Common carrier | law (2024)

FAQs

What qualifies as a common carrier? ›

A common carrier is a person or a commercial enterprise that transports passengers or goods for a fee and establishes that their service is open to the general public. Typical examples of common carriers include, a shipowner, railroad, airline, taxi service, etc.

A common carrier is a private or public entity that transports goods or people for a fee. Utility companies and telecommunications companies also are considered common carriers. A common carrier, unlike a private carrier, must provide its service to anyone willing to pay its fee, unless it has grounds for refusal.

Example Sentences

Twitter is for all practical purposes a “common carrier,” providing its service to all comers. And the same goes for any other common carrier—the railroads, bus service, and airlines. They intend to make the lightning a domestic slave in every house, and to turn Ariel into a common carrier.

Although the Communications Act also generally precludes the regulation of cable systems as common carriers, it authorizes the Commission, to require, if it chooses, the filing of informational tariffs for intrastate communications services, other than cable service, which are provided by a cable system.

The term "common carrier" or "carrier" includes any common carrier engaged in interstate communication by wire or radio as defined in section 153 of this title and any common carrier engaged in intrastate communication by wire or radio, notwithstanding sections 152(b) and 221(b) of this title.

As used herein the term "common carrier" means any person who engages in the business of transporting persons or property for hire or compensation and who offers these services indiscriminately to the public or to some portion of the public.

A common carrier has a duty to its passengers to exercise the highest degree of care consistent with the practical operation of its type of transportation and its business as a common carrier. Any failure of a common carrier to exercise such care is negligence.

Because Amazon is a non-vessel operating common carrier, or NVOCC, they control the ships they use.

Common carriers, often known as public carriers, transport people or goods and are accountable for any objects that are lost or damaged during shipment. They must also show that they are “fit, willing, and able” to provide the services for which they have been authorized.

Common carriers have four main duties: 1) to accept passengers and goods without discrimination, 2) to seasonably deliver goods or bring passengers to their destination, 3) to deliver goods to the proper person, and 4) to exercise extraordinary diligence in performing their duties.

What is the difference between a common carrier and a private carrier? ›

Common carriers offer their transportation services to the general public for a fee, whereas private carriers transport their own goods and do not offer their services for hire.

A common carrier is a person who carries goods of every person wishing to use his services or passengers whoever they might be. A common carrier is one who holds himself out to be a carrier of goods or of persons for a reward.

A common carrier must, if able to do so, accept and carry whatever is offered to him, at a reasonable time and place, of a kind that he undertakes or is accustomed to carry. 2170. A common carrier must not give preference in time, price, or otherwise, to one person over another.

A common carrier in common law countries (corresponding to a public carrier in some civil law systems, usually called simply a carrier) is a person or company that transports goods or people for any person or company and is responsible for any possible loss of the goods during transport.

Definitions: In a telecommunications context, a telecommunications company that holds itself out to the public for hire to provide communications transmission services. Note: In the United States, such companies are usually subject to regulation by federal and state regulatory commissions.

Key Takeaways. The common carriers' duty is to get the goods to the agreed destination within the agreed time or within a reasonable time. Some common carriers you may be familiar with include UPS and FedEx.

As a common carrier, they transfer both goods and services for anyone who is willing to pay the fee. As a contract carrier, they are working with specific companies to transfer specific goods or services at an agreed upon price or discount for a specific period of time.