The CBSA will expect a house bill close message and lower-level house bills if the consolidated freight indicator on the house bill is marked as “Yes”. If not, indicating the shipment is not consolidated, the CBSA will expect an associated release. For house bill submissions that will undergo further deconsolidation, the Consolidation Indicator must be set to “Yes” to ensure proper cargo matching. Only a bonded freight forwarder can submit a consolidated House bill, while a non-bonded freight forwarder can only submit non-consolidated House bills for release at the First Port of Arrival.

It is important to note that, from the CBSA’s perspective, consolidation occurs when a carrier, consolidator, or freight forwarder groups multiple smaller shipments together as one shipment, shipped to another carrier, agent, or freight forwarder, and reported to the CBSA under a single cargo control number (CCN). Deconsolidation takes place when a consolidated shipment is divided into individual shipments for individual consignees and reported to the CBSA on individual supplementary reports with their own cargo control numbers (CCDs).