Common Carrier - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition common-carrier

Definition :

Common carrier, the question in any particular case whether the carrier was a common carrier or a private carrier has therefore to be decided on the ascertainment of what he publicly professes. This profession, it need hardly be mentioned, may be by public notice or by actual indiscriminate carrying of goods. It is also clear that the profession to carry goods indiscriminately may be limited to particular goods or to particular routes or even as to two or more specified points, River Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. v. Shyam Sunder Tea Co. Ltd., AIR 1962 SC 1276 (1279): (1962) 2 SCR 802. [Carriers Act, 1865, ss. 2 and 3]

Is not by his description of his own business, al-though if may be inferred from the character of that business that he is a common carrier, Upston v. Slark, (1827) 2 C&P 598.

Whether or not a person is a common carrier is in every case a question of fact, Belfast Ropework Co. Ltd. v. Bushell, (1918) 1 KB 210 (215) per Bailhache, J.

'Common carrier' denotes a person, other than the Government, engaged in the business of transporting for hire property from place to place, by lane or inland navigation, for all persons indiscriminately. [Carriers Act, (2 of 1865)]