, HS code, marks, packages and weights. After it, changes may attract an amendment fee or may not make the manifest at all. The SI cut-off is usually earlier than the CY cut-off when cargo is bound for, or passes through, a country with advance manifest rules, because the carrier must file the manifest with that country's customs before the container is loaded. That is the main reason the same port can show two very different SI cut-offs for two bookings on the same vessel.
VGM cut-off
Under SOLAS chapter VI, regulation 2, a packed container cannot be loaded unless the master and the terminal have its verified gross mass. The IMO guidelines (MSC.1/Circ.1475) say the VGM must be communicated "sufficiently in advance" to be used in the stowage plan, but they do not fix a number of hours. The VGM cut-off is therefore a carrier deadline that enforces a legal requirement: SOLAS says the box needs a VGM, and the carrier says by when. Our guide to container weight limits, payload and VGM covers how the weight is obtained.
Dangerous goods cut-off
Hazardous cargo needs carrier acceptance before it is loaded, so the dangerous goods deadline usually falls days, not hours, before the vessel. The carrier has to check the declaration against the IMDG Code, confirm segregation and stowage, and in many cases notify the port and every carrier sharing the vessel. Expect two deadlines: an initial DG request to get the booking approved, and a final declaration with container numbers. The dangerous goods declaration has to be right by the second one.
Reefer cut-off
Refrigerated containers need a powered slot in the terminal and a plug on board, so some carriers and terminals set a separate reefer cut-off or a separate receiving window. Others align it with dry cargo: Maersk, for example, merged dry and reefer receiving windows at Savannah's Garden City Terminal from December 2021. Check the booking, because a reefer delivered after a separate reefer cut-off can be refused even when the dry cut-off is still open.
LCL and CFS cut-off
For less-than-container-load cargo, the deadline that matters is set by the consolidator, not the shipping line. Loose cargo has to arrive at the container freight station (CFS), be tallied, stuffed into a shared container and trucked to the terminal before that container's own CY cut-off. The CFS cut-off is therefore earlier than the FCL cut-off for the same vessel, often by several days, and documentation for LCL is usually due earlier too. See FCL vs LCL shipping for how the two services differ beyond timing.
Empty container pick-up deadline
Some carriers now publish a deadline for collecting the empty box as well. Hapag-Lloyd's customer advisory of 20 February 2026 requires its own empty containers to be collected at least 48 hours before the vessel's estimated time of arrival at all Asia ports, for vessels arriving on or after 1 March 2026, because late pick-ups disrupt load lists. The same advisory states that its SI, VGM and FCL cut-offs were unchanged.
One carrier, one port: what a real cut-off table looks like
A published example shows how far apart the cut-offs for one vessel call can be. These are the figures on Maersk's Singapore export page as checked on 13 October 2026. They apply to Maersk bookings at that port only and can change; use them to understand the structure, not as a planning number elsewhere.
| Cut-off (Maersk, Singapore) | Published deadline |
|---|---|
| CY cut-off | 4 hours before vessel arrival |
| VGM submission | 4 hours before vessel arrival (ETA) |
| SI cut-off, no advance import manifest at destination | 8 hours before vessel arrival |
| SI cut-off, cargo subject to an advance import manifest | 40 hours before vessel arrival |
| First DG submission, Maersk vessel | 3 working days before vessel ETA, by 12 noon |
| First DG submission, other operator's vessel | 5 working days before vessel ETA, by 12 noon |
| Final DG declaration with container number | 3 working days (Maersk vessel) or 4 working days (other operator) before ETA, by 12 noon |
Two things stand out. First, the SI deadline jumps from 8 to 40 hours when the cargo is discharged in, transhipped through or remains on board a vessel calling at a country with advance manifest rules; Maersk lists the United States, Canada, the European Union, Turkey, China, Japan, Israel, Mexico and Korea. Second, the page asks for shipping instructions by 5pm on Friday whenever the SI cut-off falls on a Friday or weekend. Singapore is a fast transhipment hub; at many gateway ports the gaps between vessel and cut-off are longer.
The regulatory deadlines behind the carrier's cut-offs
Customs advance-filing rules are the fixed points that carriers plan backwards from. They are mostly measured from loading at the port of departure, which is why they can make a documentation cut-off fall well before the CY cut-off.
| Rule | Who files | Deadline | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| US 24-hour rule (vessel cargo declaration) | Ocean carrier or NVOCC | 24 hours before cargo is laden aboard the vessel at the foreign port (bulk and qualifying break bulk exempt) | 19 CFR 4.7(b)(2) and (b)(4) |
| US Importer Security Filing (ISF) | Importer (ISF importer) | No later than 24 hours before cargo is laden at the foreign port; container stuffing location and consolidator no later than 24 hours before US arrival | 19 CFR 149.2(b) |
| EU ICS2 entry summary, containerised sea cargo | Carrier, plus house-level filers where applicable | At least 24 hours before loading at the port of departure | Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446, Art. 105 |
| EU entry summary, bulk and break bulk | Carrier | At least 4 hours before arrival at the first EU port | Art. 105 |
| EU entry summary, listed short-sea routes | Carrier | At least 2 hours before arrival (for example from Iceland, Morocco, or ports on the Baltic, North, Black and Mediterranean Seas) | Art. 105 |
| EU entry summary, air cargo | Carrier and other filers | Minimum dataset before loading; remaining data by actual departure for flights under 4 hours, otherwise 4 hours before arrival | Art. 106 |
| US air cargo manifest | Air carrier | By wheels-up from nearby areas (North America, Central America, Caribbean, Bermuda, South America north of the Equator); otherwise 4 hours before US arrival | 19 CFR 122.48a(b) |
| US ACAS (air pre-loading) | Air carrier or other eligible filer | As early as practicable, no later than before cargo is loaded onto the aircraft | 19 CFR 122.48b(b)(1) |
Canada, China, Japan and several other countries run comparable advance-manifest regimes. Canada's CBSA, for instance, sets marine pre-load and pre-arrival windows of between 24 and 96 hours depending on the goods and their origin, in Memorandum D3-5-1. Check the current rule for the destination and any transhipment country rather than assuming the US figure applies. For the detail of each filing, see our guides to ISF 10+2, ICS2 and the EU entry summary declaration and ACAS and air cargo screening.
Air freight cut-offs: latest acceptance time and time of availability
Air cargo uses its own vocabulary. The latest acceptance time (LAT) is the latest point before scheduled departure at which the airline or its handler will accept a ready-for-carriage shipment for a given flight: delivered, documented, labelled and, where required, screened. The time of availability (TOA) is its mirror at destination: the time after arrival from which the consignee or its agent can collect the shipment. Both are set per product, station and flight by the airline, and both are commitments in the airline's service offer, so a premium product typically carries a later LAT and an earlier TOA than general cargo.
SAS Cargo, for example, says its handling times are typically 180 minutes for short- and medium-haul flights and 300 minutes for long-haul flights, and that the actual LAT and TOA appear when a shipment is booked. Treat that as one airline's figure, not a market standard. Dangerous goods, live animals, valuables and cargo that has not been screened usually need to be tendered earlier, because acceptance checks and security screening take time. For US-bound and EU-bound air cargo, the advance data rules in the table above sit behind the LAT: the airline cannot accept data it has not received in time to file.
Typical cut-offs at a glance
The ranges below are deliberately loose. They describe common patterns, not commitments, and the only figure that binds a shipment is the one on its booking confirmation.
| Cut-off | Set by | Typical position |
|---|---|---|
| ERD (earliest receiving) | Terminal | A few days before the vessel call; check the terminal's website |
| CY / FCL gate-in | Terminal, published by carrier | From a few hours (fast hubs) to a day or more before arrival or departure |
| SI / documentation | Carrier | Same day as the CY cut-off or earlier; earlier again where advance manifest rules apply |
| VGM | Carrier (requirement from SOLAS) | Often aligned with the CY or SI cut-off |
| Dangerous goods | Carrier | Several working days before the vessel |
| Reefer | Carrier and terminal | Same as dry or slightly earlier, depending on terminal |
| LCL / CFS | Consolidator | Usually days before the FCL cut-off for the same vessel |
| US 24-hour rule, ISF, EU ICS2 (containers) | Customs law | 24 hours before loading at the foreign port |
| Air LAT | Airline, per product and station | Hours before departure; longer for long-haul, DG and unscreened cargo |
Three common misreadings
"The 24-hour rule means the container must be at the port 24 hours before sailing." It does not. The US 24-hour rule is a data deadline: the carrier must transmit the cargo declaration to CBP 24 hours before the container is loaded at the foreign port. The physical deadline is the CY cut-off. What the rule does is push the SI cut-off earlier, because the carrier needs your instructions before it can file. The ISF is a separate obligation on the importer with the same 24-hour trigger, and a late ISF is the importer's problem even if the carrier's manifest was on time.
"The VGM cut-off is set by the IMO." SOLAS requires a verified gross mass before loading, but it sets no number of hours. The deadline is the carrier's, which is why it differs between lines and ports.
"If I meet the CY cut-off, I am on the vessel." Meeting the gate cut-off is necessary, not sufficient. A container that arrives on time without a VGM, without shipping instructions, without customs export clearance where the origin requires it, or with an unapproved DG declaration can still be left behind. The earliest deadline on the booking is the one to plan around.
What to do next
- On every booking confirmation, list each cut-off (ERD, CY, SI, VGM, DG, reefer, CFS) with its date, time and time zone, and note whether it is counted from vessel arrival or departure.
- Identify which customs regimes apply to the route, including transhipment ports, so you know whether an advance-manifest SI cut-off applies.
- Agree who owns each deadline: the supplier for cargo readiness, the trucker for gate-in, the forwarder or shipper for SI and VGM, the importer for ISF. Our supplier cargo readiness checklist covers the origin side.
- Re-check cut-offs whenever the carrier announces a schedule change, because delays and early arrivals both move them.
If you need a forwarder that books and manages these deadlines on your trade lane, more than 29,300 logistics companies are searchable by country and service in the CargoLinked directory. You can also post a shipment on the public requests board, which lists freight that shippers have posted for forwarders to quote on directly.
This guide is general information as of October 2026, not legal, customs or regulatory advice. Cut-offs are set per sailing and flight by carriers and terminals, and filing deadlines can change; confirm current requirements with the carrier, the relevant customs authority or a licensed customs broker before relying on them.
