Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017

Other commercial matters - Carriage of goods - Liability of actual carrier to contracting carrier

264: When actual carriers are jointly responsible or separately responsible for goods

You could also call this:

“Who is responsible for goods when multiple carriers are involved in transporting them”

When you hire someone to transport goods, they might use other carriers to help move the goods. These other carriers are called actual carriers. The law says that all the actual carriers are responsible together for the goods from the time they accept them until the time the main carrier’s job is done.

Each actual carrier is also responsible on their own for the goods while they have them. This responsibility starts when they accept the goods and ends when they give the goods to the next carrier. For the last carrier, their responsibility ends when the main carrier’s job is done.

The law mentions that the goods might be in containers, packages, pallets, or baggage. Even if the goods are in these things, the carriers are still responsible for them.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6844572.

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263: Liability where more than 1 actual carrier is involved, or

"Sharing responsibility when multiple carriers transport goods"

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265: Provisions relating to joint liability of actual carriers, or

"Rules for sharing responsibility when multiple carriers are involved in a journey"

Part 5 Other commercial matters
Carriage of goods: Liability of actual carrier to contracting carrier

264When actual carriers are jointly responsible or separately responsible for goods

  1. For the purposes of section 263(1)(a), the actual carriers are jointly responsible for the goods from the time when the goods (or the container, package, pallet, item of baggage, or any other thing in or on which the goods are believed to be) are accepted for carriage until the time when the contracting carrier's responsibility ends under section 258(1).

  2. For the purposes of sections 262 and 263, each actual carrier is separately responsible for the goods from the time when the goods (or the container, package, pallet, item of baggage, or any other thing in or on which the goods are believed to be) are accepted by the actual carrier for carriage until the time—

  3. when they are tendered by the actual carrier to the next actual carrier in accordance with the contract of carriage; or
    1. in the case of the last actual carrier, when the contracting carrier's responsibility ends under section 258(1).

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