CMR liability and the TIR guarantee: what is actually insured
“Is the truck insured?” is the wrong question, and it is asked on almost every enquiry. Three separate instruments get called insurance on a road shipment, and only one of them has anything to do with what your goods are worth. The TIR carnet guarantees duties to the customs authorities. A carrier’s CMR policy covers what the carrier is liable for under the convention — capped by weight, not by value. Cargo insurance covers the goods. Mistaking either of the first two for the third is the most expensive misunderstanding in road freight, and the sum that settles it is one line long: what does your cargo cost per kilogram?
Three instruments, one of which covers your goods
| Instrument | What it covers | The ceiling |
|---|---|---|
| TIR carnet guarantee | duties and taxes owed to customs if a sealed load goes missing in transit | up to EUR 100,000 per carnet — and nothing at all for the goods themselves |
| Carrier’s CMR liability cover | what the carrier is liable for under the convention | 8.33 SDR per kg of gross weight — roughly EUR 10 per kg |
| Cargo insurance, ICC A / B / C | the value of the goods themselves | the sum insured that you declare |
| What follows | the first two answer to customs and to the convention | only the third answers to your invoice |
The first two rows are what a carrier will show you when you ask whether they are insured, and neither is an answer to whether your cargo is insured. They are not defects — a customs guarantee and a liability policy are exactly what a carrier is supposed to hold. They simply answer to somebody else. Who is meant to buy the third one is a question of delivery terms rather than goodwill: Incoterms.
What a TIR carnet actually guarantees
The TIR guarantee exists so that a country letting a sealed truck cross its territory does not lose the duties and taxes it would have collected had the goods stayed. If the load disappears in transit, the guarantee chain pays the state — up to EUR 100,000 per carnet, the level the IRU secured in 2016 and the EU applied from 2017. Not one euro of that is owed to the cargo owner for the goods.
Two things are worth knowing about that ceiling. It is a maximum rather than a promise: individual contracting parties may apply lower national limits. And TIR is a customs instrument and nothing else — it is not a road permit and not a visa, a distinction that decides more journeys than it might seem: a truck from Europe to Central Asia.
The 8.33 SDR limit, in money
Article 23 of the CMR convention caps the carrier’s compensation at 8.33 SDR per kilogram of gross weight short or damaged. The SDR is an IMF basket that floats; through 2026 it has averaged around EUR 1.18, which puts the cap at roughly EUR 10 per kilogram. Two details in the same article matter as much as the number. The value is taken at the place and time the goods were accepted for carriage — not the destination price and not automatically the invoice. And carriage charges, customs duties and other charges are refunded on top of the goods: in full on total loss, proportionally on partial.
When the carrier is not liable at all
The convention also lists the cases where liability does not arise: instructions from the claimant, inherent vice of the goods, circumstances the carrier could not avoid — and a set of special risks that includes defective packing and, pointedly, handling, loading and stowing carried out by the sender. That last one is where a great many well-founded-looking claims die. It is also the practical reason to document the load before the doors close and to secure it properly in the first place: loading control and cargo securing.
Delay, declared value, and the ways past the cap
Delay is treated separately and treated modestly: compensation for late delivery cannot exceed the carriage charges. A halted production line, a missed promotion, a cancelled onward booking — none of that is recoverable through CMR unless something else was expressly agreed. It is worth saying out loud, because delay is the loss clients most often assume is covered.
There are two lawful ways past the weight cap, and both live in the consignment note. A value may be declared against a surcharge, which replaces the limit with the declared amount; and a special interest in delivery may be declared, which opens the door to further damages. Both must be entered before departure — a note completed after the event is worth nothing. Separately, the limits fall away entirely where wilful misconduct is proved, but that is a matter of litigation rather than planning. On the note itself: shipping documents.
The euro-per-kilogram test
| Cargo | Order of value per kg | What CMR liability covers on total loss |
|---|---|---|
| Building materials, tiles | EUR 0.5–2 per kg | all of it — the cap sits well above the value |
| Food and drink | EUR 2–5 per kg | as a rule all of it |
| Furniture and textiles | EUR 10–20 per kg | the borderline: from full cover down to about half |
| Machinery and equipment | EUR 20–60 per kg | from about half down to a sixth |
| Electronics and instruments | EUR 100–300 per kg | single-digit percentages of the value |
The test is one line: divide the invoice by the gross weight. Below about EUR 10 per kilogram the convention limit broadly covers you; above it, the difference is yours and nobody else’s. Note what the test does not depend on: the size of the consignment, the length of the route, or how reputable the carrier is. A heavy pallet of cheap goods is fully covered; a light pallet of expensive ones is barely covered at all. Closing that gap is what a cargo policy is for — cargo insurance.
What to do when the cargo arrives damaged
The convention sets deadlines, and they are short. Missing them does not merely weaken a claim — it can end it:
- Apparent damage — at delivery — the reservation goes on the consignment note as the goods are handed over, before the signature, not in an email the next morning
- Hidden damage — seven days — a written reservation within seven days of delivery, Sundays and public holidays excepted
- Delay — twenty-one days — a written reservation within twenty-one days of the goods being placed at the consignee’s disposal
- Record the weight — compensation is calculated on the gross weight of the missing or damaged part, so an undocumented weight is an uncalculable claim
- Establish value at acceptance — the price at the place and time of taking over, evidenced; the destination price is not what the convention asks for
- One year to sue — the limitation period under the convention, extended to three years where wilful misconduct is established
None of this is optional paperwork. The commonest reason a sound claim fails is not that the carrier turned out not to be liable; it is that the reservation was made a day late, or the weight of the damaged part was never written down by anyone.
Development prospects
Both instruments are going digital, and the practical effect is evidential rather than legal. The electronic consignment note has been in force since 2011 and now has 38 ratifications, Armenia among the countries that joined in 2024 — which matters here, because a timestamped electronic reservation is far easier to prove than a handwritten line on a paper note. On the customs side, eTIR reached this corridor in the summer of 2026: the first paperless TIR transport spanning three countries left Azerbaijan, crossed the Caspian by ship to Turkmenbashi, ran across Turkmenistan and entered Uzbekistan at Farap — over 1,200 km under a single electronic procedure. The deadlines above will not change; the ease of meeting them will.
How ABU JORJIA helps
We run the eastern leg under TIR and carry CMR liability cover, and we would rather tell you plainly what that does and does not reach than let the word “insured” do the work. Where a load changes vehicles we record its condition and its weight at the changeover, which is precisely the evidence a later claim turns on — see transloading at Poti and Batumi. And if the euro-per-kilogram test says the gap matters for your goods, we say so before loading rather than after.
In short
A TIR carnet insures the state against lost duties. A CMR policy insures the carrier against what the convention makes them liable for, up to about EUR 10 per kilogram. Only cargo insurance insures your goods for what they are worth. Run the one-line test on every shipment — invoice divided by gross weight — and buy the third instrument whenever the answer comes out above the cap. ABU JORJIA will run the numbers with you before the truck is loaded: send us the value, the weight and the route.
Check the cover on your shipment