What to do to reduce the traffic violation rate of takeaway brothers, experts: strengthen platform responsibility
The platform should have access to the identity information and contact information of the takeaway brother. If a traffic accident or infringement occurs due to the takeaway brother’s violation of traffic rules, the platform should first assume responsibility and then seek compensation from the takeaway brother.
□ Our reporter, Pu Xiaolei
The takeaway brother’s overtaking caused the death of a medical expert.
On August 15, netizens @_ Rice Fruit Bacteria posted on Weibo that her father, Li Mouqiu, one of the founders of the emergency department of Shanghai Emergency Department, Ruijin Hospital and Huashan Hospital, was riding a gas motorcycle at noon on February 24 this year. Near Caoxi Road, Zhongshan South 2nd Road, he was knocked to the ground by an overtaking Ele.me deliveryman, suffered head injuries, skull fractures, intracranial cerebral hemorrhage, brain contusion, and high intracranial pressure. The old man died on March 26 at the age of 75 after a month of rescue.
Retrograde, parking on the road, running a red light, hitting and running, driving a black car part-time… The illegal behavior of the delivery brother during driving has become a headache for all places.
Zhang Tao, director of Beijing Huaxun Law Firm, recently suggested in an interview with a reporter from Legal Daily that the management of takeaway brothers should be strengthened through legislation, the obligations and responsibilities of platform review should be clarified, the authenticity and validity of the information of takeaway personnel should be reviewed, and the main responsibility of the platform should be assumed.
Liu Junhai, director of the Institute of Commercial Law of Renmin University of China, believes that if a traffic safety accident is caused by the illegal driving of the delivery brother, the platform should first pay the infringed person and then recover the delivery brother. This is the platform’s vicarious responsibility. In this regard, it can be considered to make provisions in the draft e-commerce law.
High incidence of traffic violations in takeaway vehicles
On March 5, netizens @_ rice fruit mushroom to the traffic police brigade to get the order of responsibility encountered the offending party, the other side said that the same direction of driving accidentally brought down Li Mouqiu, the police showed her the surveillance video, the accident road is very wide, there was no other car, Li Mouqiu normal in the non-motorized road driving slowly, takeaway staff thought the distance was no problem, to the left overtaking Li Mouqiu caused it to fall.
Driving without obeying traffic rules may not only cause harm to others, but also pose a risk to one’s own health and safety.
At around 8pm on July 12 this year, a delivery boy in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, ran a red light while passing through an intersection and was knocked to the ground by a normal car. After being hit with a comminuted fracture to his right collarbone, he got up and reluctantly rode for 3 miles, climbed 4 floors, and delivered the fast food on time. The reason is that he was worried about not being able to deliver food on time and caused complaints. "If the complaint is verified, he will be fined 300 yuan, and it will be in vain in one day."
According to relevant data, takeaway brothers have become a high-risk group for traffic accidents.
In the first half of 2017, there were 3,242 traffic accidents involving electric bicycles for food delivery in Nanjing, Jiangsu, resulting in three deaths and 2,473 injuries. In 94% of the above-mentioned traffic accidents, food delivery personnel had traffic violations to varying degrees.
What is worrying is that this situation is still not optimistic in 2018.
On July 7, Nanjing Traffic Administration released the big data of non-motor vehicle violations in the first half of 2018. Nearly 200,000 cyclists were investigated for traffic violations. Among the illegal people, the electric bicycles in the express delivery industry belong to the high-risk group. The incidence of illegal activities of electric bicycles in takeaway express delivery is 5 times that of ordinary electric bicycles. From the perspective of specific traffic violations, illegal activities such as driving in reverse, running red lights and taking fast lanes, going on the road without a license, carrying people illegally in non-motor vehicles, and operating mobile phones while driving are more prominent.
The Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court revealed in 2017 that the number of express delivery vehicle traffic accident disputes heard by the court in the past four years has been on the rise, among which the number of cases involving well-known delivery platforms such as Meituan takeaway accounts for 62% of the takeaway electric bicycle infringement cases.
The relevant data released by Nanjing and Beijing is just a microcosm of the frequent traffic violations of the takeaway brother in various places. Every once in a while, you can see the coverage of the takeaway platform being interviewed.
On the afternoon of August 7, the Nanjing traffic control department interviewed the regional heads of Meituan, Ele.me and Didi’s three takeaway platforms to discuss how to reduce traffic violations and accident rates. The traffic control department suggested that takeaway companies establish industry associations and establish a joint mechanism. For some serious traffic violations and repeated teachings, takeaway brothers or takeaway brothers who have been investigated for criminal responsibility, they can be blacklisted, and any takeaway platform will no longer be hired.
The punishment measures of the takeaway platform are unreasonable
Judging from the current incentive mechanism of takeaway platforms, the main way for takeaway brothers to earn income is to be paid according to the order. Therefore, in order to complete more orders and obtain more income in a shorter time, many takeaway brothers will choose to "trade time with violations of laws and regulations". In addition, the rules such as "overtime fines" and "bad review fines" established by the platform have further exacerbated the high incidence of traffic violations among takeaway brothers.
In an interview with reporters, a delivery guy said that running a red light and going retrograde are also forced, and if it is not delivered on time and is complained by customers, the money will be deducted. "Sometimes, it takes dozens of orders to get the money back, otherwise, who would be willing to risk an accident to earn the delivery fee for this order!"
Liu Junhai believes that the unreasonable incentive mechanism of the takeaway platform and the heavy punishment for the delay are the main reasons for the frequent disputes of the takeaway vehicle traffic accidents. To solve this problem, we should also deal with the source and start with the strengthening of the responsibility of the takeaway platform. "It is recommended that the Market Supervision Bureau issue relevant documents, requiring the takeaway platform to be careful and self-disciplined, and modify the terms that are unfair to the takeaway brother."
Xu Liping, a representative of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress, pointed out that the delivery brother should not be simply punished if something goes wrong, the platform should take responsibility, and the assessment method should be changed. It is not allowed to let the delivery brother rely on every second to make money and ignore safety.
In addition to unreasonable incentives and penalties, the transportation used by the delivery brother has also become an "accomplice" to the traffic chaos.
When a motor vehicle violates the law, the search and control system can automatically capture it. However, there are different regulations on the management of non-motor vehicles in various places, and the system of "one person, one car, one certificate and one code" has not been fully realized. It is also impossible to capture illegal acts through electronic probes and other means, which makes the delivery brother "emboldened" during the driving process.
The so-called "one person, one car, one code, one certificate" management system means that in addition to installing the electric bicycle number plate issued by the DMV, each takeaway electric bicycle also has a special takeaway electric bicycle number plate, which not only has the vehicle number, but also has a QR code. The traffic police can "scan" through the police to know the identity information of the takeaway rider and previous violations.
The "one person, one car, one certificate, one code" system was also mentioned in Ele.me’s response to @_ rice fruit fungus.
For the experience of @_ rice fungus father, Ele.me apologized and said that in the field of traffic safety, Ele.me has jointly carried out rider training with traffic police in many places across the country, established a "one person, one car, one certificate and one code" system, and dispatched offline traffic supervisors to include traffic violations in rider performance appraisal, and strive to make safety a habit and prevent tragedies from happening again.
In March this year, the Shanghai Municipal Traffic Police Corps again interviewed seven major takeaway platforms to further promote the internal management measures of "one person, one certificate, one code for one car". Companies should improve the registration of rider data as soon as possible and synchronize the data to the regulatory authorities. For enterprises with poor implementation and frequent accidents, they will be punished according to law.
In this regard, after extensive research on Internet catering platforms, Xu Liping pointed out in the relevant motion submitted at this year’s Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress that the difficulty of supervision is one of the "bottlenecks" that need to be broken through in the management of the takeaway industry. Among them, the large number, variety and liquidity are the three major reasons for the difficulty of supervision.
Xu Liping said that, taking Ele.me as an example, there are currently about 17,000 takeaway riders, a huge number of types, namely self-owned employee riders, agent-owned riders and online self-affiliated crowd-created riders. Among them, the proportion of riders under the agent’s name is the largest, and the supervision is also the most difficult. "But with the introduction of’one person, one car, one certificate and one code ‘, it can reduce the traffic violations of takeaway delivery personnel to a certain extent."
Legislation to clarify platform-related responsibilities
In addition to standardizing the behavior of takeaway brothers, strengthening platform responsibility has also become an important measure to reduce the speed of takeaway brothers in many places.
On April 2, Liaoning Shenyang Traffic Police, together with Meituan, Ele.me, Dianwoda, and errand network, issued an initiative to express delivery and takeaway enterprises, calling on the express delivery, instant delivery industry and enterprises to firmly establish the concept of safe development and implement the main responsibility of traffic safety. Shenyang Traffic Police will bring the enterprises providing distribution services into the scope of source supervision, take the initiative to connect with these enterprises, and promote the establishment of internal constraints and management systems for distribution enterprises to control excessive electric bicycles, unregistered electric bicycles, and motorcycles from the source to engage in takeaway food delivery activities. For electric bicycle traffic violations, in addition to the traffic police handling according to law, the enterprise has established an internal punishment system for traffic violations, and for minor violations, internal notification; for red light running, motor vehicle lanes and other disruptions that cause congestion and endanger traffic safety, in addition to being investigated and punished according to law, the enterprise shall conduct internal criticism and education, and impose internal superimposed penalties according to the illegal circumstances.
The Nanjing Municipal Road Traffic Safety Management Regulations, which are being revised in Nanjing, mention that traffic violations by non-motorized cyclists will be linked to personal credit and corporate credit. Once the regulations are passed and implemented, it means that if food delivery workers violate more laws, the credit of food delivery companies may also be affected.
Zhang Tao suggested that the obligations and responsibilities of the platform should be clearly stipulated through legislation.
"When the delivery brother enters the platform to work, the platform should review the authenticity of the information provided by him. In addition, the validity of the delivery brother’s information should be regularly verified, such as whether the delivery brother’s permanent address has changed, whether the mobile phone number has changed, etc. These information must be accurate. In addition, whether the delivery brother uses electric bicycles, whether he needs to have relevant qualifications, and whether he needs to obtain a health license, these work need to be implemented by the delivery platform," Zhang Tao said.
Liu Junhai also believes that the platform should have access to the identity information and contact information of the takeaway brother. If a traffic accident occurs due to the violation of traffic rules by the takeaway brother, the platform should first assume responsibility for the infringement, and then seek compensation from the takeaway brother. This will better safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the victims, and also force the platform to strengthen management measures to reduce the occurrence of infringement accidents and road traffic accidents.
"At present, we can consider clarifying the responsibility of the platform in the draft e-commerce law to respond to the issue that reflects strongly in reality," Liu Junhai said.
Xu Liping believes that the detailed management rules should be further refined to strengthen the responsibilities of enterprises and other parties.
"The food delivery industry needs the government, enterprises and industries to work together to promote the improvement of the business model. The government level should refine the system construction and further clarify the responsibilities of the government, enterprises, industry associations and other parties," Xu Liping said.
Cartography/Li Xiaojun