A freight party may submit an inbound or outbound (or both) transhipment cargo report for goods entering the country and moving under bond before departing again.


Note: Transhipment consignments are identified as having both country of origin and country of destination different from your business's registered country.


Important: Please ensure that you are registered for TSW and have completed the steps outlined under Setting up Trade Single Window (TSW) access before continuing any further.


Note: This function is not available to all countries; please see Countries having support for TSW EDI messaging for further details.



Step 1. Enter consignment data

Create a new consignment for the transhipment.

A consignment may be created via Add Consignment.


Note: It is possible that another party has already entered the consignment data on your behalf (such as when the origin freight party has assigned you as the transhipment freight party for the consignment).  


Shipment Legs (2 or more)

A transhipment always requires more than one shipment leg.   A common scenario is to have two shipment legs - the first leg describes the inbound vessel or flight details, and the second leg describes the outbound vessel or flight details. Use the New button to create an additional shipment leg.  


The inbound (first) shipment leg must contain:

  • For sea freight: the conveyance name (vessel) and voyage 
  • For air freight: the flight number
  • A date of discharge
  • The delivery premises (or delivery port) should also be stated if the goods are moving to an intermediate bonded area for unpacking, e.g. LCL cargo or consolidated airfreight. Note that if both a delivery port and delivery premises are stated then the delivery premises is considered the move destination; however, the delivery port will be notified of the move.  

The outbound (second) shipment leg must contain:
  • Your business as the Freight Party
  • A booking number or masterbill number
  • For sea freight: the conveyance name (vessel) and voyage
  • For air freight: the flight number
  • A loading date
  • A loading port
  • The close-off premises should also be stated where the goods are being shipped from a specific premises at the port, eg CTO for airfreight or a particular wharf for seafreight.  


Consignor and consignee details
The name, address and city of the consignor and the consignee must be entered (in the Other tab)


Step 2. Open the Cargo Report from the outbound shipment leg:



  1. The premises/ports involved in the transhipment will be displayed 
  2. Enter the movement method (Move By) for the move(s) and for FCLs the Biosecurity declaration  
  3. Optionally enter a comment to include in the cargo report 
  4. Click the Send Inbound or Send Outbound button to send the Transhipment move approval request to TSW ( note that if two moves are necessary then the Inbound send will request approval for the first move and the Outbound send will request approval for the second move
  5. If the send was successful the window will close; continue onto Step 4
  6. If there was a problem then continue to Step 3

Step 3. Correct errors when a send fails

Error messages will appear at the top of the window and will indicate to you what data must be amended.

Close the window to make your amendments and return to Step 2 to try again.


Step 4. Monitor the status of your transhipment

Occasionally return to the transhipment report window to see if the status has changed.

You will see a sent date and time displayed once the cargo report has been successfully submitted to TSW.

When a response is received from TSW you should then see a received date and time displayed as well as a TSW Reference.


Check the Log to confirm the status and the details of any error messages.

If the cargo report is rejected by TSW then make your amendments as necessary, then repeat the send as above.


The color of the Received date and time will also indicate the current status.  See Cargo Report Received Date and Time Colours by Status