Freight Claim Filing Requirements Under the Carmack Amendment

To file a freight claim under the Carmack Amendment, you need to send the carrier a written demand within nine months of delivery that does three specific things: identify the shipment, state that the carrier is liable, and ask for a specific dollar amount. Meeting the freight claim filing requirements under the Carmack Amendment is largely a paperwork exercise, but the paperwork is unforgiving. Carriers reject claims that miss any of the three elements, and they enforce the deadline strictly.

The Three Things Your Written Claim Must Contain

Federal regulations at 49 C.F.R. § 370.3 set the minimum content for a valid claim. Your written communication must:

Identify the shipment with enough detail to tie it to a specific load, such as the bill of lading number or the carrier’s PRO number.
Assert that the carrier is liable for the loss, damage, or delay.
Demand payment of a specified or determinable sum of money.¹

The dollar demand is where most defective claims fail. A vague figure such as “$100 more or less” does not qualify, and the regulations expressly prohibit carriers from voluntarily paying claims filed for uncertain amounts.¹ You need a real number, calculated from real documentation, before you submit anything.

Also know what does not count as a claim on its own. Damage notations on freight bills, inspection reports, bad-order reports, and appraisal documents do not satisfy the minimum requirements by themselves, even when they include dollar figures. They support a claim; they are not the claim.¹ You still need a separate written communication that checks all three boxes.

An industry document called the Standard Form for Presentation of Loss and Damage Claims organizes every required data point into a single filing, and many carriers accept or prefer it. If your carrier uses its own form or an online portal, use theirs, but confirm it captures the shipment identifier, the liability statement, and the specific dollar demand.

Who You Can File Against

The Carmack Amendment applies to common carriers and freight forwarders transporting property across state lines under federal transportation jurisdiction. Either the originating carrier or the delivering carrier can be held liable for loss or damage in transit.² The regulations also allow filing with the carrier on whose line the loss occurred.¹

One boundary catches a lot of shippers by surprise. Freight brokers are not carriers under federal law and are not subject to Carmack Amendment liability. If you contracted with a broker who arranged for a separate motor carrier to move your goods, your claim goes to the carrier, not the broker. Check the bill of lading to identify who actually transported the shipment.

The statute also preempts state and common law claims. You cannot file a parallel state-court lawsuit for negligence, breach of contract, fraud, or consumer protection violations arising from the same shipment. The Carmack Amendment is your only route for recovering losses on interstate freight, and courts routinely dismiss state-law claims that try to work around it.

The Nine-Month Filing Deadline

Federal law sets a minimum filing window of nine months, and a carrier cannot shorten that period by contract, tariff, or internal policy.² Some bills of lading give you longer, so read your contract. For shipments that were delivered, the clock runs from the delivery date. For shipments that never arrived, the start date is generally the date the goods reasonably should have been delivered.

Missing this deadline almost always ends your right to recover. Carriers enforce it aggressively and courts uphold the time-bar defense. If you know you have a claim, file it promptly and supplement it later with additional evidence. You cannot file after nine months and argue you were still gathering paperwork.

Certified mail with a return receipt provides the strongest proof of timely filing. Online portals generate electronic timestamps and are also acceptable. Whichever route you take, save confirmation of the submission date; the carrier may later ask you to prove you filed on time.

What You Have to Prove

To establish a carrier’s liability, you must show three things:

The goods were in good condition when the carrier took possession of them.
The goods arrived damaged, short, or not at all.
You suffered a specific dollar loss as a result.

Once you make that showing, the burden shifts to the carrier to prove it was not at fault. Documentation on both ends of the shipment is what carries the weight here. A clean bill of lading signed by the driver at pickup, paired with detailed damage notations on the delivery receipt, is the strongest possible foundation. Carriers can still avoid liability by proving the loss was caused solely by an act of God, a public enemy, an act of the shipper (most commonly, inadequate packaging), a public authority, or the inherent nature of the goods. Packaging is the defense carriers raise most often, so photographs of your goods before shipment help pre-empt it.

Documenting the Damage

Visible Damage at Delivery

The delivery receipt is the single most important piece of evidence in a freight claim. Anything you write on it becomes part of the legal record. Vague notations like “possible damage” or “boxes looked rough” are close to useless. Effective notations describe what you actually see: “two pallets collapsed, shrink wrap torn, contents exposed,” or “carton 4 of 12 crushed on one side, contents rattling.” Count every piece against the bill of lading before signing.

If the driver pressures you to sign clean and sort it out later, don’t. A clean delivery receipt is the carrier’s best evidence that the shipment arrived intact, and overcoming that presumption after the fact is far harder than noting the damage in real time.

Concealed Damage

Damage hidden inside intact packaging is a different problem. Most LTL carriers operate under the National Motor Freight Classification, which requires you to report concealed damage within five business days of delivery. When you find hidden damage, notify the delivering carrier immediately, request an inspection, and follow up in writing or electronically.

Missing the five-day window does not automatically kill the claim, but the burden shifts. You will have to prove the damage happened in transit rather than after delivery, which gets harder every day. Preserve the original packaging, cushioning material, and the container itself. Inspectors examine packaging condition to decide whether damage was transit-related, and throwing the box out before the inspection can sink an otherwise legitimate claim.

Calculating the Dollar Amount

Damages under the Carmack Amendment are measured by actual loss: the difference in market value between the goods as shipped and the goods as received. The original commercial invoice is the primary tool for establishing value at shipment. For a total loss, the claim equals the invoice value. For partial damage, subtract any salvage value from the total.

You can also include prorated freight charges when the carrier failed to deliver what you paid for. If you shipped ten pallets and three arrived destroyed, a proportional share of the shipping cost is a reasonable add. Document every line item; the claims department will check the math.

Before you finalize a number, check your bill of lading and rate confirmation for a released value rate. Under 49 U.S.C. § 14706(c), a carrier can limit its liability to a declared value if the shipper agrees in writing and the limitation is reasonable.² A released value rate offers a lower shipping price in exchange for a liability cap, often measured per pound, and the math can be brutal. A $5,000 electronics component weighing 15 pounds at a released value of $0.50 per pound caps carrier liability at $7.50. If you unknowingly accepted a released value rate, your recovery may be capped well below your actual loss.

You are also expected to mitigate. If damaged goods can be repaired, you may only be entitled to the repair cost. If they retain resale value, the salvage amount is credited against the claim. Keep records of repair estimates, salvage offers, and disposal decisions along with your reasoning for each. Carriers push back hard on claims where the shipper discarded repairable goods.

What Happens After You File

Once the carrier receives your claim, federal regulations impose a timeline. The carrier must acknowledge receipt in writing within 30 days, typically assigning a claim number and requesting any additional documentation or an inspection.³

From there, the carrier has 120 days from receipt to pay the claim in full, decline it in writing, or make a firm compromise offer. If it cannot resolve the claim within 120 days, it must send you a written explanation at the 120-day mark and then update you in writing every 60 days until the claim is resolved.⁴

Track these dates. A carrier that misses the 30-day acknowledgment or goes silent past 120 days without explanation is violating federal regulations. That does not automatically win your claim, but it strengthens your hand if the dispute ends up in court.

If the Claim Is Denied

A denial is not the end. Under 49 U.S.C. § 14706(e)(1), you have at least two years from the date the carrier sends written notice of denial to sue in federal court.² The clock runs from the written disallowance, not from the loss or the filing date. If the carrier only partially denies your claim, the two-year period applies to the denied portion.

One economic reality shapes what happens next. The Carmack Amendment does not allow recovery of attorney fees, and it preempts state fee-shifting laws that might otherwise apply. Each side pays its own legal costs, which means the litigation cost on smaller claims can exceed the recovery. Many disputes settle in negotiation or mediation, particularly when the claimant has strong delivery documentation and a defensible damage calculation. If you plan to litigate, engage counsel well before month 23; discovery and pre-suit negotiation take time the deadline will not extend.

1
eCFR. 49 CFR 370.3 – Filing of Claims
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 49 USC 14706 – Liability of Carriers Under Receipts and Bills of Lading
3
eCFR. 49 CFR 370.5 – Acknowledgment of Claims
4
eCFR. 49 CFR 370.9 – Disposition of Claims