Transport company
A transport company in Germany in its pure form one with the transport and distribution of goods undertaking entrusted companies . In Switzerland also are transport companies in public passenger transport companies (TU) called. Transport companies are also known as carriers. As a rule, they maintain their own means of transport.
Transport company as a carrier
In the commercial movement of goods, transport companies usually appear as carriers. The freight contract, which is regulated in Section 407 of the Commercial Code, is then used as the legal basis for business. Accordingly, the carrier undertakes by means of a contract to transport the goods to a destination and to hand them over to the recipient there. The goods must be accepted by the recipient and unloaded within a certain delivery period. If obstacles occur during the transport or delivery of the goods, the carrier has to obtain the instructions of the client according to § 419 HGB.
Carrier's liability
If the goods are damaged or lost within the period between acceptance by the transport company and delivery to the recipient, or if the agreed delivery period is exceeded, the carrier is liable for this. A replacement service depends on the extent to which the sender or the recipient has shown misconduct or the extent to which the goods have a particular defect (Section 425 of the German Commercial Code). The usual modes of transport include road haulage companies, railway companies, inland shipping companies and airlines.
Responsibilities of the dispatcher
A dispatcher has the task to transport goods to the existing fleet and coordinated with the workers ( professional drivers ) from the hub of the suppliers to the Umschlagplatz ( customer to remarket). He must arrange for the necessary accompanying documents ( delivery note , waybill , packing slip ) and the other necessary measures and have the goods distributed among the vehicles.
Contrary to popular belief, the loading activity is not the responsibility of the driver, who, according to the professional association for vehicle maintenance, is only responsible for the actual transport. Rather, the load masters and loaders act as vicarious agents for the dispatcher.
Obligations of the transport company
The driver has to adhere to the driving and rest times that the dispatcher must know and take into account. The transport company is liable if the driver violates the driving and rest times. The driver is just as responsible for securing the load as he is for compliance with the other traffic regulations, in particular those of the Sunday and public holiday driving bans, but also the driving bans in transit traffic. The transport company must reimburse the driver's expenses in connection with his activity ( expenses ), in addition to the fixed remuneration for the activity as a professional driver .
Furniture hauliers / freight forwarders who move vehicles over 3.5 tons require a license in Germany, basic liability is EUR 620 per cubic meter of moving volume. This means that with a move volume of 50 cubic meters, the amount of this basic liability is 31,000 euros. Damage would be covered up to this amount. Companies that only travel with small vans with a gross vehicle weight of up to 3.5 tonnes (the so-called "Sprinter class") are usually not subject to the regulations of the Road Haulage Act. These companies are therefore not obliged to take out insurance.
Modes of transport
According to the German Federal Office for Goods Transport, a radius of 50 to 75 kilometers is regarded as local transport, followed by district transport within a radius of 150 kilometers, everything else is domestic German long-distance transport. There is also cross-border traffic. The drivers like to define this type as international.
Local traffic in the narrower sense is primarily distribution traffic, mostly with smaller trucks up to 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight. These are above all the sprinters of the postal service providers, but also food suppliers and forwarding companies.
See also
Web links
- Professional association for vehicle maintenance
- Federal Office for freight
- Transport company - definition (German)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Public transport company (TU). Retrieved October 31, 2019 . , on bav.admin.ch
- ^ Uwe Clausen , Christiane Geiger: Traffic and transport logistics. 2nd Edition. Springer-Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-540-34298-4 .
- ^ D. Golunski: Transport companies as carriers. October 31, 2019, accessed October 31, 2019 .
- ↑ OLG Hamm, judgment of December 9, 2008, Az .: 9 U 20/08