Freight forwarders sit on a goldmine of export documentation — the exact data needed for duty drawback claims. By offering drawback services to your clients, you create new revenue from data you already handle while helping clients recover duties they didn't know they were owed.
As a freight forwarder, you handle bills of lading, AES filings, and commercial invoices for every shipment. This export documentation is exactly what's needed for the export side of drawback claims.
Offering drawback services to your clients creates a high-margin revenue stream from data you already manage. Importers who use freight forwarders often don't realize their exports qualify for duty refunds.
Proactively identifying drawback opportunities for your clients positions your firm as a strategic partner — not just a logistics provider. Clients who recover significant duty refunds through your services are less likely to switch providers.
Preparing and filing drawback claims for clients is customs business, which requires a licensed customs broker (19 CFR Part 111). Forwarders without a license can identify opportunities and supply export data, and work with a licensed broker who files.
Review your client base for companies that both import and export. These are your drawback candidates. Even clients who import through other brokers but export through you may qualify.
Request CF7501 entry summaries from your clients' customs brokers. You already have the export data — the import data completes the picture for matching.
Use DutyDrawback.ai to match import entries against export shipments. The platform handles HTS classification matching, timing validation, and claim optimization automatically.
Your licensed broker submits the ABI-compliant drawback files to CBP. Track claims through the review and liquidation process, and deliver recovered duties to your clients.
Forwarders that hold a customs broker license typically structure drawback services as a percentage of the recovered duties — commonly 25-40% of the refund. Forwarders without a license work through a licensed broker, who bills the claimant; the broker may pay the forwarder for the referral only under the conditions of 19 CFR 111.36(c), including advance notice of the broker, direct disclosure of the broker's charges, and a power of attorney between the claimant and the broker. Since you're adding value with data you already manage, the marginal cost to your firm is low while the recovered amounts can be substantial.
For a client paying $2M annually in customs duties with 30% export activity, the potential drawback recovery is roughly $594,000 (99% of duties on the exported portion). For a licensed forwarder charging a 30% service fee, that's $178,000 in new revenue — per client.
With DutyDrawback.ai's fixed-fee pricing model, you keep the service margin without paying a percentage of the refund to a software provider.
See how DutyDrawback.ai handles matching, optimization, and ABI-compliant file generation — so you can focus on your clients.
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