309Contract of carriage—meaning

309 Contract of carriage—meaning

309 Contract of carriage—meaning

(1) For the purposes of this Chapter, a contract of carriage is a contract (whether written or oral or partly written and partly oral) for the transportation of goods by means of a motor vehicle or bicycle in the course of a business of transporting goods of that kind by motor vehicle or bicycle, but only—

(a) where the carrier is not a partnership or body corporate—if no person except the carrier is, except in the prescribed circumstances, employed (whether pursuant to a contract of employment or not and whether by the carrier or not) in driving or riding on that or any other motor vehicle or bicycle in the course of that business, or

(b) where the carrier is a partnership—if no person other than a partner is, except in the prescribed circumstances, employed (whether pursuant to a contract of employment or not and whether by the partnership or not) in driving or riding on that or any other motor vehicle or bicycle in the course of that business, or

(c) where the carrier is a body corporate—if no person is, except in the prescribed circumstances, employed (whether pursuant to a contract of employment or not and whether by the body corporate or not) in driving or riding on that or any other motor vehicle or bicycle in the course of that business unless the person is—

(i) a director of the body corporate or a member of the family of a director of the body corporate, or

(ii) a person who, together with the members of his or her family, has a controlling interest in the body corporate, or

(iii) a member of the family of a person who, together with the members of his or her family, has a controlling interest in the body corporate.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), a reference to a carrier includes a carrier carrying on business under a franchise or other arrangement.

(3) A contract of carriage includes any contract that the Commission declares, after inquiry, to be such a contract. The Commission may make such a declaration if, in its opinion—

(a) the contract was entered into for the purpose of defeating, evading or avoiding the provisions of this Act relating to contracts of carriage, and

(b) but for being entered into for that purpose, the contract would have been a contract of carriage.