Insights into Freight Forwarder Liability: Key Lessons by David Glass

By Daniel Costa · Managing Director, Costa Maritime
Originally published 8 July 2024
Updated September 5, 2026

A freight forwarder’s role matters when deciding who has agreed to do what. Arranging carriage as an agent and undertaking responsibility as a principal are not interchangeable positions.

David Glass’s Freight Forwarding and Multi Modal Transport Contracts provides a framework for examining these relationships. This article draws out practical questions for commercial teams planning and contracting a movement.

Start with the book’s scope and edition

The second edition was published by Informa Law from Routledge in 2012. The publisher describes its focus as contract forms and terms used by freight forwarders, logistics suppliers, multimodal transport operators and container operators. Glass states in the preface that his legal account runs to the end of August 2012 (p. viii). Routledge — David Glass, second edition

That date is important. A useful legal framework can remain worth reading while the contract terms used in a particular shipment have changed.

Agent and principal: identify the actual undertaking

Glass explains that a forwarder may take different roles at different stages of a movement; the distinction affects the responsibility undertaken. His discussion also warns that the simple agent/principal distinction can conceal more nuanced relationships (pp. 55–56, paragraphs 2.45–2.47).
For the commercial team, the practical question is: what has this party actually undertaken to do in this transaction?

The business label alone does not answer every liability question. The relevant contract, the services undertaken and the applicable law need to be considered together.

Standard trading conditions need to be identified

In his discussion of incorporation, Glass examines agreement, notice when the contract is made and a consistent course of dealing. Merely having standard conditions is not the same as showing that they form part of the particular contract (pp. 33–36, paragraphs 2.9–2.12).
The operational takeaway is to identify the actual version agreed and retain the record of how it was communicated and accepted.

For example, BIFA’s own January 2026 publication discusses its 2025 Standard Trading Conditions and the importance of properly incorporating them into customer contracts. That is distinct from the older conditions examined in the publisher’s description of Glass’s second edition. BIFAlink — January 2026

This example does not mean that BIFA conditions govern a Brazilian transaction or that Costa Maritime uses them. The actual agreement must establish the relevant terms.

Liability, limits and insurance are different questions

Glass treats limits on compensation and time requirements for claims as distinct subjects. His examination of historical standard terms shows why the amount potentially recoverable and the steps needed to preserve a claim must be assessed separately (p. 184, paragraph 2.292; p. 196, paragraphs 2.305–2.306). Those historical amounts and deadlines are not presented here as the terms of a current shipment.

Insurance is another separate arrangement. In the English-law discussion, Glass examines the ordinary position, exceptions and contractual wording concerning an obligation to arrange cover (pp. 122–123, paragraphs 2.179–2.182). This is not a universal rule that a forwarder never needs to insure. The practical point is to establish expressly what cover is required and who will arrange it. Refer questions about enforceability, claims and appropriate cover to the relevant legal and insurance advisers.

Turning the reading into a commercial conversation

• Which entity is contracting, and in what role?
• Which services and handover points are included?
• Which terms and version have been agreed?
• Who receives instructions and approves changes?
• What records demonstrate collection, handover and delivery?
• Which adviser should assess liability, insurance or a claim?

These questions help make a commercial discussion more precise. They are not a determination of liability in a specific case.

Book reference: David A. Glass, Freight Forwarding and Multi Modal Transport Contracts, second edition (Informa Law from Routledge, 2012). The practical questions are our application of the reading, rather than quotations or advice on a particular dispute.

Where Costa Maritime can support the operation

For a Brazil port call or related local service request, Costa Maritime can help clarify the requested operational scope, coordination arrangements and required records with the relevant service partners.

Legal interpretation and advice on a dispute should remain with appropriately qualified advisers. Our focus here is making the operational request and documentary handovers clear.