Carrier - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition carrier

Definition :

Carrier, in its general sense, a person who undertakes to transport the goods of other persons from one place to another for hire. It is not, however, every person who undertakes to carry goods for hire that is deemed a common carrier.

A carrier of passengers is liable only for negligence and not as an insurer, Redhead v. Midland R. Co., (1869) LR 4 QB 379.

To bring a person within the description of a common carrier, he must exercise it as a public employment; he must undertake to carry goods for persons generally; and he must hold himself out as ready to transport goods for hire, as a business, not as a casual occupation, pro hac vice.

The two obligations of a common carrier of goods are (1) to carry for everybody, and (2) to answer for all things carried as an insurer, unless lost or injured by the act of God or the King's enemies.

The second obligation, that of an insurer, is restricted by the (English) Carriers Act, 1830 (11 Geo. 4 & 1 Wm. 4, c. 68), which protects carriers from liability in case of the loss of certain specified articles, e.g., jewellery, pictures, plate, and silks, exceeding the value of ten pounds (excepting loss by the felony of the carrier's servants or his own personal default), unless the party delivering the goods declare the value, and offer to pay, if required, an extra charge for carriage.

Railway companies (see RAILWAY) carry under the 86th s. of the Railways Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 20), canal companies under the (English) Canal Carriers Act, 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 4). The Act extends to carriage by land only; as to carriage by sea, or partly by land and partly by sea, see SHIPOWNER. See Macnamara on Carriers; Chitty on Contracts; CARRIAGE BY AIR.

Means a person who is engaged in the business of transporting for hire goods by road, rail, inland waterways or sea. [Multimodal Transportation of Goods Act, 1993 (28 of 1993), s. 2 (a)]

--Means a person who is engaged in the business of transporting passengers by water or air and includes any association of persons, whether incorporated or not, by whom the aircraft or the ship is owned or chartered. [Immigration (Carriers' Liability) Act, 2000 (52 of 2000), s. 2(1)(a)]

Means someone who has contracted to carry, as opposed to a mere agent who brings about the contract of carriage between two principals, Ulster ' Swift Ltd. v. Taunton Meat Haulage Ltd. (Fransen Transport N.V. Third Party), (1977) 3 All ER 641.