CMR consignment note: particulars, reservations and liability

The CMR consignment note: what are we talking about?

CMR stands for the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road, signed in Geneva on 19 May 1956. It applies to any carriage of goods by road for reward when the place of taking over and the place designated for delivery are in two different countries, at least one of which is a party to the Convention. The domicile and nationality of the parties make no difference. It leaves aside only consignments carried under international postal conventions, funeral consignments and furniture removals, and it keeps applying when the loaded vehicle is itself carried by sea, rail or air for part of the journey without the goods being unloaded.

In everyday use, “the CMR” also means the document itself: the international consignment note. It is the sheet the driver produces at loading, has signed at unloading, and that everyone looks for the moment a package is missing. It records the contract, sets out its terms and travels with the goods from start to finish.

The Convention is explicit on a point that is often misread: the contract of carriage exists without it. The absence, irregularity or loss of the consignment note affects neither the existence nor the validity of the contract, which remains governed by the Convention. What is lost by doing without it is not the contract: it is the instrument of proof, and the presumptions attached to it.

Domestic or CMR: which document for which journey

Two regimes coexist, and the document is not the same. Carriage within France falls under the commercial code and the statutory standard contracts; carriage by road between two countries, at least one of which is a party to the Convention, falls under CMR. In both cases the document must be on board: French transport law requires a consignment note, domestic or international, to travel in the vehicle, on paper or in electronic form, and the transport company to keep it for two years.

One movement can fall under both regimes when it is split into separate contracts, for instance an international trunking leg followed by a separate contract for final delivery in France: each contract then keeps its own rules, its own document and its own deadlines. Conversely, a single international contract of carriage performed by successive carriers stays entirely under the Convention. All the more reason for one contact to hold the file from collection to delivery.

The mandatory particulars of the consignment note

The Convention lists what the consignment note must contain. The list is short and leaves no room for approximation: these are the lines on which disputes are settled.

The French domestic regime is shorter. The order that governs it calls for the date the document was issued, the carrier's name, address and registration number, the date the goods were taken over, the nature and quantity of the goods, the names of the sender or of the party handing over the goods, and of the consignee, and the full addresses of the loading and unloading points.

Three copies, three uses

The consignment note is made out in three original copies, signed by the sender and by the carrier. These are not three copies out of courtesy: each has its holder and its use.

Where the goods have to be loaded in different vehicles, or where they are of different kinds or divided into different lots, either the sender or the carrier may require as many consignment notes as there are vehicles or lots. That is what makes it possible to trace a split shipment without losing the evidence for each part. On arrival, the consignee may require the second copy to be handed over with the goods, against a receipt: that copy is the consignee's own title. Nor is the first copy a mere receipt: it is by producing it that the sender exercises the right to dispose of the goods en route, to stop the carriage, change the place of delivery or the consignee, until that right passes to the consignee with the second copy.

Who fills in what

The consignment note is a shared document, which explains most disputes: each party is answerable for what it writes on it, and for what it leaves out.

One point deserves to be said plainly. A driver who cannot check the contents, because the trailer was loaded and sealed by the sender, must say so on the document. A reasoned reservation displaces the presumption; a boilerplate reservation, entered systematically and without grounds, protects no one. Those reservations bind the sender only if it has expressly accepted them on the consignment note: an unaccepted reservation does not bind the sender, and its evidential value is weighed case by case. As for the weight and the contents of packages, checking them is not owed as a matter of course: the sender may require it, and the carrier may charge for it.

What the consignment note proves

The Convention gives it a precise evidential weight: it is prima facie evidence of the making of the contract, of its conditions and of the receipt of the goods by the carrier.

A presumption comes with it. In the absence of reasoned reservations by the carrier, the goods and their packaging are presumed to have been in apparent good condition when taken over, and the number of packages, their marks and their numbers to have matched the statements in the note. In other words: whatever was not challenged at loading is taken to be accurate.

Reservations on delivery: the deadlines not to miss

This is the costliest part of the subject. Loss or damage recorded too late, or notified through a channel the text does not provide for, becomes very hard to have compensated; for delay, it is a guillotine.

Two details change everything. In international carriage the day of delivery is not counted in the deadline, and reservations must be in writing as soon as the loss or damage is not apparent. Their effect differs too: for loss or damage, taking delivery without reservation merely raises a presumption of acceptance in good order, which can still be rebutted; for delay, without a written reservation within twenty-one days, no compensation is due at all. And a useful reservation is a precise one: nature of the damage, packages affected, quantities. “Subject to unpacking” has never proved anything.

Under the French domestic regime, the three-day reasoned protest covers only damage and partial loss, total loss falling outside it, and it is served by registered letter or by bailiff's writ; a request for a court-appointed survey made within the same period counts as a protest. The courts accept that a precise, complete reservation unequivocally accepted by the carrier on delivery may stand in for the protest: to be safe, serve the protest in every case. Finally, goods not delivered within thirty days after the agreed time limit, or within sixty days after taking over where no time limit was agreed, may be treated as lost without further proof.

Liability and compensation: how far the carrier goes

The carrier is liable for total or partial loss and for damage occurring between the taking over of the goods and their delivery, as well as for delay. That liability is not unlimited: the Convention caps the compensation, and the cap often comes as a surprise.

It is relieved of liability if it proves that the loss, damage or delay was caused by the wrongful act or instructions of the claimant, by an inherent defect of the goods or by circumstances it could neither avoid nor overcome. The Convention also eases its burden of proof for certain special risks: absent or defective packaging, loading, stowage or unloading done by the sender or the consignee, goods exposed by their nature, an open vehicle agreed upon, insufficient marks or numbers. Conversely, it loses every ceiling and every easing of proof if the damage results from its wilful misconduct or from a fault the court seised treats as equivalent; in French law, that is inexcusable fault.

The SDR, or Special Drawing Right, is the unit of account of the International Monetary Fund: it is converted into the currency of the court seised, at the date of the judgment or at a date agreed between the parties. Remember the order of magnitude rather than the figure: for light, high-value goods the ceiling per kilogram stays far below the real value. That is where a declaration of value earns its place. Insurance on the goods, for its part, does not touch the carrier's ceiling: it covers the consignment up to the amount insured, and the insurer then turns against whoever is liable.

Under the domestic regime, in the absence of a written agreement between the parties, the statutory standard contracts apply automatically, with their own ceilings, expressed per kilogram and per package or per tonne depending on the weight of the consignment. Check which one applies to your flows before you commit: it is a negotiable point, just as the Incoterm is, which settles the split between seller and buyer.

e-CMR: the electronic consignment note

The electronic consignment note has existed since an additional protocol signed in Geneva in 2008, which France published by decree in early 2017. The principle is simple: the e-CMR is equivalent to the paper consignment note and carries the same evidential weight, provided it is authenticated by a reliable electronic signature, linked to the signatory and making any alteration detectable, or by any other electronic authentication method permitted by the law of the country where it is made out.

Neither the Convention nor French law makes it compulsory. Above all it requires the protocol to be in force in the countries where the note is made out and where it will have to be relied upon, which is not yet the case everywhere. On the flows where it can be used, it settles two familiar irritations: proof of delivery that takes days to come back, and the mislaid copy.

What we do with it

As a freight forwarder, we organise the carriage and we guarantee its proper completion, including when the carrier named on the consignment note is a partner we have chosen. The consignment note is therefore our working document as much as yours: we check the particulars before collection, we retrieve the signed copy, and we handle reservations when there are any. On your international flows, our freight forwarding and customs teams work on the same file, which spares everyone three versions of the same shipment.