Meat carriers disclaim loss liability
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• The Smithfield Meat Carriers Association has been forced to alter its conditions of carriage to indemnify hauliers against what it considers to be spurious claims for shortages of goods on delivery.
The SMCA has told customers that for some considerable time it has been trying to obtain improvement in the tallying of loads at the dock and has time and again brought the appalling position of 'the meat carrier to the notice of the other sections of meat industry, but in vain.
Now, because of a worsening position in the standard of tallying, the "farcical" claims for overs and shorts, the work involved in sorting them all out, together with the ever increasing "premiums and excesses" percentages, the association has been forced to add this supplementary condition to its conditions of carriage, taking effect on
August 1. The new condition reads as follows:— Notwithstanding anything contained in these conditions to the contrary the carrier/ contractor shall not be liable for and shall be held harmless and indemnified by the trader against any shortages whether of packages or weight of meat collected ex ship by the carrier/contractor from any dock against the traders order for collection and delivery provided that the carrier/contractor shall produce to the trader at the point of delivery or to such other person or persons as the trader may appoint to accept delivery at the point of such delivery the list prepared by the Dock Tally Clerk setting out the details and quantity of the load collected by the carrier/ contractor for carriage and that the seal as affixed at the Dock to the container in which the said load is carried is unbroken at the time of the said delivery.