Common Carriers

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 516.

Private Carriers

Carriage on land

Carriers of goods by road or rail may be classified as either ‘private' or ‘common'.

A private carrier is one who ¹⁾ ______ to accept or reject requests for carriage whether or not this vehicle is full. A private carrier is (subject to any express terms of the contract) only ²⁾ ______ loss or damage he has caused it negligently.

A common carrier is one who offers ³⁾ ______ or passengers for anyone who wishes to engage him. He cannot refuse custom offered to him at a fair price unless he has no space, because his vehicles are full, or the goods are of a kind which he does not profess to convey, or the ⁴⁾ ______ is not on his normal route, or the goods are not properly packed, or are of a dangerous type. A common carrier is only liable in relation to passengers if he is negligent.

The law ⁵⁾ ______ a greater obligation upon common carriers regarding the goods than it does upon a private carrier. In effect a common carrier's liability is that of an ⁶⁾ ______. Thus, subject to any expressly agreed exemption clauses, he is liable for any loss or damage, even if it not his ⁷⁾ ______. This strict liability rule has five exceptions:

i. ⁸⁾ ______. i.e. Loss due directly and exclusively to natural causes without human intervention, and which could not be reasonably foreseen and guarded against.

ii. Act of the Queen's enemies i.e. a hostile foreign government, and not merely robbers or violent demonstrators.

iii. ⁹⁾ ______ of the consignor, for example if the packing is defective.

iv. ¹⁰⁾ ______ in the goods.

v. Seizure under a ¹¹⁾ ______.