Paid by the Kilogram: Canadian Cargo Claims and Carrier Liability Limits for Peak and Winter 2026

Picture a Mississauga shipper tendering a dry van of consumer electronics to Calgary in early December. The invoice value is $180,000. The pallets weigh 9,000 kg. The bill of lading has a box for declared value, and nobody fills it in, because nobody ever does. The trailer disappears from a Winnipeg yard. The claim settles at $39,690: $4.41 times 9,000 kg. The gap of roughly $140,000 was decided at tender, by a blank field.

That scenario is illustrative, but the arithmetic comes straight from the regulations, and Ontario's Court of Appeal has applied it to real hijacked loads. Heading into peak and winter, when theft, weather damage and rushed deliveries rise together, the useful question is not who is at fault on a given claim. It is which liability terms you are actually agreeing to on every load, and whether your paperwork proves it.

The default rule: the lesser of value or $4.41 per kilogram

In Ontario, the uniform conditions of carriage for general freight sit in Schedule 1 of O. Reg. 643/05 under the Highway Traffic Act, and they are deemed to be terms of every contract of carriage the regulation covers. Article 9 sets the carrier's liability, whether or not the loss results from negligence, at the lesser of the value of the goods at the place and time of shipment (including freight charges if paid) and $4.41 per kilogram computed on the total weight of the shipment. Article 10 lets the consignor lift that ceiling by declaring a value on the face of the contract of carriage, in which case liability cannot exceed the declared value.

The other provinces that regulate this land in the same place. Alberta's Bill of Lading and Conditions of Carriage Regulation (Alta Reg 313/2002) caps loss at $4.41 per kilogram ($2 per pound) unless a higher value is declared on the face of the bill. British Columbia's conditions under its Motor Vehicle Act Regulations use the same figure. Quebec's regulation on bills of lading prescribes a maximum of $4.41 per kilogram of total shipment weight unless the shipper declares a higher value on the front of the bill.

For loads that cross a provincial line, the federal Conditions of Carriage Regulations (SOR/2005-404) under the Motor Vehicle Transport Act say the applicable conditions and limits are those of the province where the transport originates. Not where the carrier is based, and not where the consignee sits. Where a province has no specific enactment, the conditions are whatever the undertaking agreed to, which is a strong argument for having your own written terms.

Two quieter provisions matter in peak. Article 13 says no carrier is bound to carry articles of extraordinary value without a special agreement, and if such goods move without one and their nature is not disclosed, liability stops at the Article 9 cap. Article 18 says any limitation of liability or alteration to the contract has no effect unless it is signed or initialled by the consignor and the originating carrier or their agents.

What the courts have said about "on the face"

In 2015 ONSC 1887, stolen cargo worth $263,520 was paid at full value. The bill of lading did not show a declared value, but the driver had written the commercial invoice number on its face, and the invoice showed the price. The court found the invoice formed part of the contract of carriage and that the value was therefore declared.

A year later, in 2016 ONCA 339, the Court of Appeal went the other way on facts that look similar at first glance. Two shipments of copper tubing moving from Mexico to Ontario in late 2011 were hijacked in Mexico and never recovered. The claims totalled about US$221,000. A commercial invoice had been passed to the carrier, but the bill of lading had a declared value space and it was blank. The court held that handing over an invoice is not declaring value on the face of the contract, and cut the judgment to $110,830. It also refused to enforce exclusion terms the carrier had posted only on its website.

The lesson: a declared value that lives in an email, an invoice attachment or a rate confirmation is a litigation position, not a declaration. If you want the value to count, it belongs in the declared value field, on the document that is signed.

Notice deadlines are where good claims die

Under Article 12 of the Ontario schedule, no carrier is liable unless written notice, with origin, destination, shipment date and an estimated amount, reaches the originating or delivering carrier within 60 days after delivery, or within nine months after the shipment date if the goods were never delivered. The final statement of claim must be filed within nine months of shipment, with a copy of the paid freight bill.

Quebec runs a similar clock through the Civil Code. Article 2050 requires written notice within 60 days of delivery, or nine months from shipment for non-delivery, as a condition of the general three-year limitation period. Quebec courts have treated missing notice as forfeiture of the claim, even when the damage was obvious at delivery.

Peak is when these windows get missed. Concealed damage on a December delivery may not surface until after the holiday shutdown, weeks into the 60 days. A shortage noted on a POD but never followed by a written claim is how a recoverable loss becomes an unrecoverable one.

Cross-border: Carmack is a different regime, not a different number

For U.S. moves, the Carmack Amendment (49 U.S.C. 14706) makes the receiving and delivering carriers liable for the actual loss or injury to the property. That reach extends to transport from a place in the United States to a place in an adjacent foreign country under a through bill of lading. A carrier can limit liability only to a value established by the shipper's written or electronic declaration or by written agreement, and only if that value is reasonable under the circumstances.

The clocks are also different. Carmack forbids carriers from setting less than nine months to file a claim or less than two years to sue, with the two years running from the carrier's written disallowance. FMCSA's claims rules at 49 CFR Part 370 require written acknowledgment within 30 days and a payment, declination or firm settlement offer within 120 days, followed by written status updates every 60 days while a claim stays open. Part 370 also states plainly that exception notations on delivery receipts do not, standing alone, count as a claim.

On a Toronto to Chicago lane, the default expectations of a Canadian shipper (capped unless declared) and a U.S. consignee (actual loss unless limited) point in opposite directions. If your contract does not say which regime and limit apply, you will find out after the loss.

Broker, carrier and shipper exposure are not the same

Carriers keep the statutory cap only until they sign it away. In 2016 ONCA 364, a carrier had agreed in a contract with a freight intermediary to be liable for actual loss. A load of food products moving from Ajax to Calgary was destroyed in a collision, and the intermediary obtained a default judgment of $223,701.85, against the $65,953.29 the cap would have allowed. The fight then moved to whether the insurer could void the carrier's policy for not disclosing that contract. Ontario also requires carriers covered by O. Reg. 643/05 to carry cargo insurance "in an amount sufficient to cover the loss or damage of the goods carried," with exceptions for commodities like steel, rough lumber and scrap. A cargo limit below the full-value promises in your contracts is exposure you created yourself.

Brokers often assume the cap protects them, but the cap belongs to the carrier's contract of carriage. A broker's exposure usually comes from its own shipper agreement. If that agreement promises full value or a fixed limit per load, the broker owns the difference between what it promised and what it can recover from the carrier. Quebec makes the distinction explicit: an intermediary mandated to find a carrier is under a service contract, not the carrier regime, so the $4.41 cap and notice rules do not automatically frame its liability.

Shippers hold the cheapest lever. Declaring value costs a surcharge. Not declaring it leaves the risk above the cap with the shipper's own insurance.

The decisions to make before peak

Declared value policy. Decide which commodities and value thresholds require a declaration, who prices the surcharge, and whether a load above the threshold can be dispatched without one.

Contract language. Read your shipper and carrier agreements side by side. If you promise "actual loss" upstream and accept "uniform conditions" downstream, quantify the gap per load type. Use conspicuous limitation language, signed or initialled, consistent with Article 18.

Insurance limits versus load value. Compare cargo limits and commodity exclusions to the actual value distribution of your freight, not the average. Peak raises the tail.

High-value commodity rules. Treat Article 13 as a gate. Loads of extraordinary value need a special agreement, an approved carrier and security requirements recorded before tender.

POD and exception capture. Require photos, seal numbers and piece counts at delivery, and make exception notes structured data rather than handwriting. A note is still not a claim.

Claim aging. Track every open claim against the 60-day notice, the nine-month final statement, the Part 370 120-day mark and any contractual deadlines. Report aging weekly through January.

Build the rules into the workflow

None of these decisions is exotic. What separates shops that recover losses from shops that absorb them is whether the decisions survive a 4 a.m. tender in mid December. Every operation's commodity mix, contracts and insurance program is different, which is why generic templates fail here.

In practice, the operators who handle claims well encode their own rules. A declared value field that is mandatory above a value threshold or for flagged commodities. A status step that blocks dispatch on high-value freight until the special agreement and carrier approval are attached. Permissions over who can accept a full-value liability term or override an insurance limit check. Billing rules that apply declared value surcharges consistently with each contract. Delivery workflows that capture photos and exceptions as data, and claim workflows that open automatically from an exception and count down every deadline that applies to that lane's origin and regime.

The $4.41 figure has not moved in years. The thing that decides your outcome is whether your process knows when it applies.

FAQ

What is the default carrier liability limit for cargo in Canada?

In Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec, the default is $4.41 per kilogram ($2 per pound) of total shipment weight, or the value of the goods if lower, unless a higher value is declared on the face of the bill of lading.

Which province's rules apply to an interprovincial truckload?

The province where the transport originates. The federal Conditions of Carriage Regulations (SOR/2005-404) apply the origin province's conditions and limits to extra-provincial truck undertakings.

How long do I have to file a cargo claim in Ontario?

Written notice must reach the originating or delivering carrier within 60 days after delivery, or within nine months of shipment if the goods were never delivered. The final statement of claim must be filed within nine months of shipment with a copy of the paid freight bill.

Does sending the carrier a commercial invoice count as declaring value?

Usually not. In 2016 ONCA 339 the Ontario Court of Appeal held that giving the carrier a commercial invoice was not declaring value on the face of the contract of carriage.

How does Carmack differ from Canadian cargo liability rules?

Carmack makes carriers liable for actual loss unless the shipper declares or agrees in writing to a reasonable lower value, so there is no statutory per kilogram default.