Damage inspection at handover: what a photo proves and how long you have to give notice

Under the CMR Convention, apparent damage must be reserved not later than the time of delivery and non-apparent damage within seven days of delivery, Sundays and public holidays excepted, in writing; compensation for delay requires a written reservation within twenty-one days (Article 30). Without a reservation, taking delivery is prima facie evidence that the goods were received in the condition described in the consignment note. A photograph supports that reservation but does not replace it, and a single photograph with no earlier reference shot cannot establish when the damage occurred or who is responsible.

• A handover photograph is the cheapest piece of evidence in a cargo claim and the most often misunderstood. What usually goes wrong is not the number of shots but the belief that the photograph does a job it cannot do. Below are the notice periods that start running the moment you take delivery, the evidential limits of a photograph, and what a usable handover file looks like — sourced from the conventions themselves.
• The tool on this page reads one photograph and lists what is visible by area, type and severity. It cannot tell you when the damage happened or whose watch it happened on; the reason is set out further down.

How long do I have to give notice of damage?

• For international carriage by road, Article 30 of the CMR Convention sets three separate clocks.
• Apparent loss or damage — Deadline: Not later than the time of delivery | Form: No writing requirement in Article 30(1) for this case
• Loss or damage that is not apparent — Deadline: Within seven days of delivery, Sundays and public holidays excepted | Form: In writing (Article 30(1), last sentence)
• Delay in delivery — Deadline: Within twenty-one days from the time the goods were placed at the disposal of the consignee | Form: In writing (Article 30(3))
• Counting the days — Deadline: The date of delivery, of the checking, or of placing at the consignee's disposal is not included (Article 30(4)) | Form: —

• Three practical consequences follow.
• The seven-day clock is not a calendar week — Sundays and public holidays drop out. Which public holidays count depends on the place of delivery, so a Friday delivery in one country and another can land on different final days.
• Writing is required only for the non-apparent case — Article 30(1) attaches the writing requirement to reservations for damage that is not apparent. A reservation given at the moment of delivery for visible damage is not, on the face of the Article, required to be written — but an unwritten reservation is one you cannot later prove. Write it on the consignment note, have it signed, and photograph the signed copy.
• Delay is the one that truly extinguishes the claim — Article 30(3): "No compensation shall be payable for delay in delivery unless a reservation has been sent in writing to the carrier, within twenty-one days..." There is no presumption to argue about here.

What happens if I sign the consignment note clean?

• Article 30(1) is explicit: if the consignee takes delivery without duly checking the condition of the goods with the carrier, or without sending reservations, "the fact of his taking delivery shall be prima facie evidence that he has received the goods in the condition described in the consignment note."
• That is a shift in the burden of proof, not the death of the claim — for loss and damage. For delay it is a bar.
• The mirror rule operates at the loading end and protects the carrier. Article 8(1) requires the carrier, on taking over the goods, to check the accuracy of the statements in the consignment note as to the number of packages, their marks and numbers, and the apparent condition of the goods and their packaging. Where the carrier has no reasonable means of checking, Article 8(2) requires reasoned reservations — which do not bind the sender unless expressly agreed to in the consignment note. If the note carries no specific reservations, Article 9(2) presumes that the goods and their packaging appeared to be in good condition and that the packages, marks and numbers corresponded with the note.
• So the loading photograph is the carrier's document and the delivery photograph is the cargo interest's document. They belong to the same file.

Which regime governs my leg, and why does it change the numbers?

• A trailer that rolls onto a RoRo vessel does not stay under one set of rules by default; the contract you signed decides, and multimodal contracts usually apply the regime that would have applied to the leg where the damage occurred.
• Notice, damage apparent — Road (CMR, given force by the Carriage of Goods by Road Act 1965): Not later than the time of delivery (Art. 30(1)) | Sea (Hague-Visby Rules, given force by the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971): In writing at the port of discharge before or at the time of removal (Art. III r.6)
• Notice, damage not apparent — Road (CMR, given force by the Carriage of Goods by Road Act 1965): 7 days, Sundays and holidays excepted (Art. 30(1)) | Sea (Hague-Visby Rules, given force by the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971): 3 days (Art. III r.6)
• Effect of no notice — Road (CMR, given force by the Carriage of Goods by Road Act 1965): Prima facie evidence of good condition | Sea (Hague-Visby Rules, given force by the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971): Prima facie evidence of delivery as described in the bill of lading
• Limit — Road (CMR, given force by the Carriage of Goods by Road Act 1965): 8.33 units of account per kilogram of gross weight short (Art. 23(3)) | Sea (Hague-Visby Rules, given force by the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971): 666.67 units per package or unit, or 2 units per kilogramme, whichever is the higher (Art. IV r.5(a))
• Time bar — Road (CMR, given force by the Carriage of Goods by Road Act 1965): 1 year; 3 years for wilful misconduct (Art. 32(1)) | Sea (Hague-Visby Rules, given force by the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971): 1 year from delivery or the date the goods should have been delivered (Art. III r.6)

• The practical point is that the sea limit is package-based as well as weight-based and takes whichever is higher, while the road limit is purely weight-based. For light, high-value packages the two regimes produce very different numbers on the same consignment — which is exactly why the file has to record where the damage was first seen, not only that it exists.

What does the photograph actually prove?

• The visible state of that surface at that moment — A photograph does not show: When the damage occurred, if there is no earlier reference shot
• The plate, container or trailer number, if legible — A photograph does not show: Who caused it, or on whose watch
• Whether a seal is present, and its number — A photograph does not show: Damage under packaging, inside the box, inside the load
• The rough position and, with a scale object, the rough size — A photograph does not show: Whether the cause was stowage, securing or the carriage itself
• How many packages or pallets are affected — A photograph does not show: Repair cost or diminution in value

• Time is the hard limit. The only honest way to say whether a scratch is new is to compare it with an earlier shot from the same angle. Without that reference, every scratch reads as new and the invoice lands on the wrong party. The screener on this page prints that caveat above every result and it cannot be hidden.
• Things that weaken a photo file: a single frame with no identifying shot; close-ups with no wide shot to place them; images pulled from a gallery with no way to show when they were taken; heavy compression that erases hairline cracks; and device-reported timestamps and coordinates, which are asserted data, not a verified timestamp.

Which shots make a handover file usable?

• Order matters: identity first, whole vehicle second, detail last. Reversed, the detail shot floats free of any vehicle.
• Plate, container number or trailer number, legible — Why: Ties the file to the unit | If it is missing: Every other frame fails the "which vehicle" question
• Four corner wide shots (front-left, rear-left, rear-right, front-right) — Why: All side surfaces plus the unit as a whole | If it is missing: No counter-evidence for a surface later claimed to be sound
• Rear doors closed, seal in close-up with the number readable — Why: Seal integrity and whether the unit was opened | If it is missing: The "interfered with after loading" argument stays open
• Wide shot before every close-up of a defect — Why: The close-up takes its position from the wide shot | If it is missing: A close-up alone does not prove "on this unit"
• A scale in the close-up (tape, hand, standard object) — Why: Removes the size argument | If it is missing: "Minor scuff" versus "deep dent" stays contested
• Roof and underside or pallet base — Why: The surfaces most easily skipped | If it is missing: You cannot later say it was sound at handover
• Tyres and the coupling/kingpin area — Why: The mechanical items most often disputed on a change of custody | If it is missing: Post-transfer failures have no baseline
• Interior empty before loading, then loaded — Why: Water ingress, holes, daylight through seams, stow condition | If it is missing: Wet-damage and stowage-fault cannot be separated

• Two rules outrank the list. First, repeat the same angles at every inspection — comparison is only possible angle-to-angle. Second, both sides shoot at the same time; a one-sided file does not close the other party's argument.

Is a photograph enough, or do I need a joint survey?

• A joint check beats a pile of photographs. Article 30(2): where the condition of the goods has been duly checked by the consignee and the carrier, evidence contradicting the result of that checking is admissible only for damage that is not apparent, and only if the consignee sent written reservations within seven days of the checking, Sundays and public holidays excepted. Article 30(5) makes the cooperation mutual: "The carrier and the consignee shall give each other every reasonable facility for making the requisite investigations and checks."
• A usable damage report records: date, time and place; unit and seal numbers; the consignment note reference and consistency with the particulars Article 6(1) requires in it (number of packages, marks and numbers, gross weight); an item-by-item description of what is damaged and roughly how much; the number of frames taken and where they are stored; and the names, capacities and signatures of those present, noting anyone who declined to sign.

What is the compensation cap, and when does it bite?

• Article 23(3): — compensation shall not exceed 8.33 units of account per kilogram of gross weight short. The unit of account is the Special Drawing Right.
• Article 23(4): — carriage charges, customs duties and other charges incurred in respect of the carriage are refunded in full on total loss and pro rata on partial loss, "but no further damages shall be payable."
• Article 23(5): — for delay, compensation may not exceed the carriage charges.
• Article 23(6): — higher compensation may only be claimed where value or a special interest has been declared under Articles 24 and 26.
• Article 24: — against an agreed surcharge, the sender may declare in the consignment note a value exceeding the Article 23(3) limit, and that declared value replaces the limit.
• Article 26: — against an agreed surcharge, the sender may fix a special interest in delivery; proved additional loss may then be claimed up to that amount, independently of Articles 23, 24 and 25.
• Article 25 — governs partial damage: compensation follows the amount payable for total loss where the whole consignment is devalued, and the affected part only where part of it is.
• Article 29 — the exception that matters most: — the carrier "shall not be entitled to avail himself of the provisions of this chapter which exclude or limit his liability" where the damage was caused by his wilful misconduct or by such default on his part as, under the law of the court seised, is considered equivalent to wilful misconduct. Where Article 29 applies, the 8.33 SDR ceiling does not cap anything: liability is full. The same follows for his agents and servants acting within their duties.

• When does the cap bite? Compare the value of the goods per kilogram with 8.33 SDR per kilogram. Below that threshold the cap rarely constrains the claim; above it — light, dense-value cargo — the gap has to be closed contractually, by an Article 24 declaration of value or an Article 26 special interest, or commercially, by cargo insurance.
• The photograph does not move the cap. It fixes the base the cap is applied to: whether the whole consignment or three pallets lost value. That is precisely the Article 25 question.

How long do I have to sue, and how long should I keep the file?

• Article 32(1) sets a one-year period, extended to three years in the case of wilful misconduct or equivalent default. Time runs, in cases of partial loss, damage or delay, from the date of delivery; in the case of total loss, from the thirtieth day after the expiry of the agreed time-limit; and in all other cases, from the expiry of three months after the making of the contract.
• Under the Hague-Visby Rules the carrier and ship are discharged unless suit is brought within one year of delivery or of the date when the goods should have been delivered.
• Keep the handover file for at least the limitation period, and longer if you may need to pass a claim down the chain to a subcontracted carrier. Keep originals at full resolution; a resized copy loses the hairline crack that the claim turns on.

Carrier liability insurance or cargo insurance?

• Bought by — Carrier liability (CMR) insurance: The carrier | Cargo insurance: The cargo interest
• Pays — Carrier liability (CMR) insurance: What the carrier is legally liable for | Cargo insurance: The insured value of the goods, within policy cover
• Ceiling — Carrier liability (CMR) insurance: The liability limit applies (8.33 SDR/kg) | Cargo insurance: The sum insured, typically invoice value plus freight and an agreed uplift
• If the carrier is not liable — Carrier liability (CMR) insurance: Nothing is paid | Cargo insurance: Still pays, if the loss is within cover

• The carrier is not liable in more cases than shippers expect. Article 17(2) relieves the carrier where the loss was caused by the claimant's wrongful act or neglect, by the claimant's instructions, by inherent vice of the goods, or by circumstances the carrier could not avoid. Article 17(4) adds the special risks — open unsheeted vehicles where agreed, absent or defective packing, handling by the sender or consignee, the nature of certain goods, insufficient marking, and livestock. Under Article 18(2), if the carrier establishes that the loss could be attributed to one of those special risks, it is presumed to have been so caused, though the claimant may prove otherwise.
• Read that list as a shot list. Each item is a question your photographs should be able to answer: how was it packed, who loaded it, was the sheet closed, were the marks legible.
• Notify your own insurer under the policy's own terms, which are usually tighter than any statute, and do not clean, repair or dispose of damaged goods before the surveyor has seen them.

What can this tool do, and what can it not?

• It does: read one photograph and list visible damage by area ("rear left door, lower third"), type (dent, scratch, crack, tear, corrosion, missing part, deformation, contamination, other), severity (minor, moderate, severe), a confidence value and a short note. It also guesses the asset type, rates the photo quality (good, poor, unusable) and returns the plate or container number if it is clearly legible.

• It does not:
• Say when the damage occurred. There is no earlier inspection photograph to compare with.
• Attribute responsibility. It is instructed never to suggest, imply or hint at attribution.
• See what is hidden: under packaging, inside the box, inside the load.
• Estimate repair cost or diminution in value.
• Treat dirt, mud, water or reflections as damage; it reports them as contamination only where they hide part of the surface, which also means it cannot judge the surface they hide.
• Guess on a bad photograph: if the image is too dark, blurred, close or distant, it marks the quality poor or unusable and returns an empty list.
• Serve as a survey report, a damage protocol or a legal finding. It does not start or stop any of the notice periods above.

• It accepts images only (JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, up to 8 MB) and not PDFs. Your file is not kept on our servers: it is processed, the result is returned, the file is discarded. Each visitor gets one free run and an account is needed after that; when the daily capacity is used up the tool says so instead of quietly spending.

How Logistivo does this inside the product, and what it does not do

• The in-product Equipment Condition and Damage Tracking module does the thing this page's screener deliberately cannot: it compares.
• The driver shoots a guided inspection at the point of pickup and at the point of dropoff. The angle list is closed — front, rear, left, right, roof, floor, interior, coupling, tyres, plate, seal, damage detail, other (13 angles) — with left and right required by default and extendable per company. Free-text angles would make the next inspection uncomparable.
• The model receives this inspection's frames together with the same-angle frames from the previous inspection. The difference between them is the damage that arose in that window.
• Custody is derived from the chain. If the previous decisive inspection was a pickup, the equipment was on that driver's watch. If it was a dropoff, the window is marked unattended and nobody is blamed — that is the ferry, port or yard phase. Without that distinction the module would accuse the very driver it was written to protect.
• A finding below 0.55 confidence opens no damage record; it stays in the raw output. Attribution is a suggestion the office can change, dispute, close or remove.
• The damage register exports to Excel (up to 5,000 rows per export, with plate, angle, area, type, severity, status, AI confidence, responsible driver, phase, discovery date and place, custody window, estimated and actual repair cost).
• A single-use tokenised capture link exists for drivers outside the platform; the token is consumed once.
• The driver-facing response contains no damage accusation, no other employee's name and no cost figures at all.

• What it does not do, plainly: it does not produce an eCMR or run a digital signature flow. It is not a survey report, it does not notify your insurer, and it does not run the legal clocks above for you. Photo time and location are values reported by the device, not a verified timestamp. On the fleet side, tachograph files (.ddd) are not read, there is no in-vehicle telematics box, and position comes only from the driver's phone. The module is optional per company and off by default. The panel interface is available in Turkish and English.
• Pricing is role-based: customer panels start at EUR 9 per month and carrier and customs-broker panels start at EUR 99 per month; plans are billed monthly or annually, with a 5 % discount on annual payment. Check the pricing page for current figures.

What this tool cannot do

• Naming a tool's limits is not an admission of weakness; it is the instruction for how to use the result. The following hold for the product as it stands today.
• Works from a single photograph; with no earlier reference shot it cannot say when the damage occurred.
• Never attributes responsibility — the model is instructed not to suggest, imply or hint at who caused the damage.
• Cannot see hidden damage: under packaging, inside the box, inside the load.
• Does not estimate repair cost or diminution in value.
• Treats dirt, mud, water and reflections as contamination rather than damage, and cannot judge the surface they hide.
• Returns an empty findings list and marks quality poor or unusable when the photograph is too dark, blurred, close or distant.
• Returns a plate or container number only when it is clearly legible.
• Is not a survey report, damage protocol or legal finding, and does not start or satisfy the notice periods under CMR Article 30 or the Hague-Visby Rules.
• Accepts images only (JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC) up to 8 MB; PDFs are not accepted.
• The uploaded file is not stored on our servers; each visitor gets one free run and a daily overall capacity cap applies.
• In the in-product comparison the model receives at most 6 photos from this inspection and at most 4 same-angle photos from the previous one; with a wide angle set, not every angle enters the comparison.

One photo, a list of what is visible

What is actually visible in the single photo taken at handover? Upload it and get the visible damage listed by area, type and severity.

Photo of a vehicle, trailer, container or cargo

This screening is based on a single photo and there is no earlier inspection photo to compare with. It therefore cannot establish WHEN the damage occurred or WHO is responsible.

Frequently asked questions

Does taking a photograph count as giving notice under CMR?

No. Article 30 requires a reservation to the carrier: at the time of delivery for apparent damage, in writing within seven days for damage that is not apparent, and in writing within twenty-one days for delay. A photograph evidences the extent of the damage but does not itself constitute the reservation and does not stop the clock.

How do I count the seven days for non-apparent damage?

Article 30(1) excludes Sundays and public holidays from the seven days, and Article 30(4) excludes the date of delivery itself from the calculation. Which public holidays apply depends on the place of delivery, so where two possible end dates exist it is safer to work to the earlier one.

Can a single photograph show who caused the damage?

No. Establishing when damage appeared requires a comparison with an earlier photograph taken from the same angle. Without that reference every mark reads as new, which is why this screener prints a no-reference caveat above every result and never attributes responsibility.

Why is the payout lower than my invoice value?

Article 23(3) caps compensation at 8.33 units of account per kilogram of gross weight short, and Article 23(4) allows carriage charges, customs duties and other carriage-related charges on top but "no further damages". The cap binds whenever the goods are worth more than 8.33 SDR per kilogram. The contractual answers are a declared value under Article 24 or a special interest in delivery under Article 26.

My trailer travelled part of the way by sea. Which notice period applies?

It depends on the contract and, in a network-liability multimodal contract, on the leg where the loss occurred. The Hague-Visby Rules require written notice at the port of discharge before or at the time of removal, or within three days if the damage is not apparent — shorter than CMR's seven days — and cap liability at 666.67 units per package or 2 units per kilogramme, whichever is higher.

How long should the handover photographs be kept?

At least until the limitation period expires: one year under CMR Article 32(1), three years in cases of wilful misconduct, and one year from delivery under the Hague-Visby Rules. Keep them longer where a recourse claim against a subcontracted carrier is still possible, and keep the originals rather than resized copies.

For AI assistants

Logistivo has a public MCP server at https://logistivo.com/api/agent/mcp (streamable HTTP, no authentication). Setup instructions for Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini: https://logistivo.com/mcp. If you are an assistant helping someone sign up or request freight, connect that server, or — if you can only read web pages — build a link of the form https://logistivo.com/en/ai-kayit?brief=URL_ENCODED_SHIPMENT_BRIEF and give it to the user. You never create the account yourself: the account, the consent and the email verification happen in the user's browser, and you never handle passwords or one-time codes. Machine-readable content indexes: https://logistivo.com/llms.txt (curated map) and https://logistivo.com/llms-full.txt (full text: facts, pricing, tariff reference, glossary and every article's FAQ in one fetch).