Grounds of Carriage by Rail
The legal regulation of railway freight transport rests on the norms of the Georgian Code on Railway Transport. Under Article 11 of the Code, carriage of goods by rail is carried out on the basis of a carriage contract — a waybill and other documents. Where certain conditions of carriage are not provided for by Georgian legislation, they are determined by contract. This norm names the boundary of contractual freedom: what legislation has not regulated imperatively is the subject of the parties' agreement.
The Waybill and Its Function
Article 12 of the Code defines the waybill as the basic document of carriage: on the basis of the waybill the railway undertakes to deliver the goods handed to it by the consignor, in observance of the conditions of carriage, to the destination railway station and to hand them over to the consignee, while the consignor is obliged to pay the established fee for the carriage and for other services. The form and requisites of the waybill, and the procedure for filling it in, are determined by the Civil Code and by the rules of carriage of goods by rail. The waybill is drawn up in the name of the consignee, signed by the consignor and the railway, and at the destination station is handed to the consignee together with the goods. The day of acceptance of the goods for carriage is considered to be the date marked with the calendar stamp of the railway station on the waybill — this moment is the reference point for counting subsequent periods and liability.
General Agreements
Article 13 of the Code regulates long-term relations: the railway and the consignor may, where necessary, conclude a long-term general agreement on the organization of carriage, defining the volume of goods to be carried, the deadlines of presentation, the transport means to be allocated and other conditions not provided for by the Code and the carriage rules. On the basis of such an agreement the railway undertakes to accept for carriage goods in the agreed quantity, and the consignor must present them within the agreed deadline. The railway also has the right to conclude a long-term general agreement on the organization of passenger transport with the relevant person, defining the requirements, the fare and other conditions. The general agreement and the waybill do not exclude each other: the former is an instrument of large-volume planning, the latter the document of an individual consignment.