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Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017

Other commercial matters - Carriage of goods - Liability of contracting carriers

258: When responsibility for goods ends

You could also call this:

“The carrier stops being responsible for your stuff after delivering it or trying really hard to let you know it's ready”

The law explains when a carrier’s responsibility for goods ends. If the goods are to be delivered to you, the carrier’s responsibility ends when they give the goods to you as agreed. However, if you haven’t paid for the delivery, the carrier’s job ends when they can give you the goods and they tell you about it. If the carrier can’t find you, their job ends when they’ve tried hard to find you and tell you about the goods.

If you’re supposed to pick up the goods yourself, the carrier’s job ends when you collect them. If you don’t collect them, the carrier’s job ends five days after they tell you the goods are ready for pickup. If they can’t find you, their job ends when they’ve tried hard to find you and tell you the goods are ready.

For goods being sent overseas, the carrier’s job ends when the international part of the journey begins.

The law also explains some important words. ‘Due freight’ means the money you owe for the delivery. The ‘relevant carrier’ is either the company you made the deal with or the last company that actually moved the goods. The carrier has to make sure you actually get their message about paying or picking up the goods. If the carrier’s pickup place is closed on a day, that day doesn’t count in the five-day pickup period.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6844561.

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257: When responsibility for goods begins, or

"When the carrier starts looking after your stuff during shipping"

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259: Carrier’s liability limited to $2,000 for each unit of goods or to declared value, or

"Carriers usually pay up to $2,000 if they lose or break your stuff during transport"

Part 5 Other commercial matters
Carriage of goods: Liability of contracting carriers

258When responsibility for goods ends

  1. The responsibility of the contracting carrier for goods ends as follows:

  2. if the goods are to be delivered to the consignee,—
    1. when the goods are tendered to the consignee in accordance with the contract; or
      1. if any due freight has not been paid at or before the time the goods are to be tendered to the consignee in accordance with the contract, when the relevant carrier is capable of so tendering the goods and has given notice to that effect to a person liable to pay the unpaid amount of due freight (but see subsection (3)(c)); or
        1. if the relevant carrier does not know the whereabouts of the consignee when the carrier is capable of tendering the goods to the consignee in accordance with the contract, when the relevant carrier has taken reasonable steps to find the consignee and give notice to that effect to the consignee:
        2. if the goods are to be collected by the consignee,—
          1. when the goods are collected by the consignee; or
            1. on the expiry of the fifth day after the date on which the relevant carrier notifies the consignee that the goods are available for collection (but see subsection (3)(d)); or
              1. if the relevant carrier does not know the whereabouts of the consignee when the carrier is capable of tendering the goods to the consignee in accordance with the contract, when the relevant carrier has taken reasonable steps to find the consignee and give notice that the goods are available for collection to the consignee.

              2. However, the responsibility of a contracting carrier who contracts for the carriage of goods to a destination outside New Zealand ends when the international carriage of those goods begins.

              3. In this section,—

              4. due freight means the whole or any amount of freight that is due and payable to or on behalf of the contracting carrier at any time before, or at the time at which, the goods are to be tendered to the consignee under the contract:
                1. relevant carrier means the contracting carrier or the last actual carrier (as the case may require):
                  1. notice is not effective for the purposes of subsection (1)(a)(ii) until it is received by a person liable to pay the due freight:
                    1. a day must be excluded for the purposes of subsection (1)(b)(ii) if it is a day on which the carrier's premises are not open for the collection of goods.

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