The 24 boxes of the CMR consignment note: definitions and JSON mapping

Why the box numbers matter

The CMR consignment note has used the same 24-box layout since the 1956 Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road. Freight software, customs systems, and accounting tools that reference "box 7" or "box 21" mean the same field, regardless of language or country. Getting the mapping right once removes a recurring source of confusion between paper habits and structured data.

eCMR Capture's extraction schema mirrors this layout, keyed as box_NN_description, so a JSON consumer can trace every value to a specific numbered field on the physical document. The schema lives in src/lib/extraction/schema.ts in the eCMR Capture codebase; the box names and order below come from that file.

Required vs optional boxes

Not every box is mandatory for the carriage contract to be valid. Article 6 of the CMR Convention lists the mandatory particulars: place and date of issue, sender, carrier, places of taking over and delivery, consignee, nature and packing of the goods, package count, weight, and charges; Article 5 requires the note to be signed by sender and carrier. eCMR Capture's schema (REQUIRED_BOXES in src/lib/extraction/schema.ts) flags boxes 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 16, 21, 22, 23, and 24 as required for its own review workflow — the Convention's particulars, plus both signatures and, in the product's own set, the consignee's. The rest are conditional or optional under the Convention, and their absence is a normal, valid state, not a defect.

The full box table

Box	Name	Contains	Common data-quality problem	JSON key
1	Sender	Name, address, country of the party dispatching the goods	Stamp overlaps handwritten address	box_01_sender
2	Consignee	Name, address, country of the receiving party	Consignee changed en route, not updated on the note	box_02_consignee
3	Place of delivery	City, country, and date the goods are to be delivered	Date field left blank at dispatch	box_03_place_of_delivery
4	Place of taking over	City, country, and date the goods were collected	Handwritten city name illegible or abbreviated	box_04_place_of_taking_over
5	Documents attached	List of accompanying documents (invoice, packing list, permits)	Free-text list, inconsistent formatting	box_05_documents_attached
6	Marks and numbers	Shipping marks, container or pallet identifiers	Frequently left blank	box_06_marks_and_numbers
7	Number of packages	Count of packages or units	Correction crossed out and rewritten	box_07_number_of_packages
8	Method of packing	How the goods are packed (pallets, crates, loose)	Abbreviated or coded terms specific to the sender	box_08_method_of_packing
9	Nature of goods	Description of the goods carried	Generic description, e.g. "general cargo"	box_09_nature_of_goods
10	Statistical number	Customs or statistical classification (HS code)	Commonly absent, not required for validity	box_10_statistical_number
11	Gross weight (kg)	Total weight of the consignment	Unit ambiguity (kg vs tonnes) on handwritten notes	box_11_gross_weight_kg
12	Volume (m3)	Volume of the consignment	Often omitted when weight is the billing basis	box_12_volume_m3
13	Sender's instructions	Instructions for customs and other formalities	Long free text, hard to structure	box_13_senders_instructions
14	Return freight	Terms for returning packaging or pallets	Rarely used, easy to miss when present	box_14_return_freight
15	Cash on delivery	Amount and currency to collect on delivery	Currency symbol omitted, ambiguous amount	box_15_cash_on_delivery
16	Carrier	Name, address, country of the transport company	Confused with box 17 on multi-leg carriage	box_16_carrier
17	Successive carrier	Name, address, country of a subsequent carrier, if any	Left blank on single-leg carriage, correctly	box_17_successive_carrier
18	Carrier's reservations	Carrier's observations on the condition of goods at pickup	Handwritten margin notes, low legibility	box_18_carriers_reservations
19	Special agreements	Agreements between parties outside the standard contract	Confused with box 13	box_19_special_agreements
20	To be paid by	Whether sender or consignee pays the freight	Checkbox unclear when scanned at low resolution	box_20_to_be_paid_by
21	Drawn up at	Place and date the note was issued	Stamped date differs from handwritten date	box_21_drawn_up_at
22	Signature of sender	Sender's signature, confirming dispatch	Signature present but place/date missing	box_22_signature_of_sender
23	Signature of carrier	Carrier's signature, confirming receipt for carriage	Stamp used in place of signature	box_23_signature_of_carrier
24	Signature of consignee	Consignee's signature, confirming receipt of goods	Collected on a separate delivery note, not the CMR itself	box_24_signature_of_consignee

Reading the JSON: field, confidence, source

Each box in the extraction output carries a confidence score and a source marker (extracted, missing, or illegible), because a scanned or photographed document does not always yield a clean value. A consumer of the JSON — an accounting system, a TMS import script — can use the confidence score to decide whether a value needs human review before it is trusted.

Composite boxes are structured, not flat strings. Parties (boxes 1, 2, 16, 17) carry name, address, country, and an optional VAT id. Places (boxes 3, 4, 21) carry city, country, and an optional ISO date. Signatures (boxes 22, 23, 24) carry a signed flag, an optional place and date, and whether a signature image is present — a flat string per box would lose distinctions a downstream system needs.

Frequently confused boxes

Box 6 (marks and numbers) is often mistaken for box 10 (statistical number): both are short, both are frequently blank, and neither appears among Article 6's mandatory particulars. Box 13 (sender's instructions) and box 19 (special agreements) both hold free text beyond the basic contract, but box 13 concerns formalities such as customs, while box 19 concerns commercial terms agreed between the parties. Box 22 confirms the goods were handed over, box 23 that the carrier accepted them, and box 24 that the consignee received them — three distinct events, sometimes collapsed into one signature block on non-standard forms.

How eCMR Capture fits

eCMR Capture reads a CMR document — paper, scan, or photo — and returns exactly this 24-box structure as JSON, with a confidence and source marker per field, matching src/lib/extraction/schema.ts. It does not interpret or validate the commercial terms inside boxes 13, 19, or 20; it extracts what is written. Try it at /en/try; the full field reference is at /docs.