PortMiami and Port Everglades are both in South Florida and both serve the Caribbean and Latin America, so small carriers and NVOCCs often use both. The right choice for a given lane usually depends less on the port itself than on which services call there, where your cargo and warehouse are, and what your customers need. Here is what each port says about itself, and what does not change between them.
For U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the two ports are separate ports of entry under the same field office. CBP’s Florida port list shows Miami Seaport as port code 5201 and Port Everglades/Fort Lauderdale as port code 5203, and both appear under the Miami field office. The port code is one of the details your manifest and export filings must get right, so a carrier that uses both ports needs its system set up for both.
Everything else about the rules is identical. The 24-hour advance manifest rule, ISF for importers, EEI for exporters and the bill of lading requirements do not change with the dock. What changes is the infrastructure, the services that call and the logistics around each port.
In practice, the port of loading appears on the booking, the dock receipt, the bill of lading, the export filing and the invoice. When a shipment moves from one port to the other after it is booked, which happens when a sailing is rolled or a service changes, that change has to reach every one of those documents, not just the one that prompted it.
PortMiami is run by Miami-Dade County and describes itself as the Cargo Gateway of the Americas, “located at the cross-roads of north-south and east-west trade lanes.” From its own pages:
For small carriers, PortMiami’s location next to downtown and the Miami River cluster of forwarders and consolidators can be as important as any crane.
Port Everglades is in Broward County, with its address in Fort Lauderdale. Its cargo pages say the port is positioned for companies doing business in Central and South America, the Caribbean, Europe and the Far East, and that its container services are “primarily focused on North-South trade with Caribbean and Latin American countries.” From its own pages:
| PortMiami | Port Everglades | |
|---|---|---|
| CBP port code | 5201 (Miami Seaport) | 5203 (Port Everglades/Fort Lauderdale) |
| Operator | Miami-Dade County | Broward County |
| Highway access | Port Tunnel, direct to the interstate system | Direct access to Florida’s interstate and highway systems |
| Rail | On-dock intermodal rail (FEC) | 43-acre near-dock ICTF (FEC) |
| Trade focus stated by the port | North-south and east-west lanes | Mainly North-South with the Caribbean and Latin America |
| Other | Channel at -50/-52 feet after Deep Dredge | Foreign-Trade Zone inside the port; bulk and break bulk |
For a small carrier or NVOCC, the port is usually chosen by the services, not the other way around. Before you commit a lane to one port, work through these:
Both ports publish their own tariffs, and the charges in them end up in your ocean rates one way or another. Port Everglades says its Tariff No. 12 is electronically filed with the Federal Maritime Commission and sets dockage, wharfage, storage and demurrage, crane rental and miscellaneous charges, along with rules on berths, free time, security, billing and insurance. PortMiami publishes its own terminal tariff on the Miami-Dade County website, including wharfage by section.
For a small NVOCC, the practical point is that the same container can carry different port-side costs depending on where it loads, and your terminal operator may add its own charges on top. When you build a quotation for a lane served from both ports, price each port separately rather than assuming one number fits both, and recheck when a new tariff year starts.
Carriers that move freely between PortMiami and Port Everglades tend to have a few things in place:
Whatever you choose, the compliance work is the same. Inbound ocean cargo data goes to CBP 24 hours before loading at the foreign port, and outbound EEI is due 24 hours before loading in Florida, with the ITN passed to the carrier. Our guide on documents for shipping from PortMiami to the Caribbean covers the export side in detail.
The practical risk with two ports is human: someone copies last week’s booking and the port of loading stays wrong. In GDZ-ISIS, port, vessel and voyage flow from the booking into the bill of lading, the ACE manifest and the invoice, so a carrier working out of PortMiami and Port Everglades runs both from the same data.
Both serve the Caribbean and Latin America. Port Everglades says its container services focus mainly on North-South trade with those regions, and PortMiami calls itself the Cargo Gateway of the Americas. The better choice depends on which carriers serve your lane, where your cargo is, and your cutoffs.
CBP lists Miami Seaport as port code 5201 and Port Everglades/Fort Lauderdale as port code 5203. Both are under CBP’s Miami field office.
No. The manifest, ISF, EEI and bill of lading rules are federal and apply the same way at both. Port codes, terminals and local procedures differ.
Yes. The port describes it as Florida’s first and largest Foreign-Trade Zone, located in the heart of Port Everglades, with U.S. Customs-protected warehousing.
Yes. PortMiami has on-dock intermodal rail with Florida East Coast Railway, and the port says it invested $50 million to modernize its on-dock freight rail system.