Carriage Paid To and delivery to the first carrier

Handing over to the first carrier

Delivery occurs when the goods are given to the carrier the seller has contracted with, at the place where that carriage begins. In a door-to-door movement that can be a truck collecting from the factory, long before any port or airport. The buyer therefore carries the exposure across the main leg even though it will never see a freight invoice, which is counter-intuitive enough that it should be stated plainly in the contract.

Chains of carriers and the point that matters

Where several carriers are used in succession, the relevant handover is to the first one, not to whichever carrier performs the longest leg. This matters in multimodal chains assembled by a forwarder, where identifying the first carrier can require reading the carriage arrangements rather than the commercial paperwork. If the parties want the exposure to move at a later point, they should name that point explicitly instead of assuming the rule will infer it.

No insurance obligation, and the gap that creates

Neither side is required to insure under this rule. A buyer bearing the exposure from an inland point in a foreign country needs cover that attaches there, which is earlier than many buyers assume when they arrange transit insurance. Sellers do not escape the issue either, since a buyer who suffers an uninsured loss on a leg the seller paid for will usually argue about it regardless of what the term says.

Unloading and charges at the far end

The seller's freight contract determines what is included at destination, and terminal handling, delivery order fees and unloading may or may not be inside it. Because the buyer is bearing the exposure but the seller wrote the carriage contract, the buyer has no direct control over these terms. Listing which destination charges belong to which side in the sale contract is the practical fix, as is naming the destination point with enough precision to identify a facility rather than a city.

Frequently asked questions

Is this simply the any-mode version of a freight-paid maritime rule?

In commercial effect it is close, but the delivery point differs in an important way: here it is the handover to the first carrier, which can be far inland, rather than loading on board a vessel. That difference is exactly why it works for containers and multimodal movements.

Who bears the cost of a delay in transit?

The buyer bears the consequences of delay after delivery has occurred, since the goods are at its risk, though it may have a claim against the carrier under the carriage contract the seller concluded. Whether the buyer can pursue that claim depends on the transport documentation and the applicable liability regime.