common carrier

American  

noun

1. Transportation. (in federal regulatory and other legal usage) a carrier offering its services at published rates to all persons for interstate transportation.

2. a public service or public utility company, as a telephone or telegraph company, engaged in the transmitting of messages for the public.

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common carrier British  

noun

1. a person or firm engaged in the business of transporting goods or passengers

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common carrier Cultural  

1. A company or individual providing public transportation on a regular basis in return for a fee that is uniformly charged to all users.

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Other Word Forms

• common carriage
  noun
• common-carrier
  adjective

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

common carrier

Oil trains would link from the proposed new Uinta Basin line to the common carrier network throughout the country, including through Colorado.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 18, 2023

That if you want your voice heard, Twitter is really the only game in town, and so it has become a common carrier.

From Slate ● Sep. 27, 2022

We cannot stress this enough: No, an Ohio judge did not declare Google a common carrier this week.

From Washington Post ● May 26, 2022

Florida and Texas are both, to some extent, relying on the common carrier argument.

From The Verge ● Dec. 16, 2021

Again, a railway corporation could not make a rule that it would carry goods for one class of persons only, because as a common carrier the law requires that it carry impartially for all.

From Up To Date Business Home Study Circle Library Series (Volume II.) by Seymour Eaton