PDF Generator API

CMR Convention 1956

CMR Consignment Note Template

A free CMR template for international road transport, laid out in the 24 boxes that carriers, consignees and customs expect. Fill it in your browser and print it as a PDF, or send shipment data from your TMS to the API and get one filled CMR per load.

24 box CMR layout
Edit online, print as PDF
Filled from your shipment data
API, n8n or AI agent

Logistics Solutions

CMR template · sample shipment from Lorient to Krauelburg, 3 goods lines

Live template

Open the CMR template in the editor

The real CMR template is open above with a sample shipment: sender, carrier, consignee, three goods lines and a dangerous goods entry. Change the data, translate the labels, add your logo, move fields and switch to Preview to see the PDF. You do not need an account to try it. Create a free one when you want to keep your version and generate filled CMR documents from your own shipment data.

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At a glance

What is a CMR consignment note?

A CMR, or CMR consignment note, is the freight contract and transport document for goods carried by road from one country to another. It follows the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road, signed in Geneva on May 19, 1956, travels with the goods and records who sends them, who carries them, who receives them and in what condition.

This free CMR template follows the familiar red 24 box layout used across Europe, with French and English labels. Open it above, fill it in your browser and preview the PDF, or send shipment data from your TMS or ERP to the PDF Generator API and get one filled CMR per shipment, ready to print for the driver.

Document type	CMR consignment note (road waybill)
Legal basis	CMR Convention, Geneva, May 19, 1956
Used for	International carriage of goods by road for reward
Countries	58 contracting parties, 41 also apply the e-CMR Protocol (May 2026)
Copies	3 originals by law, printed sets usually have 4 or more
Layout	A4, 24 numbered boxes, French and English labels, attachment page for the goods list
Output	PDF to print, email or archive
Generate	REST API, n8n, Make or an AI agent through MCP
Price	Free template, 14 day sandbox account

Last reviewed October 2026 by the PDF Generator API team. Legal statements below cite the articles of the CMR Convention published by UNECE.

Legal basis

What does the CMR Convention say about the consignment note?

The convention sets the rules every CMR follows, whichever printed form or software produced it. These are the articles that matter most when you prepare and hand over the document.

Article	Rule	What it means for you
Art. 1	Applies to carriage of goods by road for reward when the place of taking over and the place of delivery are in two countries, at least one of them a contracting country	A truck from Poland to Germany needs a CMR. A domestic run inside one country does not. Postal items, funeral consignments and furniture removals are excluded.
Art. 4	The contract is confirmed by a consignment note, but a missing or wrong note does not cancel the contract	The convention still applies without a CMR, but you lose your best evidence in a dispute.
Art. 5	Three original copies signed by the sender and the carrier	The first copy goes to the sender, the second travels with the goods to the consignee and the third stays with the carrier.
Art. 6	Lists the particulars the note must contain, and those it contains where applicable	Parties, places, dates, goods, weight, charges and customs instructions, plus the statement that the carriage is subject to the CMR. The template prints all of them, the statement included.
Art. 9	The note is prima facie evidence of the contract, its conditions and the receipt of the goods	Whatever the CMR says is presumed true until someone proves otherwise, so fill it carefully.
Art. 23	Carrier liability is limited to 8.33 units of account (SDR) per kilogram of gross weight short	This is a cap on the carrier’s liability, not cargo insurance. Declare a higher value in the note (Art. 24) or insure the goods separately.
Art. 30	Reservations for loss or damage that is not apparent within 7 days of delivery, Sundays and public holidays excepted, and 21 days for delay	The consignee checks the goods and writes reservations in box 24 or sends them in writing within these periods.
Art. 32	Claims expire after one year, or three years for wilful misconduct	Keep a copy of every signed CMR for at least this long.

The SDR (special drawing right) is a unit of account of the International Monetary Fund based on the US dollar, euro, Chinese renminbi, Japanese yen and British pound. Its value changes daily, so check today’s rate on the IMF website before you calculate a claim. This page is not legal advice.

Template contents

What information goes in each box of a CMR?

The template follows the common 24 box layout. Each box is bound to a data field, so the same template prints a different shipment every time you send new data. Box numbering can differ slightly between printed sets, but the content is the same.

CMR template · boxes and data fieldsGrouped as printed

1–2Sender and consigneeName, street, city, postal code and country of the company sending the goods and of the one receiving them.SenderConsignee
3–4Places and datesFull delivery address with opening hours, and the place and date the carrier took over the goods. Arrival and departure times at loading help the carrier claim waiting time caused by the sender.DeliveryTakingOver
5Documents attachedPapers handed to the carrier with the goods, such as the commercial invoice, packing list or certificate of origin. Send them as a list and the template joins them into one line.DocumentsHandedToCarrierBySender
6–12GoodsMarks and numbers, number of packages, method of packing, nature of the goods, gross weight in kg and volume in m³, one line per item. The template adds up packages, weight and volume, and prints the full list on an attachment page. Dangerous goods add the UN number, name, label number and packing group.Goods[ ]UN_NumberNameSeePackingGroup
13–15Instructions and paymentSender’s instructions for customs or handling, who pays the carriage, and any cash on delivery amount.Sender::IntructionsCashOnDelivery
16–18CarriersThe carrier, any successive carriers, and the carrier’s reservations about the goods or packaging at loading.CarrierSuccessiveCarriersCarriersReservationsAndObservations
19–20Agreements and chargesSpecial agreements such as an agreed delivery time or a ban on reloading, and the carriage, supplementary, customs and other charges split between sender and consignee.SpecialAgreementsSenderChargesConsigneeCharges
21–24SignaturesWhere and when the note was made out, the vehicle registration in the carrier’s non contractual part, then the signature and stamp of the sender (22), the carrier (23) and the consignee confirming receipt (24).CarriageEstablishedInNonContractualPartForCarrierGoodsRecieved

Send as many goods lines as the load has. Box 6 to 12 shows the totals and a reference to the attachment, and the attachment page lists every line, so a long load never overflows the form. Keep the field names when you edit the template, including the original spelling of Intructions and GoodsRecieved.

Copies

How many copies of a CMR do you need, and what are the colors for?

The convention asks for three originals signed by the sender and the carrier. Printed CMR sets usually come with four copies in different colors, so each party can tell its copy apart at a glance. All copies carry exactly the same information.

Copy	Usual color	Who keeps it
1	Red	The sender, as proof of handing over the goods
2	Blue	The consignee, handed over by the carrier on delivery
3	Green	The carrier, as proof of delivery for invoicing
4	Black	Administration, for example the forwarder or customs

Color is a convention of printed sets, not a legal requirement. The template prints the copy label in the header, “Copy for sender” in the sample. Change the label for the carrier and consignee copies in the editor, or send it as a field and generate one PDF per copy.

Choose a format

Paper CMR, PDF CMR or e-CMR?

Most CMR documents are still printed and signed by hand. The e-CMR, an electronic consignment note under the 2008 Additional Protocol, is spreading fast, and EU rules on electronic freight information push in the same direction.

Question	Preprinted paper set	PDF from this template	e-CMR
How it is filled	By hand or typewriter	Automatically from your shipment data	In an e-CMR platform or app
Signatures	Ink and stamps	Ink and stamps on the printed copies	Electronic signatures under the Protocol
Where it is valid	All 58 CMR countries	All 58 CMR countries, once printed and signed	Only between countries that ratified the e-CMR Protocol
Typing errors	Common, every copy is retyped	None, data comes from your system	None
Best for	Occasional shipments	Shippers, forwarders and TMS software that print CMRs every day	Fleets on routes where every country accepts it

The e-CMR Protocol was signed in Geneva on February 20, 2008 and entered into force on June 5, 2011. Under the EU eFTI Regulation, authorities in every member state must accept freight information shared through certified eFTI platforms from July 9, 2027. A PDF on its own is not an e-CMR, but the same template data can feed both the printed copy and your e-CMR provider.

Automate it

How do you generate CMR documents automatically?

Copy the template into your account, then send the data of each shipment from your TMS, ERP, a workflow tool or an AI agent. The API returns one filled CMR PDF per shipment, ready to print or email to the driver.

Copy the template. Create a free account, open this CMR template and save it to your workspace.
Make it yours. Add your logo, change the second language of the labels or the copy label in the editor, or ask the AI template builder.
Send the shipment data. Post the JSON to /documents/generate with your template ID. Field names match the data fields above.
Print and hand over. Print the copies for sender, carrier and consignee, or merge the CMR with the delivery note and packing list into one PDF for the driver.

REST APINo codeAI agent (MCP)

curl -X POST https://us1.pdfgeneratorapi.com/api/v4/documents/generate \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <your-token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "template": {
      "id": <your-template-id>,
      "data": {
        "DocumentNumber": "24382",
        "Sender": { "Name": "Manuflex Inc", "Country": "United States" },
        "Consignee": { "Name": "UPS Forwarding Hub", "City": "Lille", "Country": "France" },
        "TakingOver": { "PlaceOfArrival": "Lorient", "DateOfArrival": "20.09.2026" },
        "Delivery": { "Place": "Merziger Str. 395, Krauelburg", "Country": "Germany" },
        "Carrier": { "Name": "MATHEZ FREIGHT", "City": "Lille", "Country": "France" },
        "DocumentsHandedToCarrierBySender": ["Commercial invoice", "Packing list"],
        "Goods": [
          { "Marks": "GLOBAL", "NoOfPacks": "2", "Method": "PALLETS",
            "Nature": "Custom vehicle parts", "Weight": "180", "Vol": "5.2" },
          { "Marks": "GL-03", "NoOfPacks": "4", "Method": "Crates",
            "Nature": "Hydraulic fittings", "Weight": "96", "Vol": "1.1" }
        ],
        "SpecialAgreements": "Delivery only on weekdays."
      }
    },
    "format": "pdf",
    "output": "base64"
  }'

The payload is trimmed. The full sample loads with the live template, and the API documentation lists every output option, including merging several documents into one PDF.

n8nTrigger on a new transport order, map the fields and generate the CMR with the PDF Generator API node.MakeWatch your TMS, Google Sheet or email for new shipments and create the CMR in one scenario.ZapierSend each new order to this template and store the PDF in Drive or email it to the carrier.

1Connect the MCP server

Point Claude, Cursor or Cline at mcp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/mcp with a Bearer JWT.

2Give it the order

Paste the transport order or let the agent read it from your TMS or email.

3Ask for the CMR

The agent maps sender, consignee, goods and charges to the template fields and returns the filled CMR PDF.

“Create a CMR for transport order 4471 from Lyon to Poznań, 18 pallets, 9,200 kg”

See the MCP server page for setup in each client.

Logistics templates

Templates that travel with the CMR

A truck rarely leaves with one document. These free templates use the same editor and API, so one shipment record can print the whole set.

Bill of ladingFor shipments that continue by sea, with shipper, consignee, vessel and cargo details.Delivery noteThe receipt the consignee signs, with items, quantities and delivery details.Packing listPackage by package contents, weights and dimensions to attach to the CMR in box 5.Packing slipA short slip for each parcel or pallet, printed from the same order data.

Built for logistics software: shipping and fleet platforms such as Veeqo and Fleet Complete generate their documents with PDF Generator API. See how it fits logistics teams. We never store the data you send or the documents we generate, only the template structure. PDF Generator API is ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant, and can run as a dedicated instance in the EU.

Pricing

How much does it cost to generate CMR documents?

The CMR template is free, and so is the 14 day sandbox account you use to build and test the integration. In production, documents are billed by credits on a monthly or annual plan, with no fee per template. Transport management software that wants to offer CMR printing to its own customers can embed the editor through the partner program.

See pricing Try for Free

Printing CMRs from your TMS or freight platform?

Michal Líška · COO, PDF Generator API

On a short call we look at where your shipment data lives, which transport documents you print for every load and how many languages your customers need. Your users can then adjust their CMR, delivery note and bill of lading layouts in the embedded editor under your brand.

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FAQ

CMR consignment note questions

What is a CMR document?

A CMR document, or CMR consignment note, is the transport document and evidence of the contract for carrying goods by road between two countries. It follows the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road, signed in Geneva in 1956, and records the sender, carrier, consignee, the goods and their condition at loading.

Who fills out the CMR?

The sender is responsible for the particulars about the goods, the consignee and the instructions, and is liable for wrong or incomplete information. In practice the forwarder or carrier often prepares the document from the transport order, and the sender and carrier both sign it at loading.

Is the CMR template free?

Yes. You can open and edit the CMR template in the browser without an account and download the PDF. To save your version and generate CMR documents from your own data through the API, create a sandbox account, which is free for 14 days and needs no credit card.

Can I use a PDF CMR instead of a preprinted form?

Yes. The convention does not require a specific printed form. A CMR generated from this template and printed, then signed by the sender and the carrier, has the same function as a preprinted set. An unsigned PDF on its own is not an electronic CMR, which needs a system that meets the e-CMR Protocol.

Can I translate the CMR template or add my logo?

Yes. The labels are in French and English, as on most printed CMR sets. You can replace the second language, add your logo and change fonts in the drag and drop editor or with the AI template builder. Keep the data field names if you generate the document through the API.

Do you store the shipment data I send?

No. We never store the data you send or the documents we generate, only the template structure. PDF Generator API is ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant, and a dedicated deployment in the EU keeps processing inside the EU.

Integrations

Generate this template from the tools you already use

Connect the template to your workflow tool, ERP, no code app or AI agent. Every integration sends your data to the same template and returns the finished PDF, so you never retype a document.

All integrations Try for Free

AI agents (MCP)Claude, Cursor or Cline fill the template from a prompt or a file.