Prepared by Francesco Pizzo, Edoardo Baini, Ivan Vinciguerra
On March 4, 2024, the Italian Chamber of Deputies definitively approved the subscription of the Italian Republic to the Additional Protocol of the Convention on the contract for the international carriage of goods by road concerning the electronic consignment note (i.e. e-CMR), stipulated in Geneva on February 20, 2008.
By adhering to this additional protocol, the use of the e-CMR is also allowed by the operators in Italy.
From a practical point of view, the e-CMR is an electronic communication issued by the carrier, by the supplier or by any other party involved in the performance of the international transport carriage. The authenticity of e-CMR is guaranteed by an advanced electronic signature (i.e. AES), according to the eIDAS Regulation, which links the AES to e-CMR. The definition of the procedures and their implementation, as well as the ways to ensure the integrity of the data and the rights arising from the e-CMR will be left to the autonomy of the contracting parties.
Compared to the traditional paper consignment note (i.e. CMR), the e-CMR ensures a higher degree of transparency, thanks to the electronic transmission of information between companies, with full data interoperability. This should allow a significant reduction in management costs and a greater efficiency throughout the logistics chain. Furthermore, through the e-CMR, data communication, electronic signing for receipt certification and shipment monitoring will be included in an electronic file accessible to all parties involved.
Moreover, in the context of Intra-EU supplies of goods, as the proof of the arrival of the goods in the Member State of destination different from that of dispatch is needed in the hands of the supplier, the e-CMR could be an efficient and reliable tool for tracking the physical movement of goods.
Indeed, thanks to the digitization of the consignment note, companies could monitor, in more detail, the tracking of their goods across borders, also overcoming difficulties of searching and storing paper documents.
Thus, the e-CMR should allow companies to save time, simplify logistics management procedures, and reduce the risk of document errors and loss, ensuring a greater reliability also with reference to Intra-EU transactions. Moreover, this measure should also bring benefits in terms of sustainability, with a significant reduction in paper use in the logistic sector.
In summary, the benefits deriving from the use of the e-CMR are the following:
- Reduced risk of document loss with the use of e-CMR compared to paper CMR;
- Instant consignment note sharing;
- Electronic signature of consignment note, with the possibility of real-time tracking;
- Facilitation of proof recovery in Intra-EU supplies of goods;
- Reduction of costs and environmental impact.
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