CMR: the consignment note

The term CMR comes from the French, Convention relative au contrat de transport international de marchandises par route, and describes the agreement of all participating states on the contract of carriage in international road freight transport. All agreements can be read in detail in the consignment note. This is always given to the carrier prior to transportation.

The CMR consignment note (see diagram) is used if, for example, the location where the goods are taken over and the location where the goods are delivered are in two different countries. However, at least one of the two countries must have agreed to the convention. All member states of the European Union and other non-EU countries such as Iceland, Russia and Turkey are automatically members. Non-EU states must recognize the agreement in advance by contract and, if applied, override national law. In Germany, the consignment note has been in force since 05.02.1961. As the regulations only affect international transportation, the German Commercial Code (HGB) applies to road freight transportation within Germany.

The contractual requirement for the consignment note: The document must be available in either English or French to the respective contracting parties. The CMR agreement is exclusively an international contract and does not apply within national borders.

Consignment note in intralogistics

In intralogistics, the freight is picked in the warehouse and, usually on EU pallets, handed over to extralogistics via the outgoing goods department. The creation of the consignment note is only initiated after loading has been completed. With modern warehouse management systems, this is often done automatically from the data collected directly from the material flow process. See also the point “Most important regulations of the consignment note”. If the goods leave the warehouse by truck, the consignment note serves as proof of the documented content and as a receipt of acceptance by the carrier from the time the freight is accepted.

Most important provisions of the consignment note

  • If a situation is not adequately regulated by the CMR, national law also applies.
  • Transport damage and other liability issues are regulated by the consignment note. See “Structure of the CMR consignment note – Chapter 2 4”. Nationally, however, HGB and insurance would apply.
  • The consignment note is intended exclusively for the loading of road vehicles. This does not include individual containers or swap bodies. The vehicle itself must also be loaded.
  • Necessary details in the consignment note are Consignor, consignee, attached documents, type and quantity of transported goods, license plate number, carrier.

Structure of the CMR consignment note

  • Chapter 1, Articles 1 – 2 CMR: Scope of application
  • Chapter 2 4, Articles 3, 17 – 29 CMR: Liability provisions for carriers
  • Chapter 3, Articles 4 – 16 CMR: Provisions on the conclusion of the contract of carriage
  • All other chapters or articles deal with complaints and different carriers (change of driver).

For more information on this topic, please also read the articles “the transport network” and EDIfact: the international and cross-industry standard for the electronic exchange of business data.

Article source: Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (CMR)

License: Graphic CMR consignment note (CC BY-SA 3.0) / Graphic consignment note (large)

Teaser image / GNU License