.In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-

(a) common carrier means a person engaged in the business of collecting, storing, forwarding or distributing goods to be carried by goods carriages under a goods receipt or transporting for hire of goods from place to place by motorised transport on road, for all persons undiscriminatingly and includes a goods booking company, contractor, agent, broker and courier agency engaged in the door-to-door transportation of documents, goods or articles utilising the services of a person, either directly or indirectly, to carry or accompany such documents, goods or articles, but does not include the Government;

(b) consignee means the person named as consignee in the goods forwarding note;

(c) consignment means documents, goods or articles entrusted by the consignor to the common carrier for carriage, the description or details of which are given in the goods forwarding note;

(d) consignor means a person, named as consignor in the goods forwarding note, by whom or on whose behalf the documents, goods or articles covered by such forwarding note are entrusted to the common carrier for carriage thereof;

(e) goods includes-

(f) goods forwarding note means the document executed under section 8;

(g) goods receipt means the receipt issued under section 9;

(h) person includes any association or body of persons, whether incorporated or not, a road transport booking company, contractor and an agent or a broker carrying on the business of a common carrier;

(i) prescribed means prescribed by rules made under this Act;

(j) registering authority means a State Transport Authority or a Regional Transport Authority constituted under section 68 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (59 of 1988);

(k) registration means the registration granted or renewed under sub—section (5) of section 4.