Carriage conditions
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Hider attack • A possible loophole in the Road Haulage Association's new conditions of carriage could leave hauliers open to massive compensation claims if loads are damaged_
The problem stems from the wording of a clause which increases the carrier's basic liability from £800 to 5,1,300 a tonne, says transport lawyer Martin Jones.
Jones, an advisor to the Midlands RHA, has written to the association pointing out his fears. He says that the wording of the new document allows customers to agree a higher liability than £1,300 which is still much lower than the value of the load. It is this value that the operator could be liable to stump up if the load is lost or damaged, warns Jones.
Under the new conditions, published last month, a customer can give his carrier seven days written notice asking him to increase his maximum liability from the £1,300 a tonne set out in the document. It allows operators to increase their rates accordingly, but says that liability cannot be more than the value of the load.
However, the new clause is worded in such a way that if a customer agrees a higher liability with the carrier — it could he as low as £1,301 — the carrier then becomes responsible for the total value of the load. This could be as much as £5,000 a tonne, says Jones, a partner with Birmingham-based solicitors Gateley Wareing. Jones believes that the RHA meant to say that the carrier would be liable for the new agreed value per tonne or the total value of the load— whichever was the lower. "Unfortunatley this is not what has been written into the conditions of carriage," he says.
Most hauliers already carry insurance above £1,300 a tonne, and in the majority of cases they would not be affected by a higher claim, says Jones. However, smaller hauliers who carry insurance up to only £1,300 could be hit hard in some circumstances.
"If an unscrupulous customer wished the haulier to carry a load with a value of £5,000 per tonne, but did not want to pay charges increased to cover the additional insurance... then he could request that the maximum liability be increased by £50 or £100 per tonne," he says.
"The carrier would telephone his broker and arrange for this and pass the cost on to the customer. Should there be a total loss during the transit of the goods, the haulier would then find himself uninsured for the differences," Jones warns.
He recommends that hauliers who are asked by customers to increase maximum liability should insist on finding out the total value of the load. "The haulier can at least then judge for himself whether he is being asked to take on a risk... and can decide for himself what level of insurance to ask for," says Jones. The RHA was unavailable for comment as CM went to press. The conditions — updated from 1982 — take effect from 1 June; they have been cleared by the Office of Fair Trading.