East Transport: Cargo -

Uniform Rules Concerning the Contract for International Carriage of Goods by Rail (CIM)

Title 1 - General Provisions

Article 1 - Scope

1. Subject to the exceptions provided for in Article 2, the Uniform Rules shall apply to all consignments of goods for carriage under a through consignment note made out for a route over the territories of at least two States and exclusively over lines or services included in the list provided for in Articles 3 and 10 of the Convention.

2. In the Uniform Rules the expression 'station" covers: railway stations, ports used by shipping services and all other establishments of transport undertakings, open to the public for the execution of the contract of carriage.

Article 2 - Exceptions from scope

1. Consignments between sending and destination stations situated in the territory of the same State, which pass through the territory of another State only in transit, shall not be subject to the Uniform Rules:

(a) if the lines or services over which the transit occurs are exclusively operated by a railway of the State of departure; or

(b) if the States or the railways concerned have agreed not to regard such consignments as international.

2. Consignments between stations in two adjacent States and between stations in two States in transit through the territory of a third State shall, if the lines over which the consignments are carried are exclusively operated by a railway of one of those three States, be subject to the internal traffic regulations applicable to that railway if the sender, by using the appropriate consignment note, so elects and where there is nothing to the contrary in the laws and regulations of any of the States concerned.

Article 3 - Obligation to carry

1. The railway shall be bound to undertake all carriage of any goods in complete wagon-loads, subject to the terms of the Uniform Rules, provided that:

(a) the sender complies with the Uniform Rules, the supplementary provisions and the tariffs;

(b) carriage can be undertaken by the normal staff and transport resources which suffice to meet usual traffic requirements;

(c) carriage is not prevented by circumstances which the railway cannot avoid and which it is not in a position to remedy.

2. The railway shall not be obliged to accept goods of which the loading, trans-shipment or unloading requires the use of special facilities unless the stations concerned have such facilities at their disposal.

3. The railway shall only be obliged to accept goods the carriage of which can take place without delay; the provisions in force at the forwarding station shall determine the circumstances in which goods not complying with that condition must be temporarily stored.

4. When the competent authority decides that:

(a) a service shall be discontinued or suspended totally or partially,

(b) certain consignments shall be refused or accepted only subject to conditions,

these measures shall, without delay, be brought to the notice of the public and the railways; the latter shall inform the railways of the other States with a view to their publication.

5. The railways may, by joint agreement, concentrate goods traffic between certain places on specified frontier points and transit countries. These measures shall be notified to the Central Office. They shall be entered by the railways in special lists, published in the manner laid down for international tariffs, and shall come into force one month after the date of notification to the Central Office.

6. Any contravention of this Article by the railway may constitute a cause of action for compensation for loss or damage caused.

Article 4 - Articles not acceptable for carriage

The following shall not be accepted for carriage:

(a) articles the carriage of which is prohibited in any one of the territories in which the articles would be carried;

(b) articles the carriage of which is a monopoly of the postal authorities in any one of the territories in which the articles would be carried;

(c) articles which, by reason of their dimensions, their mass*, or their packaging, are not suitable for the carriage proposed, having regard to the installations or rolling stock of any one of the railways which would be used;

(d) substances and articles which are not acceptable for carriage under the Regulations concerning the international carriage of dangerous goods by rail (RID), Annex 1 to the Uniform Rules, subject to the exceptions provided for in Article 5, 2.

Article 5 - Articles acceptable for carriage subject to conditions

1. The following shall be acceptable for carriage subject to conditions:

(a) substances and articles acceptable for carriage subject to the conditions laid down in the RID or in the agreements and tariff clauses provided for in 2.

(b) funeral consignments, railway rolling stock running on its own wheels, live animals and consignments the carriage of which presents special difficulties by reason of their dimensions, their mass or their packaging: subject to the conditions laid down in the supplementary provisions; these may derogate from the Uniform Rules. Live animals must be accompanied by an attendant provided by the consignor. Nevertheless an attendant shall not be required when the international tariffs permit or when the railways participating in the carriage so permit at the consignor's request; in such cases, unless there is an agreement to the contrary, the railway shall not be liable for any loss or damage resulting from any risk which the attendant was intended to avert.

2. Two or more States, by agreement, or two or more railways, by tariff clauses, may jointly determine the conditions with which certain substances or articles not acceptable for carriage under the RID must comply if they are nevertheless to be accepted. States or railways may, in the same manner, make the conditions for acceptance laid down in the RID less rigorous. Such agreements and tariff clauses must be published and notified to the Central Office which will bring them to the notice of the States.

Article 6 - Tariffs. Private agreements

1. Carriage charges, whether or not calculated separately for different sections of the route, and supplementary charges shall be calculated in accordance with the tariffs which are legally in force and duly published in each State which are applicable at the time when the contract of carriage is made.

2. The tariffs must indicate all the special conditions applicable to the carriage, in particular the information necessary for calculating carriage and supplementary charges and, where appropriate, the conditions governing the conversion of currencies. The conditions of the tariffs may not derogate from the Uniform Rules unless the latter expressly so provide.

3. The tariffs must be applied to all users on the same conditions.

4. Railways may enter into private agreements for reduced charges or other concessions, provided that comparable conditions are granted to users in comparable circumstances. Reductions in charges or other concessions may be granted for the purpose of railway or public services, or for charitable purposes. Publication of the measures taken under the first and second subparagraphs shall not be compulsory.

5. International tariffs may be declared compulsorily applicable in international traffic to the exclusion of the internal tariffs. The application of an international tariff may be made conditional on there being an express request for it in the consignment note.

6. The tariffs and amendments to the tariffs shall be regarded as duly published from the time when the railway makes all the details thereof available to the users. The publication of international tariffs shall be compulsory only in those States whose railways are parties to such tariffs as railways of departure or destination.

7. Increases in international tariff charges and any other provisions which would have the effect of making the conditions of carriage laid down by such tariffs more rigorous shall not come into force until at least fifteen days after their publication, except in the following cases:

(a) if an international tariff makes provision for the extension of an internal tariff to cover the whole route, the periods for publication of such internal tariff shall be applicable;

(b) if increases in the charges contained in an international tariff follow a general increase in the charges contained in the internal tariffs of a participating railway, they shall come into force on the day after their publication, on condition that the adjustment of the international tariff charges caused by such general increase has been announced at least fifteen days in advance; nevertheless, such announcement may not be made prior to the publication of the increase in the internal tariff charges in question;

(c) if the carriage and supplementary charges provided for in the international tariffs have to be modified to take account of fluctuations in rates of exchange or if obvious errors have to be corrected, such adjustments and corrections shall come into force on the day after their publication.

8. In States where there is no obligation to publish certain tariffs or to apply them to all users under the same conditions, the provisions of this Article, to the extent that they contain such an obligation, shall not be binding.

9. The railways may not charge any amount over and above the carriage and supplementary charges laid down in the tariffs other than the amounts disbursed by them. Such amounts shall be duly noted and entered separately in the consignment note, together with any relevant supporting information. When this information is provided in documents attached to the consignment note and if the corresponding amounts are to be paid by the consignor, the documents shall not be delivered to the consignee with the consignment note, but shall be forwarded to the consignor with the account of charges referred to in Article 15, 7.

Article 7 - Unit of Account. Rate of exchange or of acceptance of foreign currency

1. The unit of account referred to in the Uniform Rules shall be the Special Drawing Right as defined by the International Monetary Fund. The value in Special Drawing Right of the national currency of a State which is a Member of the International Monetary Fund shall be calculated in accordance with the method of valuation applied by the International Monetary Fund for its own operations and transactions.

2. The value in Special Drawing Right of the national currency of a State which is not a member of the International Monetary Fund shall be calculated by the method determined by that State. The calculation must express in the national currency a real value approximating as closely to that which would result from the application of 1.

3. In the case of a State which is not a member of the International Monetary Fund and whose legislation does not permit the application of 1 or 2 above, the unit of account referred to in the Uniform Rules shall be deemed to be equal to three gold francs. The gold franc is defined as 10/31 of a gramme of gold of millesimal fineness 900. The conversion of the gold franc must express in the national currency a real value approximating as closely to that which would result from the application of 1.

4. Within three months after the entry into force of the Convention and each time that a change occurs in their method of calculation or in the value of their national currency in relation to the unit of account, States shall notify the Central Office of their method of calculation in accordance with 2, or of the results of the conversion in accordance with 3. The Central Office shall notify the States of this information.

5. The railway shall publish the rates at which:

(a) it converts sums expressed in foreign currencies but payable in domestic currency (rates of conversion);

(b) It accepts payment in foreign currencies (rates of acceptance).

Article 8 - Special provisions for certain types of transport

1. In the case of the haulage of privately owned wagons, special provisions are laid down in the Regulations concerning the international haulage of private owners' wagons by rail (RIP), Annex II to the Uniform Rules.

2. In the case of the carriage of containers, special provisions are laid down in the Regulations concerning the international carriage of containers by rail (RICo), Annex III to the Uniform Rules.

3. In the case of express parcels traffic, railways may, by tariff clauses, agree on special provisions in accordance with the Regulations concerning the international carriage of express parcels by rail (RIEx), Annex IV to the Uniform Rules.

4. Two or more States, by special agreement, or two or more railways by supplementary provisions or by tariff clauses, may agree on terms derogating from the Uniform Rules for the following types of consignments:

(a) consignments under cover of a negotiable document;

(b) consignments to be delivered only against return of the duplicate of the consignment note;

(c) consignments of newspapers;

(d) consignment intended for fairs or exhibitions;

(e) consignment of loading tackle and of equipment for protection of goods in transit against heat or cold;

(f) consignments over all or part of the route under cover of consignment notes which are not used for charging and billing;

(g) consignments sent under cover of an instrument suitable for automatic data transmission.

Article 9 - Supplementary provision

1. Two or more States or two or more railways may make supplementary provisions for the execution of the Uniform Rules. They may not derogate from the Uniform Rules unless the latter expressly so provide.

2. The supplementary provisions shall be put into force and published in the manner required by the laws and regulations of each State. The Central Office shall be notified of the supplementary provisions and of their coming into force.

Article 10 - National law

1. In the absence of provisions in the Uniform Rules, supplementary provisions or international tariffs, national law shall apply.

2. "National law" means the law of the State in which the person entitled asserts his rights, including the rules relating to conflict of laws.

Title II - Making and Execution of the Contract of Carriage

Article 11 - Making of the contract of carriage

1. The contract of carriage shall come into existence as soon as the forwarding railway has accepted the goods for carriage together with the consignment note. Acceptance is established by the application to the consignment note and, where appropriate, to each additional sheet, of the stamp of the forwarding station, or accounting machine entry, showing the date of acceptance.

2. The procedure laid down in 1 must be carried out immediately after all the goods to which the consignment note relates have been handed over for carriage and - where the provisions in force at the forwarding station so require - such charges as the consignor has undertaken to pay have been paid or a security deposited in accordance with Article 15, 7. The procedure shall be carried out in the presence of the consignor if he so requests.

3. When the stamp has been affixed or the accounting machine entry has been made, the consignment note shall be evidence of the making and content of the contract.

4. Nevertheless, when the loading of the goods is the duty of the consignor in accordance with tariffs or agreements existing between him and the railway, and provided that such agreements are authorised at the forwarding station, the particulars in the consignment note relating to the mass of the goods or to the number of packages shall only be evidence against the railway when that weight or number of packages has been verified by the railway and certified in the consignment note. If necessary these particulars may be proved by other means. If it is obvious that there is no actual deficiency corresponding to the discrepancy between the mass or number of packages and the particulars in the consignment note, the latter shall not be evidence against the railway. This shall apply in particular when the wagon is handed over to the consignee with the original seals intact.

5. The railway shall certify receipt of the goods and the date of acceptance for carriage by affixing the date stamp to or making the accounting machine entry on the duplicate of the consignment note before returning the duplicate to the consignor. The duplicate shall not have effect as the consignment note accompanying the goods, nor as a bill of lading.

Article 12 - Consignment note

1. The consignor shall present a consignment note duly completed. A separate consignment note shall be made out for each consignment. One and the same consignment note may not relate to more than a single wagon load. The supplementary provisions may derogate from these rules.

2. The railways shall prescribe, for both petite vitesse and grande vitesse traffic, a standard form of consignment note, which must include a duplicate for the consignor. The choice of consignment note by the consignor shall indicate whether the goods are to be carried by petite vitesse or by grande vitesse. A request for grande vitesse over one part of the route and petite vitesse over the remainder will not be allowed except by agreement between all the railways concerned. In the case of certain traffic, notably between adjacent countries, the railways may prescribe, in the tariffs, the use of a simplified form of consignment note.

3. The consignment note must be printed in two or where necessary in three languages, at least one of which shall be one of the working languages of the Organisation. International tariffs may determine the language in which the particulars to be filled in by the consignor in the consignment note shall be entered. In the absence of such provisions, they must be entered in one of the official languages of the State of departure and a translation in one of the working languages of the Organisation must be added unless the particulars have been entered in one of those languages. The particulars entered by the consignor in the consignment note shall be in Roman lettering, save where the supplementary provisions or international tariffs otherwise provide.

Article 13 - Wording of the Consignment Note

1. The consignment note must contain:

(a) the name of the destination station;

(b) the name and address of the consignee; only one individual or legal person shall be shown as consignee;

(c) the description of the goods;

(d) the mass, or failing that, comparable information in accordance with the provisions in force at the forwarding station;

(e) the number of packages and a description of the packing in the case of consignments in less than wagon loads, and in the case of complete wagon loads comprising one or more packages, forwarded by rail-sea and requiring to be trans-shipped;

(f) the number of the wagon and also, for privately-owned wagons, the tare, in the case of goods where the loading is the duty of the consignor;

(g) a detailed list of the documents which are required by Customs or other administrative authorities and are attached to the consignment note or shown as held at the disposal of the railway at a named station or at an office of the Customs or of any other authority;

(h) the name and address of the consignor; only one individual or legal person shall be shown as the consignor; if the provisions in force at the forwarding station so require, the consignor shall add to his name and address his written, printed or stamped signature.

The provisions in force at the forwarding station shall determine the meanings of the terms "wagon load" and "less than wagon load" for the whole of the route.

2. The consignment note must, where appropriate, contain all the other particulars provided for in the Uniform Rules. It shall not contain other particulars unless they are required or allowed by the laws and regulations of a State, the supplementary provisions or the tariffs, and are not contrary to the Uniform Rules.

3. Nevertheless, the consignor may insert in the consignment note in the space set apart for the purpose, but as information for the consignee, remarks relating to the consignment, without involving the railway in any obligation or liability.

4. The consignment note shall not be replaced by other documents or supplemented by documents other than those prescribed or allowed by the Uniform Rules, the supplementary provisions or the tariffs.

Article 14 - Route and tariffs applicable

1. The consignor may stipulate in the consignment note the route to be followed, indicating it by reference to frontier points or frontier stations and where appropriate, to transit stations between railways. He may only stipulate frontier points and frontier stations which are open to traffic between the forwarding and destination places concerned.

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2. The following shall be regarded as routing instructions:

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(a) designation of stations where formalities required by Customs or other administrative authorities are to be carried out, and of stations where special care is to be given to the goods (attention to animals, re-icing etc.);

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(b) designation of the tariffs to be applied, if this is sufficient to determine the stations between which the tariffs requested are to be applied;

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(c) instructions as to the payment of the whole or a part of the charges up to X (X indicating by name the point at which the tariffs of adjacent countries are applied).

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3. Except in the cases specified in Article 3, 4 and 5 and Article 33, 1 the railway may not carry the goods by a route other than that stipulated by the consignor unless both:

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(a) the formalities required by Customs or other administrative authorities, as well as the special care to be given to the goods, will in any event be carried out at the stations indicated by the consignor; and

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(b) the charges and the transit periods will not be greater than the charges and transit periods calculated according to the route stipulated by the consignor.

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Sub-paragraph (a) shall not apply to consignments in less than wagon loads if one of the participating railways is unable to adhere to the route chosen by the consignor by virtue of the routing instructions arising from its arrangements for the international carriage of consignments in less than wagon loads.

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4. Subject to the provisions of 3, the charges and transit periods shall be calculated according to the route stipulated by the consignor or, in the absence of any such indication, according to the route chosen by the railway.

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5. The consignor may stipulate in the consignment note which tariffs are to be applied. The railway must apply such tariffs if the conditions laid down for their application have been fulfilled.

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6. If the instructions given by the consignor are not sufficient to indicate the route or tariffs to be appleid, or if any of those instructions are inconsistent with one another, the railway shall choose the route or tariffs which appear to it to be the most advantageous to the consignor.

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7. The railway shall not be liable for any loss or damage suffered as a result of the choice made in accordance with 6, except in the case of wilful misconduct or gross negligence.

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8. If an international tariff exists from the forwarding to the destination station and if, in the absence of adequate instructions from the consignor, the railway has applied that tariff, the railway shall, at the request of the person entitled, refund him the difference between the carriage charges thus applied and those which the application of other tariffs would have produced over the same route, when such difference exceeds four units of account per consignment note. The same shall apply if, in the absence of adequate instructions from the consignor, the railway has applied consecutive tariffs, even though there is an international tariff offering a more advantageous charge, all other conditions being the same.

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Article 15 - Payment of charges

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1. The charges (carriage charges, supplementary charges, Customs duties and other charges incurred from the time of acceptance for carriage to the time of delivery) shall be paid by the consignor or the consignee in accordance with the following provisions. In applying these provisions, charges which, according to the applicable tariff, must be added to the standard rates or special rates when calculating the carriage charges, shall be deemed to be carriage charges.

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2. A consignor who undertakes to pay a part or all of the charges shall indicate this on the consignment note by using one of the following phrases:

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(a) (i) "carriage charges paid", if he undertakes to pay carriage charges only;

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(ii) "carriage charges paid including ...", if he undertakes to pay charges additional to those for carriage; he shall give an exact description of those charges; additional indications, which may relate only to the supplementary charges or other charges incurred from the time of acceptance for carriage until the time of delivery as well as to sums collected either by Customs or other administrative authorities shall not result in any division of the total amount of any one category of charges (for example, the total amount of Customs duties and of other amounts payable to Customs, value added tax being regarded as a separate category);

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(iii) "carriage charges paid to X" (X indicating by name the point at which the tariffs of adjacent countries are applied), if he undertakes to pay carriage charges to X;

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(iv) "carriage charges paid to X including ..." (X indicating by name the point at which the tariffs of adjacent countries are applied), if he undertakes to pay charges additional to those for carriage to X, but excluding all charges relating to the subsequent country or railway; the provisions of (ii) shall apply analogously;

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(b) "all charges paid", if he undertakes to pay all charges (carriage charges, supplementary charges, Customs duties and other charges);

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(c) "charges paid not exceeding ...", if he undertakes to pay a fixed sum; save where the tariffs otherwise provide, this sum shall be expressed in the currency of the country of departure. Supplementary and other charges which, according to the provisions in forceat the forwarding station, are to be calculated for the whole of the route concerned, and the charge for interest in delivery laid down in Article 16, 2, shall always be paid in full by the consignor in the case of payment of the charges in accordance with (a) (iv).

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3. The international tariffs may, as regards payment of charges, prescribe the exclusive use of certain phrases set out in 2 of this Article or the use of other phrases.

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4. The charges which the consignor has not undertaken to pay shall be deemd to be payable by the consignee. Nevertheless, such charges shall be payable by the consignor if the consignee has not taken possession of the consignment note nor asserted his rights under Article 28, 4, nor modified the contract of carriage in accordance with Article 31.

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5. Supplementary charges, such as charges for demurrage and standage, warehousing and weighing, which arise from an act attributable to the consignee or from a request which he has made, shall always be paid by him.

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