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ERTS and ETSF Warehousing: UK Temporary Storage for Uncleared Imports

Your container is in temporary storage and the clock is running. Gxpresss clears cargo held in ERTS and ETSF facilities at the major UK ports and airports, and moves it on — to your premises, to a devanning bay, or into a customs warehouse.

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What is an ERTS or ETSF warehouse?

An ETSF — External Temporary Storage Facility — is a site approved by HMRC to hold imported goods that have landed in the UK but have not yet been customs cleared. ERTS (Enhanced Remote Transit Shed) is the previous statutory name for the same approval. The terms are used interchangeably throughout the freight industry, and uncleared goods may remain in temporary storage for a maximum statutory period of 90 days.

While cargo resides in an ETSF, it remains under strict customs supervision. Customs duty and import VAT are not yet payable, but goods cannot be unpacked, sold, altered, or moved until a full customs declaration is accepted and released through the port inventory system (e.g. CNS, Destin8, Pentant). Daily storage fees accrue for every day of dwell time.

Gxpresss is a specialist UK customs broker. We don't just leave your cargo sitting in storage — we clear it fast. Provide us with your inventory entry reference, and we will diagnose any customs hold, submit the compliant CDS entry, and coordinate onward transport immediately.

Cargo already in storage?

Send us the entry reference. We will identify what is blocking customs release, usually within 2 hours.

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Why Choose Gxpresss for ETSF & ERTS Releases

Stop daily storage fees and secure rapid inventory release with our direct port inventory links.

Stop Daily Accruals

Rapid CDS declaration filing stops ongoing daily ETSF storage and terminal rent charges.

90-Day Protection

Complete customs resolution before the 90-day temporary storage limit to prevent HMRC seizure.

Bonded Transfer

Seamless transfer from ETSF into a customs bonded warehouse to suspend duty indefinitely.

Devanning & Delivery

Coordinated container devanning and palletised delivery immediately upon release.

ETSF, Customs Warehouse or Free Circulation?

Three distinct customs statuses that importers frequently confuse. The status determines your timeline, duty obligations, and permissible handling.

  ETSF / ERTS (Temporary Storage) Customs Warehouse (Bonded) Free Circulation
Duty and Import VATNot yet dueSuspended until removalFully paid
Maximum Time Limit90 days from presentationNo statutory time limitPermanent
Permitted Cargo HandlingNone — cargo waits for declarationStore, split, re-export, batch releaseUnrestricted handling and sale
Typical Reason for StatusDeclaration pending, query raised, or LCL deconsolidationDeliberate cash-flow, deferment, or re-exportDeclaration accepted and taxes settled
Cost ProfileDaily storage rates, escalating with dwell timeAgreed commercial pallet/sq ft storage rateStandard commercial storage

Goods can be moved directly from temporary storage into a customs bonded warehouse to avoid immediate duty payments — ideal for high-tariff goods released in batches.

Why Your Cargo Ended Up in Temporary Storage

Four common triggers place consignments into an ETSF facility upon arrival at UK ports and airports.

No Pre-Lodged Declaration

The most frequent cause. If a customs entry is not pre-lodged before vessel berth or flight landing, cargo is automatically moved into temporary storage and begins incurring daily fees. Pre-lodging is free; ETSF storage is not.

Customs Query or Valuation Hold

Discrepancies in commodity codes, missing origin proof, valuation queries, or licence checks pause clearance. The shipment sits in the ETSF until resolved. See our guide to fixing rejected declarations.

Border Force or Port Health Inspection

Consignments routed for physical inspection or Port Health checks (IPAFFS/CHED for food, plant, animal products) are stored under customs seal at an ETSF pending inspection sign-off.

Groupage (LCL) Deconsolidation

Less-than-container-load shipments must be destuffed at an ETSF so each individual consignment can be inventoried and cleared separately — where container devanning and ETSF storage overlap.

What ETSF Storage Costs & How to Avoid It

Budget approximately £20 to £60 per container per day for facility storage, plus a £20 to £50 administration charge for the temporary storage entry. Charges commence upon physical ingate and continue daily until customs release is transmitted.

ETSF storage is an avoidable expense that yields no commercial benefit. Pre-lodging declarations prior to arrival and verifying that commercial invoices, packing lists, and transport documents reconcile perfectly eliminates temporary storage delays entirely.

For full price transparency, consult our UK customs clearance cost benchmark, customs broker fee guide, and Felixstowe cost breakdown.

Where We Clear Temporary-Storage Cargo

Southampton handles some of the highest ETSF volumes in the UK, but we operate direct inventory links across all inventory-controlled UK seaports and air-freight transit sheds.

Southampton Docks

Solent & Western Docks

Major hub for ETSF container dwell and vehicle logistics. Direct Pentant/Destin8 links for fast temporary storage releases and local devanning.

Southampton clearance →

Port of Felixstowe

Trinity & Berths 8/9

Britain's premier container gateway with extensive off-dock ETSF facilities across Suffolk and the A14 Golden Triangle corridor.

Felixstowe clearance →

London Gateway & Tilbury

Thames Estuary Ports

Deep-water terminal ETSF facilities, dockside logistics parks, and rapid deconsolidation for London and Home Counties distribution.

London Gateway clearance → Tilbury clearance →

Heathrow Airport

Air-Freight Transit Sheds

Offices based 5 minutes from Heathrow cargo terminals. Rapid release of uncleared air cargo from airline transit sheds and ERTS facilities.

Heathrow air freight clearance →

Liverpool & North West

Merseyside & Seaforth

Handling Transatlantic container traffic at Seaforth (Liverpool2) and regional temporary storage facilities across Merseyside and Cheshire.

Liverpool clearance →

Nationwide Network

All 26 UK Gateways

Full inventory-linked coverage across Dover, Immingham, Teesport, Bristol, Manchester Airport, East Midlands, and Scottish ports.

View all 26 UK Seaports →

ERTS and ETSF Questions

Common queries about UK temporary storage rules, costs, and cargo release.

An ETSF (External Temporary Storage Facility) is a site approved by HMRC to hold imported goods that have arrived in the UK but have not yet been customs cleared. The goods are under customs control: duty and VAT are not yet due, and nothing can be sold, processed or moved on until a declaration is accepted. Most ETSFs sit just outside a port or airport and are linked to the port inventory system.

Yes. ERTS stands for Enhanced Remote Transit Shed, the designation HMRC used before the Union Customs Code alignment. The approval was renamed External Temporary Storage Facility, but the freight trade still says ERTS, and both terms describe the same kind of facility. If a haulier tells you your container has gone to an ERTS, it is in temporary storage.

Ninety days from the date the goods are presented to customs. Within that window the goods must be placed under a customs procedure: released to free circulation, entered into a customs warehouse, or moved under transit. Goods still sitting in temporary storage after 90 days can be seized and disposed of by HMRC, and storage charges accrue daily the whole time.

Expect roughly £20 to £60 per container per day at the facility, plus an administration fee of about £20 to £50 for the storage entry itself. The charge runs from the day the container is received until the day it is released, which is why a declaration pre-lodged before the vessel arrives is almost always cheaper than sorting the paperwork out afterwards.

Time and purpose. An ETSF holds uncleared goods for up to 90 days while a declaration is prepared. A customs warehouse, which most people call a bonded warehouse, holds goods indefinitely with duty and import VAT suspended until they are removed, which suits stock you intend to store, re-export or release in batches. Goods can move from an ETSF into a customs warehouse, and Gxpresss arranges that transfer.

Yes. Southampton is one of the busiest UK locations for ETSF traffic, and we clear cargo held in temporary storage there as well as at Felixstowe, London Gateway, Tilbury, Liverpool, Dover and the Heathrow air-freight sheds. Send us the entry reference and we will tell you what is holding the release.

Related Services

What usually happens before and after temporary storage.

Customs Clearance

The compliant declaration that ends the storage clock

Customs clearance →

Bonded Warehousing

Duty-suspended storage with no 90-day limit

Bonded warehousing →

Container Devanning

Stripping, inspecting and palletising the load

Devan & shunting →

Door-to-Door Delivery

Immediate onward distribution once released

Door-to-door delivery →

Industries We Serve

Specialist customs and temporary storage support for regulated sectors.

Pharmaceutical

Time-critical temperature-sensitive cargo clearance

Pharma logistics →

Automotive

Just-in-time manufacturing parts and vehicle clearances

Automotive logistics →

Food & Beverage

Port Health, IPAFFS and CHED import compliance

Food & beverage clearance →

Electronics & Retail

High-value inventory, consumer tech and Amazon FBA

Electronics logistics →

Related Services & Trade Solutions

Cargo Sitting in an ERTS or ETSF?

Send us your entry reference. We will identify what is holding release and provide an immediate clearance quote.

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