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{{short description|Contract between carriers of goods/passengers and the sender/receiver or passenger}}{{distinguish|Carriage dispute|Fee-for-carriage}}{{Admiralty law}}{{more citations needed|date=July 2010}}A contract of carriage is a contract between a carrier of cargo or passengers and the consignor, consignee or passenger.WEB, CONTRACT OF CARRIAGE Definition & Legal Meaning, Black’s Law Dictionary, 2nd,thelawdictionary.org/contract-of-carriage/, January 24, 2023, Contracts of carriage typically define the rights, duties and liabilities of parties to the contract, addressing topics such as acts of God and including clauses such as (removing liability for extraordinary occurrences beyond control of the parties).WEB, CONDITIONS OF CARRIAGE Definition & Legal Meaning, Black’s Law Dictionary, 2nd,thelawdictionary.org/conditions-of-carriage/, January 24, 2023, Among common carriers, they are usually evidenced by standard terms and conditions printed on the reverse of a ticket or carriage document. Notification of a shipment’s arrival is usually sent to the “notify party”, whose address appears on the shipping document. This party is usually either the buyer or the importer.

Carriage by sea

Paul Todd notes that the 1950 legal case of Heskell v. Continental Express ([1950] 1 All E.R. 1033) provides a “good description of [the] process of carriage”, including the roles of forwarding agents and loading brokers in this process.Todd, P., pntodd.users.netlink.co.uk/intr/refs/carriage.htm" title="web.archive.org/web/20101214052115pntodd.users.netlink.co.uk/intr/refs/carriage.htm">Carriage contracts, updated 3 May 1997, archived 14 December 2010, accessed 1 October 2023

Rail travel

Cross-border European railway tickets are covered by the CIV conditions of sale.

Air travel

In July 2010, it became widely public that Southwest Airlines had classified mechanical difficulties as an act of God in their contract of carriage, expanding the definition formerly shared with Delta, American, Continental and United.WEB, Southwest: Breakdown is now an act of God, Arizona Daily Star, July 24, 2010,azstarnet.com/news/local/article_5bc41260-e1ee-57fb-8f68-fe716e9f5bad.html, 2010-07-27, This was later clarified by the airline as mechanical difficulties beyond the airline’s control, as for instance the failure of the air traffic control system, or fuel delivery systems operated by airports.

Involuntary denied boarding

Airlines may sell more tickets for a flight than the number of seats that are actually available. This overselling can result in too many passengers turning up for a flight. When this happens, the airline first asks for volunteers to give up their seat in return for compensation. However, if there are not enough volunteers, the airline itself designates which passengers will have to give up their seats. This process is called involuntary denied boarding or (less formally) bumping.WEB,www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviation-consumer-protection/bumping-oversales, Bumping & Oversales, U.S. Department of Transportation, April 15, 2021, November 17, 2022, live,web.archive.org/web/20221115171123/https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviation-consumer-protection/bumping-oversales, November 15, 2022, The proportion of passengers who are involuntarily denied boarding is around 1 in 10,000, and has been falling for the 25 years between 1990 and 2015.US DOT, Passengers Boarded and Denied Boarding by the Largest U.S. Air CarriersAccording to aviation analyst Henry Harteveldt, the airlines’ contracts of carriage favour the company, not the passenger. Involuntary denial of boarding is not uncommon,NEWS,www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/04/daily-chart-6, United bumps more passengers than any other large American airline, April 11, 2017, The Economist, April 12, 2017, but removal after boarding because the seat is needed by others is “exceedingly rare”. Nonetheless, an airline has a right to do so based on the contract, in his view. “Remember, it is their aircraft and their seat — you’re just renting it to get from point A to point B”, Harteveldt told Business Insider in 2017.WEB,www.businessinsider.com/how-airline-choose-who-kick-off-flight-united-american-delta-2017-4, How airlines like United choose who to kick off a flight, Zhang, Benjamin, April 10, 2017, Business Insider, Business Insider Inc., April 12, 2017,

References

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External links

• Smarter Travel Media LLC., www.airfarewatchdog.com/pages/3802676/airline-contracts-of-carriage" title="web.archive.org/web/20100108092202www.airfarewatchdog.com/pages/3802676/airline-contracts-of-carriage">Airlines’ Contracts of Carriage, Airfare Watchdog, archived 8 January 2010.

Individual airlines’ contracts:

• Contract of Carriage, Hawaiian Airlines. Viewed 23 December 2012.
• www.alaskaair.com/as/www2/company/tariff/tariff_main_toc.asp" title="archive.today/20130116204451www.alaskaair.com/as/www2/company/tariff/tariff_main_toc.asp">Contract of Carriage, Alaska Airlines. Viewed 11 April 2008.
• www.fedex.com/us/services/terms/popup_tc_us_body.html" title="web.archive.org/web/20060409030801www.fedex.com/us/services/terms/popup_tc_us_body.html">Terms and conditions, FedEx. Viewed 3 April 2006.

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