A carrier answers for weight, not for value
This is the one thing worth knowing about carrier liability. International conventions cap the payout by the mass of the goods, not their price. The reasoning is that a carrier neither knows nor can verify what sits inside sealed cartons, so its exposure is limited to a predictable figure.
The cap is denominated in SDR, the International Monetary Fund's unit of account. The IMF publishes its rate daily and it moves.
The limits by mode
| Mode | Instrument | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Road | CMR convention | 8.33 SDR per kg |
| Air | Montreal convention | 22 SDR per kg |
| Sea | Hague-Visby rules | 666.67 SDR per package or 2 SDR per kg, whichever is higher |
Uzbekistan is a party to CMR, so for road carriage this limit applies directly. For air and sea, whether a given convention governs depends on the applicable law and the countries involved in that particular movement.
What that means in practice
A pallet of electronics: 300 kg, invoiced at $30,000. The cargo goes missing in transit on a road leg.
The carrier's liability caps at 300 × 8.33 = 2,499 SDR. At roughly $1.3 per SDR that is around $3,200 — about a tenth of what the goods cost. The remaining $27,000 is your loss, and there is no one to present it to.
The reverse case: a pallet of tiles, same weight, worth $3,000. Here the cap covers the whole value with room to spare and insurance adds little. The dearer the kilogram, the more the policy matters — the rule is that simple.
When the carrier is not liable even within those limits
The conventions relieve a carrier of liability in a set of situations: force majeure, inherent properties of the goods, natural wastage in transit, defective packing by the shipper, acts of the shipper or the consignee. If goods spoiled because they were badly packed at the supplier's warehouse, nothing is recoverable.
What a policy covers
Cargo insurance works the other way: it covers the declared value, not the mass. The sum insured is derived from the invoice, and freight and duties can be added on top — because when cargo is lost, those costs are lost with it.
Cover is described by the standard Institute Cargo Clauses:
- Clause A — all risks except those expressly excluded. The widest cover.
- Clause B — named perils: fire, stranding, collision, water damage and several others.
- Clause C — major casualties only: fire, loss of the vessel, collision. The narrowest and cheapest.
For groupage and ordinary general cargo, A is the usual choice: the price gap between A and C is small, while C's exclusions are broad enough that half of the typical incidents fall outside it.
What a claim needs
- the policy and proof the premium was paid;
- invoice and packing list for the affected consignment;
- transport documents;
- a damage or shortage report drawn up at the point of delivery — without it the claim is close to hopeless;
- photographs of the damaged goods and their packing.
The commonest reason a claim fails is not insurer trickery but a missing report: the goods were accepted without comment, the waybill signed, and the damage found a day later. The inspection has to happen before the signature.
Is it worth insuring
The arithmetic is easy. Take the value of the consignment, divide by its mass, and compare the resulting price per kilogram against 8.33 SDR. If the price per kilogram is materially higher, that gap is your uncovered exposure. The premium, meanwhile, runs to fractions of a percent of the sum insured.