In general, all road cargo transport companies and people involved know about the existence of the CMR. This document is the waybill or the most important piece of documentation, which ensures more transparent merchandise carrying internationally. CMR is only relevant in countries that use it (to this date there are about 55 of them). But have you ever wondered, who exactly creates, drafts, and issues the CMR document? If so, you came to the right place because, in this article, we’re going to give that a more in-depth look!
So, who exactly can issue a CMR?
You can consider the CMR as sort of an open-source document template which many countries re-use. Since it’s an international document for transport, the layout and structure of it are exactly the same. It’s only used when there’s a need to transport cargo by road internationally from and/or to a country that uses the CMR.
If you’re able to find a legit template online, you can download and use it.
In terms of issuing as in giving it to someone, the CMR form is made up of at least three identical copies. One is kept by the sender, one – by the carrier and the third one is reserved for the recipient who takes it after the delivery has been completed. Since all involved parties receive the exact same document, it almost entirely negates the possibility of fraud.
Thus, the CMR can and will likely be issued by the sender and first, given to the carrier. The latter passes on the waybill to the recipient after the cargo has been successfully delivered.
Why is the CMR so important?
The CMR document is crucial for international cargo transport in pretty much all of Europe and most of Asia. The form has many different gaps that should be filled out, with both mandatory and optional gaps on the form. The CMR is used in order to protect all parties, involved in cargo transport, from endless disputes and legal battles over who’s at fault and for what. This document simplifies the understanding and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the sender, the carrier, and the recipient as well.
How is the CMR filled out?
Usually, the driver (representative of the carrier) fills out the CMR together with the representative of the sender, by hand. However, this method does take a lot of time and leaves a lot of room for error. If companies wish to make this process much more efficient and save money while they’re at it (because they’ll be saving time as a result), they should look at online CMR document generators like SuperCMR. Such dedicated software is very user-friendly and can help logistic companies as well as those businesses that fill out a lot of CMR forms by automating document generation thanks to auto-fill and other relative features. All generated documents can be downloaded, printed and/or sent to other recipients as a .pdf file.
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