Taking your robot abroad?
You probably need an ATA Carnet.
Trade fair in Munich, customer demo in London, field test in Boston. Every time a robot crosses a border, customs wants import duties and VAT on it, unless you can prove it's coming back. The ATA Carnet is the document that proves it. This site explains the whole system in plain language. It's written for robotics companies, with opening hours, exact office locations and a link to every official source.
Find what you need
What is an ATA Carnet?
The "passport for goods" explained: how it works, what it costs, which ~80 countries accept it, and the new digital eATA carnet.
Carnets for robotics companies
Demos, trade fairs, pilots and field tests: when a carnet is the right tool, what to put on it (robots, batteries, spares, tools), and the traps that catch robotics teams.
Get a carnet in Switzerland
Step-by-step through ataswiss.ch: which chamber of commerce, fees, security deposits, processing times, express options.
Using your carnet at the border
The six customs touchpoints from activation to discharge, what to do when you miss a stamp, and why counterfoils must never leave the booklet.
Zurich Airport
Where the customs office is (landside, Check-in 1), its opening hours, and the checked-baggage procedure.
Basel & EuroAirport
The airport with two customs administrations, plus the 24/7 motorway crossings at Basel/Weil and Basel/St-Louis.
Geneva Airport
The customs office at Terminal 1 arrivals, daily until midnight for opened carnets. Plus the Palexpo exhibition office.
Road borders
Driving to Germany, France, Italy or Austria: which crossings can stamp a carnet, when, and which ones work around the clock.
Common mistakes
What actually trips people up, ranked: starting too late, bad goods lists, lost paperwork, wrong offices, missed stamps.
Something went wrong?
Recovery playbooks for Switzerland: missed stamps, lost carnets, urgent carnets, expiring carnets, claim letters.
The 60-second version
- A carnet is a passport for your equipment. One booklet (or, since June 2026, a QR code in an app) replaces customs declarations and deposits in around 80 countries for up to 12 months, as long as everything comes back unchanged.
- You get it from a chamber of commerce, not from customs. In Switzerland you apply online at ataswiss.ch through your regional chamber. Typical cost: about CHF 95–130 plus 1‰ of the goods value, plus a refundable security.
- Customs must see it at every border. Activation in Switzerland, export stamp, import stamp abroad, re-export stamp, re-import stamp, then back to the chamber. Miss a stamp and you risk paying full import duties plus a 10% penalty.
- Plan around opening hours. Opening a brand-new carnet only works at commercial customs offices during business hours. Stamping an already-opened carnet works much longer, around the clock at the major motorway crossings.
New to all of this? Start with What is an ATA Carnet? It assumes you know nothing about customs, which is exactly where most people start.
Why a site just for robotics?
Because robots are an awkward fit for generic customs guides. A robot is expensive, so the duty exposure is real money. It's full of serialised components, so the goods list matters. It runs on lithium batteries, which tangles transport rules up with customs rules. Parts of it can be export-controlled (cameras, autonomy). And it travels constantly: demos, fairs, pilots. A mobile-robotics startup demoing an inspection robot at a trade fair in Stuttgart, a drone maker flying test units to a customer in Rotterdam, a surgical-robotics team exhibiting in Chicago... they all hit the same questions, and the answers are scattered across customs administrations and chambers of commerce. This site puts them in one place, with the official source linked next to every claim.
The guide currently covers Switzerland in depth. Guides for the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States and Canada are planned.