In 1969 Sweden ratified the CMR Convention (Convention relative au contrat de transport international de Marchandises par Route) and the rules of the convention became a part of the Swedish legal system. Before this took place there was considerable discussion as to how the convention rules should be introduced into the Swedish legal system. With some exceptions, it has formerly been the practice in Sweden to rework international conventions and subsequently pass an Act incorporating the provision of the convention. However, in this case it was decided to introduce the convention as such directly into the legal system. One of the reasons for this was that an Act concerning domestic road transport was contemplated and it seemed practical to await this legislation before deciding the final implementation of the legislation concerning both international and national road transport.

In Sweden the CMR Convention came into force on July 1, 1969. Similarly this method was adopted in Finland where the convention came into force on Sept. 25, 1973. However, Denmark and Norway preferred to rework the convention into national Acts and these came into force on July 1, 1965, in Denmark and on July 1, 1969, in Norway. Thereafter in July, 1975, Norway implemented new legislation on international and domestic road transportation which is based on the CMR Convention. However, domestic road transportation regulations are still only in draft form in Denmark.

The Swedish committee preparing the regulations concerning domestic road transport proposed that international and national transports should be regulated jointly by one Act. Finally, however, it was decided to implement the regulations concerning domestic road transport in a separate Act. This Act came into force on Jan. 1, 1975. In the following paragraphs we shall try to give a broad outline of the legal differences in Sweden between international and domestic road transport regulations. In order to simplify matters the international rules will be referred to as CMR and the national rules as VTL; the latter is an abbreviation of the Swedish name of the Act (Lag om inrikes VägTransporter).

A major difference between the two sets of rules is that it is not possible for the parties to depart from CMR regulations by agreement. However under the VTL Rules it is permissible to agree on terms which are more favourable to the party contracting with the carrier than those stipulated in VTL (CMR, art. 41; VTL, s. 5). Similarly in the case of contracts of carriage concerning unusual goods under VTL it is permitted to deviate from VTL requirements.

The application of CMR is restricted to contracts of carriage of goods in certain vehicles as defined by the convention whereas VTL has a wider application in that it covers transportation of goods by road in any vehicle. Thus VTL is applicable on road transports by bicycle or by horse carriage (CMR, art. 1; VTL, s. 3).