Checklist · Commercial

Filing a Cargo Claim and Sorting Out Who Is Liable: A Practical Checklist

49 U.S.C. § 14706

Type
Checklist
Jurisdiction
National
Date
2024-12-17
Topic
Commercial

A sequenced checklist for handling freight loss and damage from the moment a shipment arrives wrong. Section A covers the first twenty-four hours at the dock, and Section B identifies which liability regime applies. Section C identifies every party and their statutory role, and Section D calendars the deadlines that end most claims. Section E builds the documentary case, and Section F attacks or defends the limitation of liability. Section G computes damages and handles salvage, and Section H covers the written claim itself. Section I handles freight charges, liens, and detention, and Section J covers theft and fraud. Section K is a prevention audit for shippers building a program, and Section L is the carrier-side and broker-side view of the same events.

Filing a Cargo Claim and Sorting Out Who Is Liable: A Practical Checklist

Commercial > Freight, Cargo Claims, and Logistics | Published 17 December 2024 - Updated 8 June 2026 | UpLaw - uplaw.us

How to use this

Sections A through J run in order for a claimant. Section K is for shippers building a program before anything goes wrong, and Section L flips the analysis to the carrier and broker side. The single most consequential item is number 1, because a signed clean delivery receipt costs more claims than every legal argument in this document combined.

SECTION A — THE FIRST TWENTY-FOUR HOURS

☐ 1. Note the exception on the delivery receipt before anyone signs. Be specific: pallet numbers, carton numbers, the words "crushed," "wet," "short," "temperature out of spec." "Subject to inspection" is nearly worthless.

☐ 2. Photograph the load in the trailer, before unloading — the full trailer, the load pattern, the blocking and bracing, and the damage in place.

☐ 3. Photograph and record the seal number, and note whether it matched the bill of lading.

☐ 4. Photograph the packaging — outer cartons, inner packaging, and any evidence of impact, moisture, or handling damage.

☐ 5. Pull the reefer temperature download the same day on refrigerated freight. It is frequently unavailable within weeks.

☐ 6. Record the driver's name, tractor number, trailer number, and carrier name exactly as they appear.

☐ 7. Do not discard anything — damaged product, cartons, dunnage, pallets, or shrink wrap.

☐ 8. Notify the carrier in writing within twenty-four hours and request inspection. The request matters even if inspection is waived.

☐ 9. Segregate the damaged goods and do not return them to the carrier without documenting the transfer.

☐ 10. Notify your own cargo insurer if you carry shipper's interest coverage, and check the policy's notice deadline.

☐ 11. Notify the broker in writing as well, even though the broker likely has no cargo liability; the broker's contract may impose duties to assist.

☐ 12. Write a dated internal memorandum of what was observed, by whom, and when.

SECTION B — IDENTIFY THE REGIME

☐ 13. Domestic interstate motor or rail carriage with a domestic bill of lading? Carmack applies — 49 U.S.C. § 14706.

☐ 14. Import moving under a single through bill from abroad? Likely COGSA, not Carmack — see 46 U.S.C. § 30701 and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha v. Regal-Beloit. Calendar one year, not two.

☐ 15. Purely intrastate? State law applies unless the movement is part of a continuous interstate movement — check 49 U.S.C. § 13501.

☐ 16. Goods in storage rather than in transit? Bailment and warehouse receipt law, not Carmack. Different burdens, different limits.

☐ 17. Household goods? Additional consumer protections apply, including 49 C.F.R. Part 375, the arbitration program at 49 U.S.C. § 14708, and possession penalties at 49 U.S.C. § 14915.

☐ 18. International air? Montreal Convention, with short notice periods and weight-based limits.

☐ 19. Until you have confirmed the regime, operate on the shortest plausible deadline.

SECTION C — IDENTIFY EVERY PARTY AND ITS ROLE

☐ 20. Collect every document naming an entity: bill of lading, rate confirmation, invoice, tracking page, emails.

☐ 21. For each entity, determine whether it is a carrier, broker, or freight forwarder under 49 U.S.C. § 13102. The label on the letterhead does not decide it.

☐ 22. Verify operating authority and registration status on the shipment date — 49 U.S.C. § 13901, 49 U.S.C. § 13902, 49 U.S.C. § 13905.

☐ 23. Ask whether any entity issued a bill of lading in its own name or quoted a through rate. Either can convert a self-described broker into a forwarder or carrier.

☐ 24. Identify the receiving carrier and the delivering carrier on an interline movement. Both are generally answerable.

☐ 25. Obtain the broker's surety bond or trust fund information under 49 U.S.C. § 13906 if a broker may be exposed.

☐ 26. Check whether the broker's contract assumed cargo liability by its own terms. Many do.

☐ 27. Consider whether a negligent selection theory exists against the broker, and research whether it survives preemption under 49 U.S.C. § 14501 in your forum — compare Rowe v. New Hampshire Motor Transport Ass'n with Dan's City Used Cars v. Pelkey.

SECTION D — CALENDAR THE DEADLINES TODAY

☐ 28. Claim deadline: nine months minimum from delivery, or from a reasonable time for delivery on a lost shipment. Read the tariff for the actual period.

☐ 29. Suit deadline: two years and one day minimum from the carrier's written disallowance. If no written disallowance has issued, the clock may not have started — but do not rely on that.

☐ 30. COGSA: one year from delivery or from the date the goods should have been delivered.

☐ 31. Concealed damage: find the tariff's concealed-damage notice period. It is often five or fifteen days.

☐ 32. Freight charge claims run on their own periods; calendar separately.

☐ 33. Calendar an internal deadline sixty days before each external one.

☐ 34. Request the written disallowance in writing if the carrier is stalling, so the suit clock is defined rather than open-ended.

SECTION E — BUILD THE DOCUMENTARY CASE

☐ 35. Good order at origin: clean bill of lading, production and QC records, pre-shipment photographs, pre-cooling and pulp temperature records.

☐ 36. Condition at destination: exception notation, receiver's inspection report, photographs, temperature readings.

☐ 37. The shipment file: bill of lading in the version signed at origin, rate confirmation, transportation agreement, incorporated tariff item in the version effective on the shipment date, delivery receipt, tracking history.

☐ 38. Send a written preservation demand naming, specifically: driver logs and ELD data, telematics and GPS, reefer setpoint and download, door-open sensors, dash camera, gate camera, dispatch records, the carrier's OS&D file, seal records, and transportation management system event logs.

☐ 39. Request the carrier's prior claims history on the lane in discovery.

☐ 40. Preserve your own records with the same rigor; the carrier will demand them.

☐ 41. If the shipper loaded and sealed the trailer, gather evidence on loading, blocking, and bracing — 49 U.S.C. § 80113 addresses the effect of "shipper's load and count."

SECTION F — THE LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

☐ 42. Locate the limitation: bill of lading face, tariff item, transportation agreement, or freight classification.

☐ 43. Compute what it actually pays. Multiply it out. Do this before negotiating anything.

☐ 44. Demand the tariff item in the version effective on the shipment date. If the carrier cannot produce it, say so in writing.

☐ 45. Ask for proof that the shipper was offered a choice of rates and a higher declared value — the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad v. Nothnagle standard.

☐ 46. Check whether the excess valuation charge was ever quoted or disclosed.

☐ 47. Look for inconsistency among bill of lading, rate confirmation, master agreement, and tariff, and for the absence of an order-of-precedence clause.

☐ 48. Check the limitation's operative words. A cap on "loss or damage to cargo" may not reach misdelivery under 49 U.S.C. § 80111, conversion, or freight overcharges.

☐ 49. On a through bill, look for a Himalaya clause extending an ocean carrier's limits inland — Norfolk Southern Railway v. Kirby.

☐ 50. On a COGSA shipment, count the packages as described on the bill. Whether a pallet is one package or sixty is worth the difference between $500 and $30,000.

SECTION G — DAMAGES AND SALVAGE

☐ 51. Determine the measure: destination market value of the goods in the condition they should have arrived, less salvage.

☐ 52. Decide whether the transaction supports invoice price or only cost of goods, and gather the proof for the position you take.

☐ 53. Add reasonably incurred inspection, sorting, repackaging, storage, and disposal costs.

☐ 54. Determine whether freight charges are recoverable on destroyed goods under the tariff.

☐ 55. Address consequential damages honestly. They are generally unavailable absent notice at contracting of special circumstances — check whether such notice exists in the transportation agreement.

☐ 56. Offer the carrier inspection and salvage in writing, with a deadline. Silence from the carrier is not permission to destroy goods, but a documented offer and a reasonable deadline protects the claim.

☐ 57. Obtain salvage bids and document them. Credit actual proceeds.

☐ 58. Do not let perishable or seasonal goods deteriorate while awaiting a response. Mitigation is the claimant's duty.

☐ 59. Compute the claim precisely and show the arithmetic in the claim letter. Vague numbers get vague offers.

SECTION H — THE WRITTEN CLAIM

☐ 60. Put it in writing. Email is fine; a phone call is not.

☐ 61. Identify the shipment: bill of lading number, pro number, pickup and delivery dates, origin, destination, commodity, weight, piece count.

☐ 62. State a specified or determinable amount.

☐ 63. Make an express demand for payment. Use the words.

☐ 64. Attach the documentary case: bills, receipts, photographs, invoices, temperature records, salvage documentation.

☐ 65. Send to the carrier's claims address in the tariff, and copy the operational contact and the broker.

☐ 66. Send by a method producing proof of delivery and calendar the acknowledgment period under 49 C.F.R. Part 370.

☐ 67. If the carrier is silent past the regulatory response period, write again and reference the regulation.

☐ 68. On an interline shipment, file against every carrier in the chain.

☐ 69. Consider tendering to your own cargo policy in parallel. The insurer pays faster and subrogates.

☐ 70. Track everything in a claims log with dates. The log becomes evidence and a rate-negotiation tool.

SECTION I — FREIGHT CHARGES, DETENTION, AND LIENS

☐ 71. Determine whether the shipment moved prepaid, collect, or third-party billed, and who was billed.

☐ 72. On collect shipments, check whether the non-recourse (Section 7) election was executed at the time of shipment. It cannot be added afterward.

☐ 73. If a carrier is billing you for freight a broker was already paid, assemble proof of payment to the broker and the bill of lading's billing designation.

☐ 74. Check whether the transportation agreement waived statutory rights and remedies in writing under 49 U.S.C. § 14101.

☐ 75. For detention and demurrage, produce independent gate-in and gate-out evidence — yard logs, dock tickets, cameras.

☐ 76. Compare the accessorial charges billed against the master agreement's schedule, not the rate confirmation.

☐ 77. If a carrier is holding freight, determine whether it has a lien under 49 U.S.C. § 80109 — which secures charges on that shipment, not the account balance.

☐ 78. Check the transportation agreement for a general lien or setoff clause before conceding.

☐ 79. If goods are time-sensitive, pay under written protest and sue to recover rather than litigating while the value evaporates.

☐ 80. On ocean containers, evaluate whether detention and demurrage were unreasonable in light of terminal availability — a regulatory claim under 46 U.S.C. § 41102 with reparations available under 46 U.S.C. § 41305.

SECTION J — THEFT, FRAUD, AND MISSING FREIGHT

☐ 81. Report to law enforcement immediately and obtain a report number.

☐ 82. Notify the insurer within the policy's notice window and preserve all communications with the purported carrier.

☐ 83. Pull the load board record — the posting, the bid, the carrier profile, and any changes to it.

☐ 84. Compare the carrier identity used at booking against the registered carrier's actual contact information.

☐ 85. Determine whether the load was re-brokered contrary to contract, and whether the broker's agreement provides a remedy.

☐ 86. File the cargo claim against every entity in the chain within the deadlines, even where liability is uncertain.

☐ 87. Check whether the broker's contingent cargo policy excludes fraud or requires exhaustion of the carrier's coverage.

☐ 88. Preserve pickup-site camera footage before it is overwritten — often within days.

SECTION K — PREVENTION AUDIT FOR SHIPPERS

☐ 89. Decide, by commodity, which shipments travel at declared value and who pays the excess valuation charge. Put it in writing.

☐ 90. Negotiate the transportation agreement: liability level, governing law and forum, order of precedence, claim and suit deadlines no shorter than statutory minimums, accessorial schedule and free time, insurance requirements with certificates and cancellation notice, prohibition on re-brokering, audit rights, and record retention.

☐ 91. Add a special damages notice clause identifying foreseeable downstream losses.

☐ 92. Verify cargo insurance separately from public liability. The minimums at 49 C.F.R. Part 387 and 49 U.S.C. § 31139 do not cover cargo.

☐ 93. Write a dock protocol for exceptions, photographs, and seals; train it; audit it quarterly.

☐ 94. Automate deadline calendaring the day a loss is reported.

☐ 95. Keep a carrier vetting file capturing authority, insurance, and safety data with verification dates.

☐ 96. Verify the driver and equipment at pickup, not only at booking.

☐ 97. Seal every trailer and record seal numbers on the bill of lading.

☐ 98. Archive tariffs by effective date rather than relying on the carrier's current posting.

☐ 99. Review the claims log at every rate renewal. Loss experience is a legitimate pricing input and a legitimate negotiating lever.

SECTION L — THE CARRIER AND BROKER SIDE

☐ 100. Carriers: train drivers to note exceptions at pickup and to refuse plainly unsafe loads in writing.

☐ 101. Document the driver's inspection and any objection made at loading where the shipper loaded and sealed.

☐ 102. Preserve telematics and reefer data on notice of a claim. Spoliation exposure exceeds most cargo claims.

☐ 103. Maintain and archive the tariff by effective date, and be able to produce the item in force on any shipment date.

☐ 104. Issue a clear written disallowance when declining a claim, to start the suit period.

☐ 105. Comply with the acknowledgment and response timelines in 49 C.F.R. Part 370.

☐ 106. Remember the second half of the defense: an excepted cause is not enough without freedom from negligence.

☐ 107. Brokers: stay on the broker side of the line — no bills of lading in your own name, no through-rate representations, no custody.

☐ 108. Vet carriers against authority, insurance, and safety data at booking and again at pickup, and keep the record.

☐ 109. Buy real contingent cargo coverage and read its fraud and exhaustion conditions.

☐ 110. Prohibit re-brokering with a stated remedy, and enforce it.

☐ 111. Include a forum-selection clause, understanding that broker-liability law differs materially across circuits under 49 U.S.C. § 14501.

☐ 112. Everyone: the file is built at the dock. Fix the dock.

SECTION M — DECISION POINTS THAT CHANGE THE OUTCOME

☐ 113. Should you deduct from the freight bill instead of filing a claim? Understand that a deduction is a freight-charge dispute, not a cargo claim, and carriers sue over deductions. If you deduct, file the written claim anyway.

☐ 114. Should you tender to your own policy or fight the carrier? Compare the deductible and the premium consequence against the limitation. Where the limitation caps recovery at a fraction of the loss, the first-party policy is almost always the better path, and the insurer inherits the fight.

☐ 115. Should you sue the broker? Only after researching preemption in the forum, checking whether the broker contractually assumed liability, and assessing collectability. A broker's bond under 49 U.S.C. § 13906 is small and frequently oversubscribed.

☐ 116. Should you arbitrate? If the transportation agreement requires it, the question is usually not whether but where and under whose rules. See Arbitration.

☐ 117. Is small claims court adequate? For claims under the local threshold, frequently yes — and the documentary nature of Carmack claims suits that forum well. See Small Claims and Self-Representation.

☐ 118. Is the defendant collectable? A judgment against a single-truck carrier with no cargo coverage is worth what you can garnish. Check assets before spending litigation dollars — see Judgment Enforcement and Debtor Exemptions.

☐ 119. Is there a downstream customer claim? If your customer is charging you back for a failed delivery, the timing of that chargeback and its documentation affect your own damages proof.

☐ 120. Is this a pattern? Three similar losses on the same lane with the same carrier is a different conversation — with the carrier, with the insurer, and potentially with a court — than one bad load.

SECTION N — DOCUMENT REQUEST LIST

Use this list verbatim in a preservation demand and again in discovery.

☐ 121. Bill of lading, all versions, including the copy signed at origin and the copy signed at delivery ☐ 122. Delivery receipt and any exception or OS&D report ☐ 123. Rate confirmation and any amendments ☐ 124. Transportation agreement, master service agreement, and all addenda ☐ 125. Tariff or rules circular in the version effective on the shipment date, including the item establishing any liability limitation ☐ 126. Freight classification applied, and the basis for it ☐ 127. Dispatch records, driver assignment, and trip sheets ☐ 128. Electronic logging device records and hours-of-service data ☐ 129. Telematics and GPS breadcrumb data, including hard-braking and stop events ☐ 130. Refrigeration unit setpoint history and temperature download ☐ 131. Door-open sensor data and seal records ☐ 132. Dash camera and any facility camera footage ☐ 133. Trailer maintenance and inspection records for the six months preceding the shipment ☐ 134. Prior cargo claims on the same lane and same equipment for the preceding two years ☐ 135. The carrier's internal claim file, investigation notes, and any inspection report ☐ 136. Insurance policies and certificates in effect on the shipment date ☐ 137. Communications between broker and carrier concerning the load ☐ 138. Load board postings, bids, and carrier profile as of booking

📌 Send this list within days, not weeks. Telematics and camera data in this industry are typically retained for a period measured in weeks, and the most decisive evidence in a temperature or securement case is the first to disappear.

SECTION O — QUICK REFERENCE

☐ 139. Carmack elements: good order in, bad order out, amount. 49 U.S.C. § 14706. ☐ 140. Carrier defenses: act of God, public enemy, shipper, public authority, inherent vice — plus freedom from negligence. ☐ 141. Claim deadline: nine months minimum. Suit: two years and a day from written disallowance. COGSA: one year. ☐ 142. Broker: no Carmack liability in the ordinary case. Forwarder: Carmack liability. 49 U.S.C. § 13102. ☐ 143. Limitation: requires notice, a fair opportunity to choose, and written assent. ☐ 144. Interlining: sue the receiving carrier, the delivering carrier, or both. ☐ 145. Misdelivery: 49 U.S.C. § 80111; good faith is not a defense. ☐ 146. Lien: 49 U.S.C. § 80109 secures charges on that shipment only, absent contract. ☐ 147. Preemption: Carmack displaces state cargo claims; 49 U.S.C. § 14501 reaches broader but only "with respect to the transportation of property." ☐ 148. The rule that matters most: the delivery receipt is the case. Write on it.

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