What is CMR ?

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CMR

CMR is the name of an international agreement regarding cross-border transportation by road.

CMR is the abbreviation of the French name of the agreement, „Convention relative au contrat de transport international de marchandises par route“. Its Turkish equivalent is: It is a contract agreement for the international transportation of goods by road. This contract covers the scope and process of the work and liabilities in case of delay, damage or loss of the transported goods. In addition, the contract also includes conditions regarding complaints and situations where more than one cargo carrier will be assigned sequentially. If a legal situation is not sufficiently regulated by the CMR, national law becomes complementary. The contract only covers the loading of roadworthy vehicles. Containers or transport bodies are not considered vehicles under the CMR. For such international transport services, a standardized CMR transport document is required.

history

The contract was signed in 1956 under the leadership of UNO. In the first stage, 10 states signed. Founding members of CMR are: Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland.

In the Federal Republic of Germany the convention was adopted in 1961, in East Germany in 1974. Today, all European countries, two African countries (Morocco and Tunisia) and several countries in Central Asia and the Near East have signed this convention.

Meaning of the term

Although CMR is actually the name of the contract, in daily life it is often (even though incorrectly) used instead of the name of the CMR transport document. This standardized form is actually only required for cross-border shipments where one of the origin or destination countries of the cargo is a CMR member country. However, it is also frequently used in daily applications and in domestic transportation.

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