CMR Convention
The mandatory regime for international carriage of goods by road in Europe, with its consignment note, its defenses and its per kilogram limit.
Protocol of July 5, 1978: under the CMR, the road carrier answers for at most 8.33 special drawing rights per kilogram of gross weight short. A 400 kilogram pallet of electronic components worth 200,000 euros therefore gives a maximum entitlement of 3,332 SDR, a few thousand euros, and that gap is what pushes shippers toward a cargo policy rather than recovery from the carrier alone. The convention, signed in Geneva on May 19, 1956, governs mandatorily any road carriage where taking over and delivery lie in two different countries, at least one of them a party, and the parties cannot contract out. The carrier answers for loss, damage and delay from taking over to delivery, unless it establishes one of the listed defenses, inherent vice or insufficient packing for instance. The per kilogram limit ignores actual value and falls only for willful misconduct or equivalent fault under the law of the forum. The consignment note is evidence of the contract and of the taking over; the additional protocol of February 20, 2008 opened the way to its electronic version.
The protocol of July 5, 1978 set the limit at 8.33 special drawing rights per kilogram short. A 400 kilogram pallet of electronic components worth 200,000 euros therefore gives a maximum entitlement of 3,332 special drawing rights, a few thousand euros. That gap explains why shippers buy a cargo policy rather than rely on recovery from the carrier.
Follow the research
One letter a week. First, the week's underwriting note, when one is published: a dated, argued decision, signed by Paul Bernardski. Then what the observatory published on cyber risk, political risk and insurance. No account, no tracking.
No spam, one-click unsubscribe, no data ever sold.