When a pharma load spoils, what the carrier pays is worked out from the scales, not the invoice. For international road carriage, Article 23 of the CMR caps compensation at 8.33 Special Drawing Rights (SDR) per kilogram of gross weight; inside Türkiye, Article 882 of the Turkish Commercial Code sets the same figure. A box of biologics weighing a few kilos but worth a great deal is therefore exactly where the limit bites hardest.
Work out your own ceiling
- Take the gross weight: the scale reading with insulated container, outer packaging and coolant included. If the consignment note shows net weight only, the ceiling drops with it.
- Multiply by 8.33: 83.3 SDR for 10 kg, 833 SDR for 100 kg.
- Convert the SDR into money. Under CMR Article 23(7), the amount is converted into the currency of the country whose court hears the case, at the value on the date of judgment or on a date the parties agree; the IMF publishes the SDR's value daily. Under Turkish domestic law, the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (TCMB) value on the day the goods were handed to the carrier, or an agreed day, applies, and the TCMB daily rates list the SDR on its own line.
- Add the carriage charges and the duties and other charges incurred for the carriage; both regimes refund these on top of the compensation.
- Set the total against the invoice value. The gap is the loss that stays with you if the load spoils.
| Point | International: CMR | Domestic Türkiye: TTK |
|---|---|---|
| Loss and damage cap | 8.33 SDR/kg gross (Art. 23(3)) | 8.33 SDR/kg gross (Art. 882(1)) |
| Date for converting SDR | Date of judgment or agreed date (Art. 23(7)) | Handover date or agreed date (Art. 882(4)) |
| Delay cap | Up to the carriage charges (Art. 23(5)) | Three times the carriage charges (Art. 882(3)) |
| When the cap falls away | Wilful misconduct or equivalent default (Art. 29) | Intent or recklessness (Art. 886) |
The original 1956 CMR text set the limit at 25 gold francs per kilogram; Article 2 of the Protocol of 5 July 1978 replaced it with 8.33 units of account and defined the unit as the IMF's SDR. Türkiye acceded to both the convention and the Protocol on 2 August 1995. Which cap applies depends on the nature of the harm: goods that arrive sound but late fall under the delay cap, goods that spoiled fall under the loss and damage cap.
CMR offers two ways above the ceiling, and both have to be written into the consignment note before loading. Under Article 24 the sender, against an agreed surcharge, declares a value above the limit, and that value becomes the ceiling. Under Article 26 the sender enters an amount of special interest in delivery and can then claim proven additional loss, such as destruction costs, up to that amount on top of the ordinary compensation. Article 883 of the Turkish code, by contrast, states plainly that losses beyond compensation and charges are not covered.
Because the money side leaves little room, on a light, expensive consignment the real decision falls to the equipment. Section 10.4 of the same guide names three options as qualified equipment for temperature-sensitive products: thermal packaging, temperature-controlled containers and temperature-controlled vehicles.
When you choose among those three, the requirement list on our pharmaceutical cold chain page shortens the job.
