Our Transit Series - PART 3: Authorised Consignee & Consignor

Arne Mielken
Dec 2, 2024
3 min read

Transit: Become an Authorised consignee or consignor to move goods from or to your business

Using your premises to start or end the movement of transit goods is possible when you set authorised consignor or consignee status, argues Arne Mielken of Customs Manager Ltd.

Suppose you’re regularly moving goods using transit procedures. In that case, you can apply for authorised consignor or consignee status, allowing you to start or end the movement of goods under the Common Transit Convention or EU Union Transit at your premises rather than at a customs office.

Your premises

Your premises may include locations not owned or operated by you, but you must have permission to use each location.

Outward: Start moving goods from your premises or a customs facility

You must obtain authorised consignor status to initiate the movement of your goods from your premises or an approved customs facility, where applicable, such as:

a warehouse
a designated export place
an external temporary storage facility
a temporary storage facility.

As an authorised consignor, you will have the ability to:

declare goods without needing to present them at the customs office
print the transit accompanying document and, if applicable, the list of items, directly at the consignor’s premises
remove goods under customs control straight from their authorised location
You may also request to include additional locations in your authorisation.

Inward: Finish moving goods at your premises

To conclude the movement of goods at your own premises, you must obtain authorised consignee status.

As an authorised consignee, you’ll be able to:

receive goods without needing to present the goods and transit accompanying document to customs at the customs office
send your arrival notification message to the relevant office electronically
receive automatic permission to unload the goods (if the goods are not subject to further controls or inspections by the customs office)

NOTE: You can apply for both authorised consignor and consignee status at the same time.

Getting authorised

You’ll need:

to be established in one of the Contracting Parties to the Common Transit Convention
your Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number
your VAT registration number
name and date of birth of the nominated person in your organisation who will account for your company’s compliance with customs regulations
details of any offences committed against customs or tax legislation in the EU, UK or any other countries
details of the custom systems used to control the movement of goods under transit and the accompanying record-keeping systems for these movements

If you’re applying to use Union Transit authorisation, Proof of Union Status or Transport TIR authorised consignee, you’ll need to provide:

the date you started using the transit procedure
evidence of how often you send or receive goods
the number of operations you carry out each year

Guarantee

To apply for authorised consignor status, you will need a customs comprehensive guarantee. If you have AEO C or F status, you can get approval for a customs comprehensive guarantee (for transit and other customs procedures) with a 100% guarantee waiver.

To apply for authorised consignee status, you must have, or have access to, an approved temporary storage facility. Authorised consignees must deliver goods under transit to temporary storage premises.

Alternative 1: Using an agent

If your application for the authorised consignor or consignee status is unsuccessful, you could use a customs agent to make customs declarations at authorised premises.

Alternative 2: Start and end transit at a customs office

If your application is unsuccessful, and you still want to make declarations yourself, you will need to start or end transit at a customs office.

How to apply

Utilimustze a transport carrier or an intermediary affiliated with a carrier. It may be necessary to provide your customs authorities with copies of your contracts or other proof of the contractual relationship. Additionally, suppose you plan to use the simplified procedure for air or sea transport. In that case, you might need a completed hard copy of your manifest, whether it's the paper manifest or the electronic transport document.

Example

Download and view the application by HMRC for authorised consignee or consignor

In the EU, you can usually apply for an authorised consignor electronically using the Customs Decision System (CDS).