A common set-up. You hire Company A to move a load. Company A books a truck from Company B. Company B's truck overturns on the way and the load is ruined.
Most people assume the claim goes against the party whose truck it was. The Civil and Commercial Code does not ask that. Nor does it care whose name is at the top of the paper. It asks a plainer question: who undertook to carry the goods? The answer decides who you can claim against, for how much, and whether you can prove it.
Of the cases below, only one is a road case. The rest involve air and sea freight. They apply the same chapter of the Code that governs a truck, and the road case follows the same reasoning, but say so when you talk to a lawyer.
The Code defines a carrier by what it does
Section 608 says a carrier is a person who takes on the carriage of goods or passengers for reward, as part of their regular business. It does not say a carrier must own a truck, drive it or touch the goods.
The Supreme Court has applied that test to the middle of the chain, and it has cut both ways.
| Who is in the middle | What the court looked at | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Company that took the order, hired another carrier, and kept the difference in freight | It earned its normal commercial reward from the carriage | A carrier, jointly liable with the carriers below it |
| Company that had no branch in the country of origin and said it only used an agent, but kept part of the freight, fees and exchange gains | It was a party to the carriage contract with the buyer, even though it did not carry the goods | A carrier, liable for the loss |
| Company that booked a truck and paid the hire on the sender's behalf, and had long done so as a service | It acted for the sender in hiring the carrier and did not hire the truck itself | Not the carrier. The truck operator was |
| Local company with the same name as the foreign carrier | A separate legal person that only received the goods and collected freight for the other | Not liable. The claim against it failed |
Read the pattern. Two of the four were held to be carriers without lifting a pallet, because they sold the carriage and kept a margin on it. One was held not to be a carrier because it stood in the sender's shoes. And a shared name proved nothing.
So the useful question is not "who owns the truck". It is who sold you the carriage, and who kept the margin.
Once the carrier is known, the Code does the rest
Two sections work together.
- Section 617 makes a carrier liable for loss, damage or late delivery that comes from the fault of other carriers, or of anyone else it handed the goods on to. The word "delay" is in it, along with loss and damage.
- Section 618 says that where goods pass through several carriers in succession, all of them are jointly liable for the loss, damage or delay.
Add the general rule for joint debtors. Under Section 291 the creditor may demand the whole amount from any one of them, whichever it prefers, and all of them stay bound until it is paid. In one of the cases above, the first intermediary, the carrier it hired and the carrier that one hired were held jointly liable for the same loss.
What that means for you:
- You claim the full amount from the party you dealt with. You do not have to work out first which link in the chain was at fault. The subcontractor's fault is your carrier's problem under Section 617.
- How they split it afterwards is theirs to settle. Section 296 says joint debtors bear equal shares between themselves unless they have agreed otherwise. That is why a carrier's contract with its own subcontractor matters to it. It should not slow your claim.
Two ways claimants lost
The cases where the claimant failed are as useful as the ones where it won.
They sued the wrong company. In one case the claimant went after the Thai company that received the goods. The papers showed a foreign company, with the same name, was the carrier, and the Thai one only took delivery and collected freight for it. The court held they were separate legal persons and dismissed the claim against the Thai company. A brand is not a party. The name on the contract is.
They could not show where the loss happened. In another, the goods moved through several hands, and the court accepted that the two defendants were carriers. The claimant still lost. It had to prove the goods were lost during the segment those two handled, and its evidence weighed less than theirs. Being a carrier in the chain is not enough by itself. The loss has to be tied to the stretch you are blaming.
That second point is where road freight differs from a court file. You will not have the evidence afterwards unless you collect it at each handover.
The limit follows the paper, not the size of the loss
Section 625 says a limitation of the carrier's liability printed on a receipt, consignment note or similar document is void, unless the sender expressly agreed to it. Two cases show how that plays out.
- Printed on the receipt, nobody agreed. A receipt said unappraised goods would be compensated up to 500 baht. There was no proof the sender agreed, so the limit was void and the carrier paid the real loss of 34,527.50 baht.
- A box ticked on the booking form. In the road case, the broker's staff filled in the truck booking form and ticked the option covering damage up to 20,000 baht a trip. The court treated that as the sender choosing the limit through its agent, which is an express agreement, so the limit stood. The sender also could not escape it by suing the truck operator in tort as the driver's employer. Once the parties had agreed a limit, that was the measure of liability.
The second case is the one to remember. A box on a broker's booking form can be your signature. If someone books trucks on your behalf, find out which option they tick when you do not tell them.
Lost or late is not the same to an insurer
One case concerned a box that went missing. It turned up about 40 days later. The court held that was a late delivery, not a loss, and that the two carriers were jointly liable for the delay. The claimant's own cargo policy excluded loss and expense from delay as such, so the insurer did not pay.
The point carries over to any truck. A load that is found late can move from "lost", which a policy covers, to "delayed", which the same policy may exclude. Read the delay wording before you need it. The full picture on cover is in what cargo insurance covers on a Thai road.
If the trucker was never paid
A broker can take your money and not pay the truck. Section 633 says the last carrier in a chain may use the right to retain the goods, given in Section 630, for freight owed to every carrier in the chain. On the text, that means the last truck can hold your goods against a debt that is not yours. We have not seen a reported case on it, so treat it as the risk on the face of the statute rather than a settled outcome. The way out is to make sure the carriers are paid, or to pay the operator directly for the final leg.
What to do differently
Before the job
- Ask in writing whether the company is carrying the load or booking it. If it is booking, ask whether it does so as your agent or under its own contract with you.
- Look at the price. One all-in figure for the whole move is the pattern of the intermediaries held to be carriers. A truck cost shown separately from a fee looks like an agent. This is an inference from the cases, not a rule of law, so get the answer in writing rather than relying on the shape of the quote.
- Read the booking form. Find any box or option that sets a cover or liability figure, and decide who ticks it.
- Ask who will carry it. Ask for the operator's name and the plate number at dispatch. You will need both to name the right party.
- Record each handover. Photos at loading, a signed note at each transfer, and the driver's name and the time. That is the evidence that ties a loss to a segment.
After a loss
- Claim in writing, for the full amount, from the party you contracted with. Copy every carrier you can identify.
- Name the right entity. Check the legal name on the contract, not the brand on the truck.
- Check the policy for delay wording before deciding whether a late-found load is a claim.
- Watch the clocks. Notice and limitation periods run against you whoever the carrier turns out to be. They are set out in who pays when goods arrive damaged.
For putting the carrier's name, the right to subcontract and a duty to disclose the chain into the contract itself, see what a road freight contract should say. This article explains how the Code and the Supreme Court have treated the question. It is not legal advice on your goods, so have a Thai lawyer read anything with real money attached.