Typically known as the letter of co-voiturage, a CMR document is a paper introduced in the 1956 convention held at Geneva. And also, the objective was to standardize the contract format for international freight transport to avoid all sorts of disparities among various countries of the former CECA.
Over time, the European economy has faced acceleration and deregulation. But in all this, the format of the consignment note remains the same as in the CMR convention. This article will explore the significance of the CMR convention in cross-border cargo transport across Europe.
Read on to learn the ways CMR changes the shipping industry.
In post-war Europe, polities desired a simplified and standardized system to regulate cross-frontier cargo transport by road. And also, the CMR convention allowed this by offering a unified solution with a comprehensive set of rules.
Due to malpractices by transport companies, the international cargo industry was facing difficulties when resolving disputes. With the CMR convention in action, the process was streamlined and had fewer technical loopholes. And also, the convention protected the rights of the shippers and customers intelligently. It did so by imposing liabilities to the carrier companies in case of damage and delay.
As of January 2022, 58 nations ratify its protocols of it. This recognition acts as an added layer of safety as all these states have their local regulation laws for domestic transport.
Here’s why the CMR document is so important:
The CMR document or the consignment note holds all pertinent information about the consignee, carrier, and cargo. For this reason, it gets perceived as the main point of reference in case any dispute arises.
According to the CMR convention, the documentation of a consignment note is comprehensive. Each freight vehicle gets a unique CMR contract, where three identical copies remain with the consignor, consignee, and the carrier company.
In 2008, the European Union included a new section in the convention which lets the users operate on electronic CMR documents. As the ink-and-paper-based method is becoming discouraged by businesses globally, companies are shifting their CMR data to PDF and other reliable digital formats. With online tools, this data is much more straightforward to work with.
With the digitization of paper documents, the consignment note has also evolved. Now, several countries are using eCMR to ratify the newest protocols to increase efficiency and transparency in the entire process.
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