Multimodal Transport Claim

6900 Words28 Pages
1. Introduction The most far reaching impact of containerization on the role of freight forwarders is their involvement in multimodal transport, carriage of goods by more than one mode of transport under a single contract. When a freight forwarder acts as a multimodal transport operator, he assumes responsibility for the execution of the multimodal transport contract, and of the carriers participating in the multimodal transport operations. He may enter into separate contracts with individual transport operators and provides of services, but these subcontracts would not affect his obligations to the consignor for the performance of the multimodal transport contract and his liability to him arising under the contract. When a forwarder acts as multimodal transport operator, it thus involves a major transformation of his role. The carriers for whom he was previously acting as an intermediary become his subcontractors and he becomes the principal. Multimodal transportation is not a recent invention since any consignment coming from overseas and destined inland will be travelling on multi modes of transport utilizing sea, rail, air or road. Now maybe even more than ever before, as circumstances in the transport sector have vastly improve especially the last few decades the sophistication and efficiency of the international carriage of goods have increased rapidly. This is due, in part, to the augmented usage of the container. In the 1950’s shippers began using containers as they provided significant operational and economic advantages. In addition to these practical benefits however, there are also several legal reasons that can be named as to why a shipper or a freight forwarder would opt to conclude a multimodal carriage contract instead of contracting with separate carriers for each transport stage. Firstly, contracting separately means
Open Document