ABSTRACT
The growth of multimodal transport brought with it the evolution of single transport documents, such as through bill of lading and multimodal transport document, to cover the entire carriage of cargo from door to door. The lack of a uniform liability regime for multimodal transportation inevitably affects commerce because of uncertainty in respect of its legal infrastructure. British International Freight Association (BIFA) has made a major contribution to standardising the terms of multimodal carriage by drafting the Standard Trading Conditions for use by its members. The formulation of standard terms, such as the BIFA Standard Trading Conditions and the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations Bill, for use by freight forwarders has brought about some harmonisation and certainty in the area of multimodal transport. The Multimodal Convention is designed to introduce a uniform liability scheme. The liability of the multimodal transport operator is, therefore, not dependant on establishing during which mode of transport the loss or damage occurred.
