MPF cap went to 670.86 on October 1: anyone still putting several boxes on one entry?

Gary Pfeiffer · 2026-10-08T16:14:25Z

mpf cap moved to 670.86 on october 1, floor to 34.58. rate still 0.3464 percent, only the limits moved. most housewares boxes dont get near the cap alone so it just runs as percent on value, one entry per box. what i keep meaning to ask: does anyone put several containers off the same vessel on one entry to ride the cap, or does one exam holding the lot eat the savings. what does your broker say

4 replies

Orla Fitzgeraldie20h ago

Not a housewares answer, so take this as the view from the export side of reefers going into the US. I do not file the entries, the consignee's broker does, so what follows is what I have been told, not what I have checked.

The bit I could not get a straight answer on is the one you raise at the end. If several boxes share one entry and one of them is picked for exam, does release wait for the lot, or can the clean boxes go? I searched and found plenty on exam types and timings, nothing that settles partial release on a multi container entry. That is the whole question for us, because a hold on temperature controlled stock is not a paperwork problem for long. The cap saving would have to be very large to cover one spoiled box.

So before I would ask for it, I would want a broker to tell me in writing how a single exam plays out. Has anyone actually had one entry split at release? Or am I overthinking a fee saving that only matters at the top of the range?

Alejandra Solismx18h ago

Orla, my side of the border answers it the other way round. A consolidated pedimento in Mexico is the paperwork for the week, but the semáforo is pressed for each truck. One truck goes red and gets inspected, the other trucks on that same pedimento keep rolling. The saving and the hold are kept apart by design.

Whether a US entry can split release like that, I honestly do not know, and I would not put a reefer on a broker's shrug either. Gary, has your broker ever had one box pulled off a multi box entry?

Femi Adeyemigb19h ago

Gary, strictly speaking you only ride the cap once the boxes together pass it. Below that line, 0.3464 percent of the combined value is the same money as 0.3464 percent of each box added up, so two boxes that stay under 670.86 between them save nothing, and both now wait on whatever one exam does to that entry.

The cap has a history. Trading partners objected under the GATT that a percentage of value is no fee for a service, since processing an entry costs much the same whatever is in the box, and the ceiling and floor were the American reply. Consolidating above it is the fee working as rebuilt.

Your exam question is the one that decides it, and lecture halls do not hold containers. Orla is right to want the broker's answer in writing.

Denny Kowalskius17h ago

Imaginary terminal clerk, every time: "Your entry's on hold." Which box? "Yes."

I only see this from the cab. When one box gets an intensive exam it rides to the CES and back on my chassis, and that trip is not in the exam fee, it's on my invoice. Demurrage keeps running on whatever is still sitting in the yard.

Does the rest of the entry walk out while one box sits? Honestly not sure. Ask the broker before the vessel, not after.

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