The CMR consignment note is the contract of carriage for cross-border road freight. Its electronic version, the eCMR, carries the same legal weight where it is recognised — and removes the single largest source of billing disputes in European transport.
7 min read · Last reviewed 20 August 2026
The CMR Convention of 1956 governs contracts for the international carriage of goods by road. The Additional Protocol adopted in 2008 allows the consignment note and any related demands or declarations to be made by electronic communication, provided the method used ensures the authenticity and integrity of the record.
Alongside it, Regulation (EU) 2020/1056 on electronic freight transport information requires competent authorities to accept regulatory information submitted electronically through certified eFTI platforms, which pushes the entire sector towards digital documentation regardless of individual ratification status.
The reservations line is where money is won or lost. A driver who notes damage with a timestamped photo at handover shifts the burden of proof; a driver who signs a clean paper note because the customer is in a hurry does not.
The measurable outcome is cash: fleets that replace returned paper with instant digital proof typically shorten the delivery-to-invoice cycle from days to the same working day, and cut unresolved damage claims sharply because the evidence exists.
This guide is written for operational planning and is not legal advice. Rules are applied and enforced differently across member states — always verify against the current legal text and your national authority.
Depot2Door captures multi-photo proof of delivery, signatures and timestamps offline, then syncs a structured consignment log your back office can export per route.
Not universally. It is recognised between states that have ratified the 2008 Additional Protocol to the CMR Convention. Coverage has grown steadily, and the eFTI Regulation obliges authorities to accept electronic freight information from 2027, but for now you should verify both ends of each corridor.
It contains the delivery acknowledgement, but most operators also capture photographic proof, a timestamp and a position at handover. That extra evidence is what settles damage and non-delivery disputes.
A well-built driver app stores the signed record locally and synchronises when connectivity returns, keeping the original capture timestamp. Depot2Door works this way by default.
The CMR Convention sets a one-year limitation period for most claims and three years in cases of wilful misconduct, so records are typically retained for at least three years. National tax and accounting rules often require longer.
When a driver counts as posted, which operations are exempt, what an IMI posting declaration must contain, and the documents a driver must be able to show at a roadside check.
A field-tested playbook for cutting failed first-time deliveries: realistic ETAs, pre-arrival messaging, access data at the stop, structured exception handling and the KPIs that show it worked.
