Fax and carriers: reservations, disputes, 3 days

Short answer: in freight transport, it isn't the damage that loses a case, it's the silence of the first three days. Article L. 133-3 of the French Commercial Code extinguishes your right of action against the carrier if the goods were "received without reasoned protest" within three days of delivery. Fax serves exactly four purposes within this timeline. Confirming a reservation noted on the delivery slip by means of a reasoned protest sent to the carrier before the deadline expires. Reporting concealed damage discovered during unpacking, when the driver left the day before. Alerting the freight forwarder or charterer in parallel with the actual carrier, so you don't target the wrong debtor. And forwarding supporting documents to the claims department — photographs, inspection report, commercial invoice — ahead of a settlement meeting. For everything else, the file lives by email and registered post. One rule worth engraving: fax proves that you protested in time; it does not prove the extent of the damage.

Why three days change everything

Transport law is one of the rare regimes in which a creditor forfeits a right through inaction, without any judge having to assess good faith. Article L. 133-3 of the Commercial Code is blunt in its wording: receipt of the transported goods extinguishes any action against the carrier "for damage or partial loss if, within three days, not including public holidays, following the day of such receipt, the consignee has not notified the carrier, by extrajudicial act or by registered letter, of its reasoned protest".

Three traps lurk in that sentence.

The first: the deadline runs from the day of receipt, excluding that day itself, and public holidays don't count. A Friday delivery leaves you until the following Wednesday if no public holiday intervenes — but many companies think in terms of "72 hours" and get the count wrong by a day.

The second: the reservation written on the delivery slip is not enough. Writing "2 parcels crushed" on the driver's receipt is essential, but it is only the beginning of proof. If the reservation is not confirmed by a reasoned protest within three days, the case law of the Cour de cassation generally holds that the action is extinguished. Many disputes are lost right there: the reservation exists, the confirmation is missing.

The third: "reasoned" means reasoned. A fax saying "we contest the delivery" without identifying the consignment, the nature of the damage and the alleged cause does not meet the requirement. You need an identifiable subject: consignment note or CMR number, date, number of parcels, precise description of the damage.

What the law accepts as a protest

The text refers to an "extrajudicial act or registered letter". Should we conclude that fax is excluded? No — and that's an important nuance.

Legal scholarship and practice have long accepted that the list in Article L. 133-3 is not exhaustive, provided the carrier actually received the protest and that receipt can be established. What is sanctioned is the silence, not the choice of medium. A carrier who replies to your fax, opens a claims file and appoints a surveyor has acknowledged receipt: it can no longer seriously claim to have received nothing.

In practice, then, the winning strategy is cumulative, not alternative:

Fax fills the most useful slot: that of the immediate, dated channel. An email is dated too, but its time stamp remains debatable before a judge when the other side argues it landed in the spam folder. A postal registered letter goes out in the evening and arrives two days later — outside the deadline if you send it on the third day. Fax, for its part, produces a transmission report stating the number called, the date, the time, the number of pages and the outcome. It is precisely this triptych that proves dispatch. We go into this mechanism in detail in our article on the evidential value of fax before a judge.

Road, air, sea: three different clocks

Many logistics managers apply "three days" to everything. That's a mistake: the deadline depends on the applicable regime, and it is sometimes shorter.

Domestic French road transport. Three days, excluding public holidays (Article L. 133-3 of the Commercial Code). The standard contracts annexed to the Transport Code, approved by decree, also set out the verification procedures at delivery.

International road transport (CMR). The Geneva Convention of 19 May 1956 distinguishes apparent loss or damage, which must be the subject of reservations at the time of delivery, from concealed damage, for which the consignee has seven days from delivery, excluding Sundays and public holidays (Article 30). For delay, the deadline is twenty-one days.

Air transport (Montreal Convention, 1999). The complaint must be made within fourteen days of receipt of the goods, and within twenty-one days in the event of delay. After that deadline, no action is admissible unless there has been fraud on the carrier's part.

Sea transport (Hague-Visby Rules, French Act of 18 June 1966). Reservations at delivery for apparent damage, three days for concealed damage, and a one-year limitation period for the action.

A table of these deadlines posted at the receiving bay, ideally alongside a customisable rubber stamp bearing the words "subject to unpacking", prevents ninety per cent of lost claims. It's an investment of a few euros against a loss running into thousands.

Checking on receipt: what you really need to do

A reasoned protest only has value if it describes damage that was properly established. Here is the sequence that carriers' own quality departments follow.

Don't sign before you've counted. The driver is in a hurry; that's his job. Counting the parcels listed on the consignment note is a consignee's right, not a favour.

Describe, don't label. "Carton no. 3 crushed at the top corner, strapping broken, sound of broken glass" is a thousand times better than "parcel damaged". Catch-all wording such as "subject to unpacking", on its own, is regularly held ineffective by the courts: it identifies no damage at all.

Photograph before opening. The photo of the sealed parcel, on the pallet, with the label legible, is the piece of evidence that ties the damage to the transport. A simple smartphone will do, but decent lighting changes everything in a dark warehouse: a rechargeable head torch left at the receiving station is one of those accessories you never regret.

Weigh and measure if mass is at issue. For partial shortages, an electronic pallet scale settles in thirty seconds a debate that would otherwise drag on for three weeks by email.

Keep the packaging. The surveyor appointed by the carrier's insurer will ask to see it. Packaging thrown away means an adversarial inspection is impossible.

Template fax for a reasoned protest

A useful reservation fax fits on one page. Here is a tried-and-tested structure:

REASONED PROTEST — Article L. 133-3 of the French Commercial Code

Sender: [company name, SIREN, address, telephone, email] Recipient: [carrier, claims department], fax no. […] Date and time of sending: […]

Subject: damage found on consignment no. [consignment note / CMR / tracking no.], delivered on [date] at [time] at [place].

We hereby notify you of our reasoned protest concerning the consignment identified above, comprising [n] parcels with a gross weight of [x] kg, dispatched by [sender] on [date].

Findings: [factual description, parcel by parcel]. Reservations entered on the delivery receipt: [verbatim reproduction]. Loss estimated at this stage: [amount excl. VAT] €, based on commercial invoice no. […] attached.

We hold the goods and their packaging available for inspection by your surveyor, by appointment, at the above address and until [date].

This document constitutes an interruption of any plea of inadmissibility based on Article L. 133-3 of the Commercial Code. A copy is being sent today by email and confirmed by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt.

[Name, position, signature]

Three details make the difference: the precise identification of the consignment, the offer to make the goods available for inspection (which cuts short any argument about lack of adversarial process) and the mention of the duplicate sending, which deters any dispute over receipt.

Archiving the file to last a year

The weak point of logistics departments isn't the sending, it's the retention. The action against the carrier is time-barred after one year from delivery in domestic road transport and under the CMR, and after two years in air and sea transport. A file pulled out thirteen months later must contain, intact:

• the signed consignment note or CMR, with the handwritten reservations;
• the fax transmission report (number called, date, time, pages, status OK);
• the email read receipt and the postal acknowledgement of receipt;
• the original photographs, uncropped, with their metadata;
• the commercial invoice and proof of the value of the goods;
• the survey report, if one was produced.

The format matters. A PDF/A, a time stamp and redundant storage are worth more than a folder on the workstation of a manager who has since left. For paper documents, a document scanner with an automatic feeder processes a stack of slips in a few minutes and produces searchable files — we explain the precautions in our guide to digitising documents without losing legal value. And for originals that must survive the damp of a warehouse, a fireproof archive box is an inexpensive reflex.

The mistakes that cost you your claim

Protesting to the wrong debtor. If you contracted with a freight forwarder, it is the forwarder who answers for the substituted carrier, but a protest addressed to the charterer alone does not always stand against the actual carrier. If in doubt, send the same fax to both, on the same day.

Confusing a reservation with a quantified claim. The protest must go out within three days; the valuation can follow. Waiting for a replacement quote before writing is a guaranteed way to be time-barred.

Forgetting public holidays. They don't count towards the deadline, but 1 May falling on a Friday doesn't extend the deadline the way people imagine: check the calculation day by day.

Relying on a phone call. The handler will be "aware of it". His employer, however, will acknowledge nothing. Every useful conversation ends with something in writing, dated the same day.

Sending a fax to the commercial number. Large carriers have a "claims" fax number separate from the commercial one. Check it in the general terms and conditions of sale or on the acknowledgement of collection, and keep a copy of the page where it appears.

Frequently asked questions

Is a fax alone enough for a reasoned protest?

It can be enough if the carrier actually received the fax and you can establish that — transmission report, written reply, opening of a claims file. But it's a gamble. The safe practice is to send the fax within the three-day deadline and to confirm by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, even if that letter arrives after the deadline: the fax fixes the date, the registered letter locks down the form.

Are the reservations on the driver's slip sufficient?

No. They are necessary but not sufficient. The Cour de cassation has ruled on many occasions that a reservation not confirmed by a reasoned protest within the statutory deadline does not prevent the action from being extinguished. The two steps are cumulative.

What about a simple late delivery?

The regime is different. In domestic road transport, delay is not covered by Article L. 133-3: the one-year limitation period applies, and the standard contracts provide for compensation capped at the price of the transport. Under the CMR, the deadline for claiming in the event of delay is twenty-one days from the date the goods were placed at the consignee's disposal. In air transport, twenty-one days as well.

Can I send the protest from my computer, without a fax machine?

Yes. An internet fax service transmits to a conventional fax number and returns a usable transmission report. It is often more reliable than an analogue machine whose line has been switched to IP without any adjustment — a topic we cover in our guide to the end of the PSTN and fax lines. Check coverage for the destination country on the available countries page.

What if the carrier denies receiving the fax?

Produce the transmission report, the itemised invoice from the fax service showing the call, and proof that the number called is indeed the one published by the carrier. Add the copy of the email and the postal acknowledgement of receipt. Faced with that body of evidence, a denial doesn't hold up for long. Other scenarios are covered in our FAQ.

In summary

• Article L. 133-3 of the French Commercial Code extinguishes your right of action if no reasoned protest is notified within three days (excluding public holidays) of receipt.
• Handwritten reservations on the delivery slip are essential but do not replace the protest.
• Deadlines vary by regime: 3 days in domestic road transport, 7 days for concealed damage under the CMR, 14 days in air transport, 3 days in sea transport for concealed damage.
• Fax is the ideal channel for day D+1: immediate, time-stamped, traceable through its transmission report.
• Always send across three channels: fax, email, registered letter — each one covers the weakness of the other two.
• A useful protest identifies the consignment, describes the damage parcel by parcel and makes the goods available to the surveyor.
• Keep everything for at least one year: consignment note, fax report, original photos, commercial invoice.