Words and Phrases - "transporting"

The appellant operated a proprietorship ("Canadian Auto") which provided a service of arranging, at the request of insurance companies, for the return of vehicles from the United States to Canada where the owner had suffered an incapacitating medical emergency, and subcontracted with drivers to return the vehicles. In finding that this service did not qualify as a “freight transportation service,” so that the appellant‘s supplies to the insurance companies were not zero-rated under Sched. VI, Pt. VII, s. 8, V.A. Miller J stated (at paras 25, 29-30):

… [T]he Appellant assumed liability for small dents or scrapes to the vehicles he was delivering. …[T]he Appellant did not and would not assume complete responsibility for the vehicles. The services offered by Canadian Auto are indistinguishable from “driving services” in this regard.

… I have concluded that a “freight transportation service” means a particular service of carrying personal property from one place to another. … [T]here must be [a] mode of carrying the personal property. … [T]he vehicle cannot be both the personal property and the means of carrying it at the same time. …

Canadian Auto [instead] provided a driving service to the insurance companies and the owners of the vehicles.