The most far reaching impact of containerisation on the role of freight forwarders is their involvement in multimodal transport, i.e. carriage of goods by more than one mode of transport under a single contract.When a freight forwarder acts as a multimodal transport operator, heassumes responsibility for the execution of the multimodal transport contract, and of the carriers participating in the multimodal transport operations. He may enter into separate contracts with individual transport operators and provides of services, but these subcontracts would not affect his obligations to the consignor for the performance of the multimodal transport contract and his liability to him arising under the contract. When a forwarder acts as multimodal transport operator, it thus involves a major transformation of his role. The carriers for whom he was previously acting as an intermediary become his subcontractors and he becomes the principal. Multimodal transportation is not a recent invention since any consignment coming from overseas and destined inland will be traveling on multi modes of transport utilizing sea, rail, air or road. What is new is that such a transport can be made without breaking bulk, i.e. without taking it out of the container, vehicle or trailer in which in was loaded at the place of origin, and often under the cover of one transport document.