A temporary storage facility is a location authorized by the Customs and Tax Authority where non-EU goods are stored under customs supervision until they are placed under a subsequent customs procedure, such as release for free circulation, transit, or re-export.
Goods can be stored in a temporary storage facility for a maximum of 90 days. This period cannot be extended.
A temporary storage facility (TSF) can be used to optimize the logistics process of delivering goods from third countries to the EU, for example, in groupage transport, where multiple shipments for different recipients are on the same transport vehicle. In such cases, it is challenging to organize import clearances for all shipments simultaneously. The transport vehicle would have to be held until all clearances are completed, which could take several days. A TSF allows for unloading and storing these shipments under a DSK document, and the import clearances can then be processed from the TSF location, allowing the international transport vehicle to be released on the same day, avoiding additional detention costs.
Another example is when documents are incorrectly filled out or missing; in such cases, the goods can be placed in a temporary storage facility and stored until the correct documentation necessary for customs clearance or another customs procedure is obtained.
The types of goods that can be stored depend on the authorization held by the customs agency to operate the temporary storage facility. At 3CARGO, these are industrial goods. For safety reasons, hazardous materials (ADR), frozen goods (requiring cold storage), and excise goods (requiring a bonded warehouse) are not accepted.
