Carriage Paid To (CPT) is an Incoterm in which the seller arranges and pays for transport of goods to a named destination, but risk transfers to the buyer as soon as the goods are handed to the first carrier. It works with any mode of transport, including road, rail, air, sea, or a combination. The key point is that the cost split and the risk split happen at two different moments.
How it works
Under CPT, the seller clears the goods for export, contracts the carriage, and pays freight to the agreed destination. Delivery, and therefore the transfer of risk, happens when the goods are handed to the first carrier, not when they arrive. If something is damaged in transit after that handover, the loss sits with the buyer even though the seller paid the freight. Because of this gap, buyers usually arrange their own transit insurance (CIP is the version where the seller must insure).
Why it matters for quoting
Naming the Incoterm on a quote removes ambiguity about who pays freight and who carries risk. For cross-border B2B sales, “CPT [destination], Incoterms 2020” tells the buyer exactly what is and is not included in your price. Leaving it off invites disputes over damaged shipments and surprise carriage charges.
Example
A UK supplier quotes machinery to a buyer in Rotterdam as “CPT Rotterdam.” The supplier books and pays the carrier to Rotterdam. Once the goods are collected by that first carrier in the UK, risk passes to the buyer, who arranges insurance for the journey.
When you build cross-border quotes on Shopify, state the Incoterm and named place in the line items or terms so the delivered price and risk point are unambiguous before the buyer accepts. See the B2B quoting glossary for related terms like CIP, DAP, and FCA.