The valid freight claim requirements are set out in 49 CFR 370.3, and there are four of them. A communication counts as a claim when it is in writing, filed with a proper carrier within the time limits in the bill of lading or contract, contains facts sufficient to identify the shipment, asserts carrier liability for the alleged loss, damage, injury or delay, and makes a demand for payment of a specified or determinable amount of money.
Miss any of those and the carrier is not required to treat what you sent as a claim. The same regulation says so directly: a bad-order report, an appraisal report, or a notation of shortage or damage on a freight bill or delivery receipt does not by itself constitute a claim. Neither does an amount written as “$100 more or less,” because that is not a determinable sum.
This is why “damaged, about $100” fails. It is not too informal, and it is not too small. It fails on two elements at once: it does not assert that the carrier is liable, and the amount is not determinable. An adjuster who receives it can open a courtesy file or can do nothing, and either way your filing window keeps running.
The four elements, one at a time
Below is each requirement, what satisfies it, and the version that fails. If you write claims regularly, this is the part to keep.
1. In writing
Email counts. A letter counts. The carrier’s own claim form counts, and using it is usually the fastest path because it routes to the claims queue instead of a terminal inbox.
What does not count is a phone call, a conversation with a driver, a note in a carrier portal comment field that produces no record you can retrieve, or a verbal agreement with a sales rep. If a dispute ever turns on when you filed, you need a document with a date and a delivery path you can prove.
Send it in a way that gives you a provable receipt date: email to the carrier’s published claims address, portal submission with a confirmation number saved, or certified mail. The receipt date matters twice, once for your filing window and once because the carrier’s own obligations under 49 CFR 370.5 run from the date it receives the claim.
2. Filed with a proper carrier, within the time limit
Two separate requirements bundled into one phrase.
Proper carrier. On a single-carrier move this is obvious. On an interlined move it is not, and picking the wrong company is a real way to lose a claim to the calendar. The originating carrier and the delivering carrier are both ordinary targets under the Carmack framework in 49 U.S.C. 14706. If you are not certain which company had the freight when it broke, file against the carrier you contracted with and identify the interline in the claim. If a broker arranged the load, know whether your contract puts you in privity with the carrier at all, because that determines who you are filing against.
Within the time limit. The period is whatever the bill of lading or contract says, and 14706(e)(1) forbids that period from being shorter than nine months. Nine months from delivery is the working assumption; confirm it rather than assume it. The mechanics of what starts and stops each clock are worked through in Carmack Amendment time limits.
3. Facts sufficient to identify the shipment
This is the element people satisfy accidentally and then undermine by burying it. Put the identifiers at the top, in a block, so an adjuster can pull the file in one search.
- PRO number or the carrier’s shipment number
- Bill of lading number
- Pickup date and delivery date
- Origin and destination, with consignee name
- Piece count, weight, and freight description as tendered
- Your PO or load number, if the carrier has it on file
“The load that came into Memphis last spring” is not identification. Neither is a photo attached to an email with no numbers in the body, which is a surprisingly common filing and one that guarantees a request for more information before anything else happens.
4. Assert carrier liability, and demand a specified or determinable amount
The two elements that most defective claims miss.
Asserting liability means saying the carrier is responsible, not just that something is wrong. “The freight was damaged in transit while in the carrier’s custody and we are holding the carrier liable for the loss” does it. “Wanted to flag that this shipment came in beat up” does not. You are not required to prove liability in the claim document; you are required to assert it.
Specified or determinable is the phrase that does the most work in the regulation, and it is more forgiving than people assume. Specified means a number: $4,182.50. Determinable means the carrier can compute the number from what you gave it, for instance 63 damaged units at $66.39 each per the attached invoice. What fails is an amount the carrier cannot arrive at: “about $4,000,” “approximately one pallet’s worth,” “we will send figures once we finish counting.”
If you genuinely do not have final numbers, file with a determinable amount based on what you do know and state that the figure will be refined when the repair invoice or final count arrives. A determinable claim filed on day 40 beats an exact claim filed on day 290.
Defective versus valid, side by side
| What you sent | Why it fails 370.3 | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| “Damaged, about $100” | No liability assertion, amount not determinable | State liability, give a number or a computable basis |
| Delivery receipt with “2 cartons crushed” noted | The regulation says a notation on a freight bill or delivery receipt is not a claim | Keep the notation as evidence, file a separate written claim |
| Inspection or bad-order report forwarded to the carrier | The regulation excludes bad-order and appraisal reports | Attach it to a claim, do not send it as one |
| Photos emailed to the driver’s dispatcher | Not in writing to a proper carrier claims function, no identifiers, no amount | Send to the claims address with the full element set |
| “We are holding $3,400 from your next settlement” | An offset is not a filed claim; the deduction and the claim are separate acts | File the claim, then handle the offset under your carrier agreement |
| Claim filed against the broker when the contract runs to the carrier | Not filed with a proper carrier | Confirm privity before filing, and file against both if unclear |
The pattern is the same one that decides most freight document arguments: the record has to say the thing, at the time, in the place where it can be found later. It is the same reason a detention charge stands or falls on what the POD recorded at the gate, described in the six documents that win a detention dispute.
What a valid claim looks like
Attach the bill of lading, the delivery receipt showing the exception, the commercial invoice for the goods, the paid freight bill, and the photographs. The regulation tells you the carrier will be looking for exactly those: under 49 CFR 370.7 it must obtain the bill of lading, evidence of the freight charges, and the invoice or certified copies establishing destination value, plus a certified non-receipt statement from the consignee on a full-loss claim.
Subject: Freight claim - PRO 1234567 / BOL 88214 - concealed damage - $4,182.50
Shipment identification
Carrier: [Carrier name]
PRO number: 1234567
BOL number: 88214
Pickup: 08/18/2026, [Origin city, ST]
Delivery: 08/21/2026, ACME Distribution, Memphis TN
Tendered: 8 pallets, 4,880 lbs, packaged industrial fittings
Our reference: PO 55219
Statement of claim
We are filing a claim for damage to the above shipment. Of the 8 pallets
tendered in apparent good order, 3 were delivered with crushed cartons and
63 units were rendered unsalable. The damage occurred while the property was
in the carrier's custody. We hold the carrier liable for the loss under the
bill of lading and 49 U.S.C. 14706.
Amount claimed
63 units at $66.39 each (per attached invoice INV-90412) $4,182.57
Less salvage value realized $ .00
Total claimed $4,182.57
Value basis: actual destination invoice cost of the damaged units. Supporting
invoice attached. Salvage has not been disposed of and is being held intact
and available for carrier inspection.
Documents attached
1. Bill of lading 88214
2. Delivery receipt with exception noted
3. Commercial invoice INV-90412
4. Paid freight bill
5. Photographs of packaging as received and of the damaged units
Please acknowledge this claim in writing and provide the claim file number,
as required by 49 CFR 370.5. We will make the damaged goods available for
inspection at the delivery address on reasonable notice.
[Name], [Title]
[Company] | [Phone] | [Email]Nothing in that letter is decorative. Identifiers satisfy element three. “We hold the carrier liable” satisfies element four’s first half. The arithmetic block satisfies the second half, and it also preempts the value argument by stating the basis up front. Holding the salvage intact matters because damaged property has a disposition question attached to it: under 49 CFR 370.11, a carrier disposing of rejected or damaged property must notify interested parties, keep itemized lot-numbered records tying the salvage back to the original shipment, disclose sales to employees or affiliated agents, and record the salvage recovery amount and the date the funds were transmitted on the claim file. Salvage proceeds reduce what is owed, so a unilateral disposal by either side creates an argument nobody needs.
Why a valid claim is worth the extra ten minutes
Because it starts the carrier’s clock, and the carrier’s clock is the only leverage the regulations hand you.
A claim that meets 370.3 triggers dated obligations. Under 370.5 the carrier must acknowledge in writing within 30 days of receipt, record the receipt date, and assign a claim file number, unless it has already paid or declined in writing in that period. Under 49 CFR 370.9 it must pay, decline, or make a firm written compromise offer within 120 days of receipt, and if the claim is still open at 120 days it must issue a written status report and another every 60 days after.
A communication that does not meet 370.3 triggers none of that. The carrier may open a file as a courtesy, and many do. But you are relying on courtesy while your filing window burns, and if the carrier later takes the position that no claim was filed until the day you sent a compliant one, the date that matters is the later one.
Be straight about what these obligations are: they govern claim processing, not the merits. A missed acknowledgment does not make a bad claim payable. It gives you a specific thing to ask for with a rule number attached, and that changes how a file moves. The full inventory of freight clocks, claims and billing both, is in every freight billing deadline that can cost you money.
The validity checklist
Run this before you hit send.
- Is it in writing, to the carrier’s claims function, in a form that produces a provable receipt date?
- Is it going to a proper carrier, with interline parties identified if the move was interlined?
- Is it inside the filing period in the bill of lading or contract?
- Are the shipment identifiers in a block at the top: PRO, BOL, dates, origin, destination, pieces, weight, description?
- Does it say the carrier is liable, in those words?
- Is the amount specified, or determinable from something attached?
- Is the value basis stated, with the arithmetic shown?
- Are the five core documents attached?
- Does it address salvage disposition and offer inspection?
- Does it request the written acknowledgment and claim file number under 370.5?
Ten items, ten minutes, and it converts a message that the carrier may or may not act on into a document with obligations attached to it. If you are new to the process end to end, the surrounding workflow, deadlines, evidence and the common denial reasons, is in how to file a freight claim that does not get denied.
Sources
- 49 CFR 370.3, Filing of claims (Cornell LII)
- 49 CFR 370.5, Acknowledgment of claims (Cornell LII)
- 49 CFR 370.7, Investigation of claims (Cornell LII)
- 49 CFR 370.9, Disposition of claims (Cornell LII)
- 49 CFR 370.11, Processing of salvage (Cornell LII)
- 49 U.S.C. 14706, Liability of carriers under receipts and bills of lading (Cornell LII)
- Freight claim time limits, practitioner summary (FreightClaims.com)