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Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017

Other commercial matters - Carriage of goods - Kinds of contract of carriage and effect on liability of parties

253: Difference between amounts charged must be fair and reasonable for contract at owner’s risk or declared value risk

You could also call this:

“Fair pricing for different levels of protection when sending goods”

When you agree to send something using a transport company, you can choose different levels of protection for your goods. This law is about making sure that the price difference between these protection levels is fair.

If you choose a lower level of protection, like ‘owner’s risk’ or ‘declared value risk’, the transport company should charge you less than they would for the highest protection level, which is called ‘limited carrier’s risk’. The price difference should make sense based on how much risk the transport company is taking on.

To decide if the price difference is fair, you need to think about two things. First, look at how much less risk the transport company has with the lower protection level compared to the highest protection. Second, if there’s an official price set by the government for that type of transport, that price is considered fair.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6844555.

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Business > Fair trading Business > Industry rules Money and consumer rights > Consumer protection
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252: Requirements for contract for carriage on declared terms, or

"Rules for making a special agreement when sending things"

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254: Contract between contracting carrier and actual carrier or between actual carriers, or

"Agreements between different types of carriers when moving your goods"

Part 5 Other commercial matters
Carriage of goods: Kinds of contract of carriage and effect on liability of parties

253Difference between amounts charged must be fair and reasonable for contract at owner’s risk or declared value risk

  1. This section applies to a contract for carriage at owner’s risk or at declared value risk.

  2. The difference in amount between the freight charged by the contracting carrier under the contract and the amount that the carrier would have charged for the same carriage at limited carrier's risk must be fair and reasonable.

  3. For the purposes of determining when the difference is fair and reasonable,—

  4. regard must be had to the difference in the risk actually undertaken by the carrier and the risk that the carrier would have undertaken if the carriage had been at limited carrier's risk; and
    1. a rate of freight prescribed by or under any enactment for any mode of carriage pursuant to any kind of contract of carriage must be treated as being a fair and reasonable rate to charge for the carriage.

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