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existing international conventions and national laws. Indeed, with regard to liabilities,
some international conventions for single modes have instructions for
multimodal purposes as well; domestic laws have often parallels with the international
ones.
The legal aspects of intermodal transportation, especially the liabilities, are also
associated with appropriate documentation, which can indicate conformity between
the common carriers. Critical for intermodal freight transportation is not
just the content and form of documents, but how they are interpreted, what is
their role and - what is more important - what are the implications for practical
procedures between the main partners: shippers, carriers, and receivers. Besides
documents, also contracts (of carriage) are important, but also problematic
in multimodal/intermodal solutions. Some independent organisations have
launched their own documents (e.g. COMBICONBILL by BIMCO, FBL by
FIATA), and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has created ICC
Rules for multimodal transportation and documentation. Finnlines uses documents
that have parallels with the ideas approved by North Sea Operators Standard
Conditions of Carriage with some alterations and refinements in applied
clauses; hence the company issues its own B/L or LinerWayBill/(LWB) with
slight modifications containing reference also for Hague-Visby Rules as
amended in 1979. In international railtransportation the so called CIM- waybill is
used in westbound traffic; in eastbound a special waybill, which is based on bilateral
agreement between Russia and Finland, is used instead. The Multimodal
Transport Document (MTD) is mostly applicable in combined transportation solutions.
Because no uniform, world wide legislation for intermodal cargo exists, a carrier
as the MTO can quite freely and independently define the terms and conditions
for haulage (in Scandinavia there exists, however, General Conditions of the
Nordic Association of Freight Forwarders to substitute the absence of a uniform
law). It seems that in IFT there is no single big operator who could take the full
responsibility, which means that the range of TPLs (forwarders, Nonvessel Operating
Common Carriers, mega-carriers) give service that consolidates the
transported goods, plans different routes and modes, and has several other integrator-alike
functions.
Responses to Expectations
Particularly in the network-based approach the role-position concept provides a
robust starting point for analysing common carriers; thus intentions and expecta-
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