The concept of multimodal transport is not new and efforts to establish a suitable legal regime for multimodal transport were first made by the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) in the 1930. At that time, these efforts were weighed more theoretical than practical in commercial circles (UNCTAD, 1994).
The term multimodal transport was introduced officially by the United Nations sponsoring Multimodal Transport Convention in 1980 but the term attained legal recognition on 1 January 1992 with the introduction of the 1992 UNCTAD/ICC Rules for Multimodal Transport.
