common carrier

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.

common carrier

noun

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

common carrier

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

Other Words From

• common-carri·er adjective
• common carriage noun

Example Sentences

While there is some merit to the motives behind regulating Google, the idea that it should be classified and treated as a public utility or common carrier simply doesn’t apply — that’s the takeaway from Gilad Edelman’s article for Wired.

From Search Engine Land

“A common carrier was someone who offered to carry something to any member of the public,” wrote Edelman, “Anyone who chose to do business that way was subject to certain legal duties, including nondiscrimination.”

From Search Engine Land

While there are different definitions of common carrier, they are typically companies that hold themselves out to the public as a means of transporting goods and some forms of information.

From Time

Twitter is for all practical purposes a “common carrier,” providing its service to all comers.

From The Daily Beast

And the same goes for any other common carrier—the railroads, bus service, and airlines.

From Project Gutenberg

They intend to make the lightning a domestic slave in every house, and to turn Ariel into a common carrier.

From Project Gutenberg

That's common-carrier while the Fair Grounds isn't running up there.

From Project Gutenberg

That's common carrier too, but with one terminal in Mob Territory.

From Project Gutenberg

We don't make any profit on common-carrier service, the rates are too low, but we owe it to the public that supports us.

From Project Gutenberg