CMR (international consignment note)
A CMR is the consignment note used for road transport between countries that are party to the CMR Convention. It records who sent the goods, what is moving and who receives them, and the consignee's signature on the carrier's copy is the proof that the shipment arrived.
The note is issued in three signed originals: one stays with the sender, one travels with the goods to the consignee, and one comes back with the driver. That third copy counts for most in daily work, because it is the one that goes into the order file and releases the invoice.
The boxes carry legal weight. If the condition of the goods or the packaging looks doubtful at loading, the carrier writes a reservation into box 18; without one, the goods are presumed to have been taken over in good order. The consignee's signature and stamp in box 24 close the carriage, and a note about damage written there is the starting point for a claim.
The Convention also allows an electronic version, e-CMR, set out in an additional protocol that Poland has joined. In practice e-CMR works where both parties and every country on the route accept it, so most companies keep paper running alongside a scan uploaded to the system from the driver's app.
Trouble usually starts with the paper trail. The signed CMR sits in the cab or in an envelope on a desk, and without it there is no invoice and no answer to a claim raised two months later. You can tell this is your topic when invoicing waits for documents to come off the road, and finding a scan for a customer takes half a day.