International Consignment Note to Follow ECE Model ?
Page 26
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT 1VIOVEMENTS are afoot to replace the WI IRU form of consignment note required under the CMR Convention with the model which is being used and promoted by Sweden and other Scandinavian countries. The Swedish note appears to have the support of the ECE as it is based on the recommendations of the ECE Working Party on the simplification and standardization of export documents. The Party has designed a standard lay-out key for the various documents used in connection with ships' cargoes so that like information appearing on different documents can be carbon-copied or otherwise easily reproduced from one to another.
Last year it was agreed that the Working Party, together with experts appointed by the Inland Transport Corn-. mittee, should explore the possibility of applying the lay-out key as a basis for standardizing documents for other means of international transport. The aim of the ECE is to secure the modification of documents so that the same information always appears in the same place, whether it be a shipping document,
Customs document, or road transport document.
The replacement of the IRU model by the Swedish type was given serious consideration at a recent meeting of the group of road and rail transport users of the International Chamber of Commerce, and the problem has also been studied by a joint sub-group of experts of the ECE dealing with standardization of international transport documents which met in Geneva at the end of April. This study group paid particular attention to the experience gained by the Scandinavians in their prattical commercial use of the new form of note.
The International Chamber of Commerce also considered the possibility of producing a composite consignment note which would incorporate both the requirements of the CMR and the CIM Conventions—that is a road/rail consignment note. In view of the fact that the CMR note relates to the application of a private law convention, whereas the CIM relates to a public law convention, it was decided that amalgamation of the notes would be completely impracticable.