Liabilities and Responsibilities of Common Carrier under Carriage by Road Act, 2007

Authored by: Sakshi Sehgal
Course: BA.LLB (Year 2)
Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar
(Intern at Ledroit India)

Abstract
In the age of globalization and e-commerce, we are all reliant on common carriers like the post office, couriers, and parcel delivery services, and frequently we blindly fall back on their terms and conditions. However, we generally forget or are oblivious of the responsibilities and liabilities that a common carrier has. This article discusses and highlights the duties as well as the liabilities of a common carrier in respect to the consignment to the consignee. All the provisions discussed in this article are in the light of Carriage by Road Act, 2007. With the growing need of transport of goods between in cities and states in view of increasing e-commerce, comes the need to generate awareness about what all protections does the law has for the consignee in case of any loss suffered and the article tends to deal with the same.

Keywords: Common Carrier, Consignment, Consignee, Responsibilities and Liabilities, Carriage by Road Act, 2007.

Introduction
The history of the Carriage Act is protracted and tumultuous. The Carriage by Road Act 2007 repealed the older Carriers Act of 1865 via notification dated September 29, 2007. The revised Act’s Section 22 similarly makes reference to the same thing. The British Carriers Act of 1830, which in many ways was the first governmental intervention in the sphere of goods carriage, served as the foundation for the present Act of 1865. Originally, all common carriers operating on land, including both road and railroad conveyance, were covered by this UK Act from 1830. And the Statute of 2007 was an Act to regulate common carriers, limiting their liability, and declaring the value of goods delivered to them to determine their liability for loss of or damage to such goods occasioned by the negligence or criminal acts of themselves, their servants, or agents, as well as for matters related to or incidental to that regulation. The Carriage by Road Act 2007 and the Carriage by Road Rules 2011, when read together, are in many ways detrimental to the interests of insurers and, more specifically, those who use the services of transporters. As is obvious, the contract of carriage is an agreement between the transporters, the carrier, and the owner of the goods. Consignor, consignee, and insurers are not considered direct parties to the contract. Only when a claim has been paid are commodities entered as subrogees when they are insured. The extent of recovery is in danger because of this subrogation, specifically. The owners are often very apprehensive about the safe transit of their goods from one location to another, and they need financial security to cover any risks that could obstruct this. Therefore, the Carriage by Road Act of 2007 was passed by the legislature in order to safeguard both the interests of such traders and the carriers, and is the main focus of this study.

Kinds of Carriers
There are generally three kinds of carriers:

1. Private Carrier: A person is referred to as a Private Carrier when they occasionally carry products or do so under a special agreement. Since he is a bailee, he is accountable for any losses or damages, and proof of carelessness is required to hold him accountable. Right now, a lot of the bigger commercial and industrial enterprises use their trucks or vans to carry their goods. They are a private carrier, often known as a contract carrier, when they accept products pursuant to specific contracts.
2. Common Carrier: A person engaged in the business of collecting, storing, forwarding, or distributing goods to be carried by goods under a goods receipt or transporting goods for hire from place to place by motorized transport on the road is referred to as a common carrier. This includes goods booking companies, contractors, agents, brokers, and courier agencies involved in door-to-door transportation of documents, goods, or items using the services of a person, either directly or indirectly. [According to Carriage by Road Act,2007]
3. Gratuitous Carrier: In this type of carrier, one person agrees to transport items for no fee. There is no recourse available if a “Gratuitous Carrier” declines to receive goods. However, he becomes accountable for losses once he provides the go-ahead to transport goods.

Liabilities of Common Carrier

1. Duration of Liability: According to the Section 15 of Carriage by Road Act 2007, The common carrier is responsible for the products from the moment they are accepted, whether personally or through an authorised agent or employee. This responsibility extends up to the actual or constructive delivery of the goods to the consignee, and not just until they arrive at their destination. However, if the agent of the carrier accepts the goods without authorization, in excess of authorization, or against instructions, the carrier is not obligated by that receipt unless it can be demonstrated that he was holding out that person for that reason.
2. Extent of Liability: According to the proceeds of Section 10 (1) of the act, the liability of the common carrier in case of any loss or damage to the consignment due to his negligence will be equal to the declared value of the goods, provided that the consignor or any other authorised person has expressly taken in to account to pay more amount for the same. Sub section 2 of section 10 states that if there is any delay in the delivery of the goods and there is any loss of or damage to the goods, the liability of the common carrier would be equal to the amount of freight charges.
3. When the delay caused is not the fault of the common carrier: Section 11 of the act provides that if the delay in the delivery is caused without any fault on the part of the common carrier, he shall not be made liable. The burden of proof to prove no fault lies on the common carrier.
4. Conditions limiting exonerating liability: Section 12 of the act provides that the common carrier shall be held liable for any loss, damage or non- delivery of the goods due to any criminal act done by him or his agents. However, they may not be held liable if the goods are confiscated by any authority to check and they find that the package contains prohibited goods or the tax on the goods is either not paid or insufficiently paid by the consignor.
5. General responsibility/ liability: With a few exceptions, such as acts of God, acts of war or public enemies, riots, arrest or seizure, and law, order, restriction, or prohibition, the common carrier has a general responsibility for the loss, destruction, damage, or deterioration in transit or non-delivery of any consignment entrusted to him for carriage in addition to the penalties mentioned above. However, the carrier would be responsible for any loss or damage that resulted from his carelessness (section 17). Duties of Common Carrier
6. Registration: Section 3 of the act prescribes a duty on any person who is in the business of the common carrier must apply to register himself within90 days of the commencement of the act.
7. Grant or Renewal of Certificate: In accordance with Section 4(1), anyone conducting or planning to do business as a common carrier must submit an application to the registering authority for the issuance or renewal of a certificate of registration for doing so.
8. Duty when he Certificate is Revoked: According to Section 5(6), when the certificate of registration is revoked, the holder must surrender the certificate to the registering authority within 30 days, and it is their responsibility to finish the delivery and other transactions related to the consignments that the common carrier has already accepted from any consignor before the certificate of registration is revoked.
9. Loading of the Motor Vehicle: Under the pursuits of Section 4(8), The gross vehicle weight specified in the registration certificate whose registration number is mentioned in the goods forwarding note or the goods receipt must not be exceeded by the common carrier when loading a motor vehicle, and the common carrier must not permit such a vehicle to be loaded above the gross vehicle weight.
10. Goods Receipt: Under the provisions of Section 9, the common carrier must issue a goods receipt on receiving the goods by consignor or in another case, on completion of the loading of goods by the consignor. He must triplicate the receipt and give the original copy to the consignor.
11. Carriage of Hazardous Goods: In accordance with Section 13, no common carrier shall transport any goods that are hazardous or dangerous to human life without complying with safeguard measures prescribed by Central Government. The common carrier must ensure that the goods are insured under the contract of insurance against any injury to or death of any human or damage to property or consignment in case of an accident.

Conclusion
In light of this, it can be said that the Carriage by Road Act of 2007 has the ability to defend the interests of naive traders and consignors who are frequently taken advantage of or even duped by dishonest members of the road transport industry and their agents. The Act poses a significant obstacle for over speeding transporters operating in the nation’s road transportation industry because it largely regulates common carriers’ activities. When read by a person of average prudence, the Act appears to be sufficient, but a person who works in this trade might find that this is not the case. In order to have a perfect legislation in this area of trade and commerce, the trading community must thus step forward to help, just as they did when asked to offer objections and recommendations in the development of the Carriage by Road Rules.

References

1. Carriage by Road Act, 2007
   https://www.indiacode.nic.in/handle/123456789/2043?view_type=browse&sam_handle=123456789/1362
2. Common Carrier by Lisa C. Townes, March 28, 2020 https://businessfinancearticles.org/common-carrier
3. The Carriage by Road Act February 14, 2015 By Aakash Kumbhat
   https://www.lawctopus.com/academike/the-carriage-by-road-act/#_edn13