Consignment notes (CMR and eCMR)

The consignment note is the document that proves the contract of carriage by road: who hands the goods over, who carries them, what is carried and under what conditions. DGAssistant issues it from a shipment that is already in the application, so the parties, the vehicle, the driver and the goods do not have to be typed again.

The international consignment note (CMR) applies when the place of taking over and the place of delivery are in different countries, and the national consignment note when both are in the same country. The application decides the type from the places, and also whether the note is issued electronically —signed and followed on the electronic consignment note platform— or on paper. When the materials are hazardous, the ADR transport document travels attached to the note.

1. Open Consignment notes and press New.
2. In the New consignment note window, which lists the ADR shipments, click the number of the shipment in the No. column. The application creates the note as a draft with the parties, the carriers, the vehicle, the driver and one line for each item of the shipment, and opens the Data and parties tab.
3. Fill in the Place of issue and the Printed text of the Place of taking over, check the Consignee and press Save Changes.
4. Go through the Carriers and references, Goods and attachments and Conditions tabs: there must be at least one carrier of the Contractual type with the Vehicle registration, and each goods line with its Number of Packages and its Gross mass (kg).
5. Go to the Issue and tracking tab and press Validate, which lists at once everything that is missing or not valid.
6. When the validation is green, press Issue.

The Issue mode shows whether the note is issued electronically or on paper, depending on the route and the configuration of the account. Once issued, the note can no longer be changed: if something changes, it is canceled and a new one is issued.

The draft is the consignment note as the application has it before it is issued. It is what you review with the customer, and what you print when the note travels on paper.

1. Open Consignment notes, select the note in the list and press Edit.
2. Go through the Data and parties, Carriers and references, Goods and attachments and Conditions tabs.
3. Go to the Issue and tracking tab and press Validate, which lists at once everything that is missing or not valid; the warnings that do not prevent the issue appear in amber.
4. Go back to Consignment notes, select the note and, in Other Actions, choose Draft PDF.

Before the issue, the PDF is marked as a draft. When the note has been issued on paper, the same action prints the copies to be signed.

Once the note has been issued and signed, the signed copy is the document that proves the contract and the delivery. It is the one you keep and the one you send to whoever asks for it.

1. Open Consignment notes and check in the list that the status of the note is Delivered. The states arrive by themselves from the electronic consignment note platform; press Synchronise only if the delivery is not shown yet.
2. Select the note and, in Other Actions, choose Signed PDF. The Signed PDF button of the Issue and tracking tab gives the same document.

The application stores the signed copy by itself when the platform reports the delivery; until the platform produces it, the application says that it is not available. When the note travels on paper, record the delivery with Paper delivery, in the Issue and tracking tab, and attach the scanned signed copy: that copy becomes the signed PDF.

When the goods are dangerous, the transport document of ADR 5.4.1 travels attached to the consignment note, with the mentions that the regulation requires for the load.

1. Open Consignment notes and edit the note.
2. Go to the Goods and attachments tab and check that the dangerous lines come from the shipment.
3. If you have changed the load of the shipment before issuing the note, press Regenerate ADR, so that the lines and the ADR 1.1.3.6 statement are taken again from the shipment.
4. Press ADR document: the transport document of the shipment is added to the Attachments with the type ADR transport document, replacing the previous one. Click its name to open it.

Once the note has been issued, its goods can no longer change: if the load changes after the issue, cancel the note and issue a new one. The attached document shows the tunnel restriction code of each dangerous item and, when the load stays within the limits of 1.1.3.6, the calculation with the total of points.

The evidence report gathers what happened to the note during the journey: who signed it and when, the time stamps, the changes recorded after issue and the documents that the driver added.

1. Open Consignment notes and select the note. The events arrive by themselves from the electronic consignment note platform; press Synchronise to bring in the latest ones at once.
2. Press Edit, go to the Issue and tracking tab and read the list of Events.
3. Press Evidence report.

The report is produced by the electronic consignment note platform: it only exists for notes issued electronically, and the application stores it the first time it is opened. It is the document to keep when a delivery is disputed: it says what was signed, by whom and at what time.