CBP Form 6043: Delivery Ticket Rules for Bonded Warehouses

Key Points

• CBP Form 6043, Delivery Ticket, is the record of merchandise delivered into a bonded warehouse or container freight station under CBP supervision, and it is the custody record the warehouse proprietor keeps.
• CBP Form 6043 is not the cargo release: release is accomplished by CBP Form 3461 or the ACE release message, and CBP Form 6043 is not a commercial delivery order either.
• The bonded warehouse custody and recordkeeping framework sits in 19 CFR Part 19, with the receipt and delivery provisions at 19 CFR 19.6.
• The proprietor's own annual reconciliation of what the warehouse holds is made on CBP Form 300, Bonded Warehouse Proprietor's Submission, which CBP tests against the delivery tickets and warehouse books.
• As of October 2026, confirm the current form edition, filing channel, and any port-specific practice with CBP and with the current form instructions before changing a warehouse procedure.

On this page

1. What CBP Form 6043 is and where it comes from
2. At a glance
3. Who prepares CBP Form 6043 and when in the lifecycle
4. How CBP Form 6043 is completed, transmitted, and retained
5. What typically goes wrong with CBP Form 6043
6. How CBP Form 6043 relates to other CBP forms
7. Frequently asked questions
8. What importers and brokers should do
9. Key references

CBP Form 6043, Delivery Ticket, is the document that records the delivery of merchandise into a bonded warehouse or a container freight station under CBP supervision, and it serves as the custody record the warehouse proprietor keeps for that merchandise. It is prepared and signed in connection with the physical movement of the goods into the bonded facility, after cargo release has been secured by other means, and it establishes the point at which responsibility for the goods passes to the proprietor. CBP Form 6043 is not a cargo release document (that is CBP Form 3461 or the ACE release message) and it is not a general commercial delivery order.

The links in this article go to the primary documents: the regulations and the official CBP form and program pages themselves. Read the source.

At a glance

• Full name: CBP Form 6043, Delivery Ticket.
• Who prepares or uses it: the delivering carrier or cartman and the bonded warehouse or container freight station proprietor, under CBP supervision; importers and brokers see it as supporting custody evidence.
• When in the lifecycle: at the physical delivery of merchandise into the bonded facility, after release or authorization to move the goods has already been obtained.
• System or channel: varies by port and facility; confirm the current channel, form edition, and any electronic equivalent with CBP.
• Governing authority: the bonded warehouse regulations at 19 CFR Part 19, with receipt and delivery provisions at 19 CFR 19.6.
• What it is not: not a cargo release (CBP Form 3461 or the ACE release message), not an in-bond movement document, not a commercial delivery order.
• Related terms: CBP Form 300, Bonded Warehouse Proprietor's Submission; CBP Form 3173, Application for Extension of Bond for Temporary Importation; CBP Form 368, Collection Receipt; CBP Form 6051D, Custody Receipt for Seized Property and Evidence.

What CBP Form 6043 is and where it comes from

CBP Form 6043, Delivery Ticket, exists because bonded merchandise does not simply arrive somewhere: it moves from one accountable party to another, and CBP needs a documented handoff at each step. Merchandise in a bonded warehouse or a container freight station has not been entered for consumption, duties have not been paid, and the goods remain under CBP custody in the legal sense even though a private proprietor physically holds them. The delivery ticket is the piece of paper that records that the goods arrived at the facility, in what quantity and condition, and that the proprietor accepted them.

The regulatory home for this is 19 CFR Part 19, the bonded warehouse provisions, with the receipt and delivery requirements at 19 CFR 19.6. Those provisions frame the proprietor's duty to account for merchandise received, to note discrepancies, and to keep records that CBP can audit. As of October 2026, read the current text at 19 CFR Part 19 rather than relying on a printed copy, and check the current CBP Form 6043 instructions for the data the form itself calls for.

Why CBP Form 6043 is a custody record, not a release

The distinction matters in a dispute. A release decision answers the question "may these goods leave CBP control at the port?" A delivery ticket answers a different question: "who is holding them now?" CBP Form 6043 fixes the moment the proprietor's warehouse bond becomes the thing standing behind the merchandise. If goods later turn up short, damaged, or missing, the delivery ticket is the first document anyone will pull to establish what the proprietor signed for.

Who prepares CBP Form 6043 and when in the lifecycle

CBP Form 6043 is prepared in connection with the physical delivery of merchandise into the bonded facility, which means the parties involved are the ones touching the freight: the delivering carrier or cartman on one side and the receiving proprietor on the other, with CBP supervising. The sequence is straightforward in principle. Cargo arrives and is manifested. It is released or authorized to move. It travels to the bonded warehouse or container freight station. On arrival, the delivery is recorded and the proprietor takes custody.

Importers and brokers rarely fill out CBP Form 6043 themselves, but they have a direct interest in it. If an importer's goods sit in a bonded warehouse for months before withdrawal, the delivery ticket is the anchor for every quantity figure that follows: withdrawals, manipulations, transfers, and the eventual entry. Brokers reconciling a client's warehouse account against entry documents should be able to tie back to the delivery ticket for the original receipt quantity.

Quantity discrepancies at receipt

The most consequential thing recorded on CBP Form 6043 is the quantity actually received against the quantity expected. Shortages and overages discovered at the dock are far easier to resolve at the moment of delivery than six months later during an inventory count. A proprietor who signs for a quantity that was never delivered has, in practical terms, accepted an accountability for merchandise that does not exist, and that gap surfaces in the annual reconciliation.

How CBP Form 6043 is completed, transmitted, and retained

CBP Form 6043 is completed at the point of delivery and retained by the proprietor as part of the warehouse recordkeeping system that CBP can inspect. The practical mechanics vary by port, facility type, and whether the facility maintains an electronic inventory control system that produces or references the delivery ticket data. Many modern bonded warehouses run automated inventory control and recordkeeping systems in which the receipt event is captured electronically and the form is generated from that record; others still handle paper. Confirm with the port director and the facility's approved procedures which method applies, and check the current form instructions for the required data elements and signatures.

Retention is the part importers underestimate. A delivery ticket is not a throwaway dock document. It belongs in the warehouse's permanent record for the merchandise, available when CBP audits the facility, when the proprietor files CBP Form 300, Bonded Warehouse Proprietor's Submission (the annual inventory reconciliation submission for a bonded warehouse), and when a claim is made about loss or shortage. Our companion piece on CBP Form 300 covers how that annual reconciliation works and why the receipt records feed it.

What typically goes wrong with CBP Form 6043

CBP Form 6043 problems are almost always record quality problems rather than legal interpretation problems, and they tend to surface long after the delivery. The recurring failures are familiar to anyone who has sat through a warehouse audit.

• Signing without counting. The driver is waiting, the dock is busy, and the receiving clerk signs for the manifested quantity instead of the counted quantity. Every downstream figure inherits the error.
• Unrecorded discrepancies. A shortage is noticed but noted only on an internal ticket, never on the CBP Form 6043 itself, so the official custody record and the warehouse's internal record disagree.
• Weak linkage to the entry. The delivery ticket does not clearly reference the entry, in-bond, or bill of lading number, making it impossible to tie the receipt to the merchandise record months later.
• Filing failures. The form exists but cannot be produced on request, which is functionally the same as not having it when CBP asks.
• Treating CBP Form 6043 as a release. Staff assume the delivery ticket authorizes something it does not. Release authority comes from CBP Form 3461 or the ACE release message, not from CBP Form 6043.

The cost of these failures is accountability. Where a proprietor cannot account for bonded merchandise, the exposure runs against the warehouse bond, and the regulatory framework for that sits in 19 CFR Part 19. Confirm the current consequences and any port practice with CBP rather than assuming.

How CBP Form 6043 relates to other CBP forms

CBP Form 6043 sits inside a family of custody, manifest, and accounting documents, and knowing which one answers which question saves time. The arrival side is handled by manifests: CBP Form 1302, Inward Cargo Declaration, is the vessel cargo manifest the master files on arrival listing every bill of lading, filed electronically through ACE ocean manifest with the form as the paper fallback; CBP Form 7509, Air Cargo Manifest, is the carrier's declaration of cargo on an arriving aircraft, now filed electronically through ACE air manifest with the paper form as the fallback; and CBP Form 7533, Inward Cargo Manifest for Vessel Under Five Tons, Ferry, Train, Car, Vehicle, etc. is the arrival manifest for cargo arriving by truck, rail or small vessel at the land border. None of those is a custody record for a bonded facility; CBP Form 6043 is.

Where unlading or lading needs permission or after-hours CBP service, the request is CBP Form 3171, Application-Permit-Special License Unlading-Lading-Overtime Services, which triggers reimbursable overtime; see our note on CBP Form 3171. On the accounting side, CBP Form 368, Collection Receipt, is CBP's receipt for a payment made at a port, the proof an importer keeps for a protest, refund request, or audit, and it is the payment analogue to what CBP Form 6043 does for goods. CBP Form 6051D, Custody Receipt for Seized Property and Evidence, is CBP's receipt describing property it has seized, which is a custody receipt of a very different kind: it records CBP taking the goods rather than a proprietor receiving them.

Two temporary-importation forms sometimes appear near warehouse operations. CBP Form 3173, Application for Extension of Bond for Temporary Importation, is the request to extend the one-year TIB period in one-year increments up to three years total, filed before the current period expires. And CBP Form 434, NAFTA Certificate of Origin, is retired: it was replaced on July 1, 2020 by the USMCA certification of origin, which has no prescribed form and may be any document carrying the nine required data elements. Neither has a role in the delivery ticket itself, but both surface in the same warehouse file.

Frequently asked questions

Is CBP Form 6043 the same as a delivery order?

No. CBP Form 6043, Delivery Ticket, is a CBP custody document recording delivery of merchandise into a bonded warehouse or container freight station under CBP supervision. A commercial delivery order is an instruction from a carrier or forwarder to release freight to a named party and carries no CBP custody significance.

Does CBP Form 6043 release cargo from CBP custody?

No. CBP Form 6043 records a transfer of physical custody into a bonded facility; it does not release merchandise from CBP control. Release is accomplished through CBP Form 3461 or the ACE release message, and merchandise delivered into a bonded warehouse remains subject to the bonded warehouse regime in 19 CFR Part 19.

Who keeps CBP Form 6043 after delivery?

The bonded warehouse or container freight station proprietor keeps CBP Form 6043 as part of the facility's records, available to CBP on request and used to support the warehouse's inventory accounting, including the annual reconciliation on CBP Form 300.

Can CBP Form 6043 be handled electronically?

Practice varies. Many bonded facilities capture receipt data in an approved inventory control and recordkeeping system that generates or supports the delivery ticket record. Confirm with the port director and the current CBP Form 6043 instructions whether an electronic record is acceptable for your facility.

What importers and brokers should do

• Ask your bonded warehouse how it completes and retains CBP Form 6043, and confirm that received quantities are physically counted and that discrepancies are noted on the form at delivery, not later.
• Make sure each CBP Form 6043 carries a clear reference to the entry, in-bond, or bill of lading number so receipts can be tied to merchandise records during an audit or a withdrawal reconciliation.
• Read the current text of 19 CFR 19.6 and the balance of 19 CFR Part 19 alongside the current CBP Form 6043 instructions before writing or revising a warehouse receiving procedure.
• When a shortage or loss emerges, pull the CBP Form 6043 first and reconcile it against the warehouse inventory record and the annual CBP Form 300 submission before responding to CBP.

Key references

• 19 CFR 19.6: the receipt and delivery provisions governing merchandise brought into a bonded warehouse.
• 19 CFR Part 19: the full bonded warehouse regulations, including proprietor responsibilities and recordkeeping.
• CBP forms library: the official source for the current edition of CBP Form 6043, Delivery Ticket, and its instructions.
• Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States: the classification and duty-rate source used when warehoused merchandise is withdrawn for consumption.