Should delivery workers be allowed into the community?
Experts: Communities that have made entry ban regulations should ensure the smooth delivery of takeaway delivery to consumers
Investigate motivations
Recently, at the gate of a community in Licang District, Qingdao, Shandong, it is suspected that the security guard did not allow the delivery man to ride into the community to deliver food, and the two sides clashed, and the delivery man was stabbed several times by the security guard, which caused widespread concern in the society.
One side wants to provide users with efficient and fast services, and the other side wants to maintain a safe and orderly community environment, so conflicts and disputes are not uncommon, and even the above-mentioned extremely vicious cases occur.
This can't help but make many people ponder: Why did such a tragedy happen? Should we let takeaways and couriers enter the community? For this reason, this reporter conducted an investigation and interview.
● Residential areas, office buildings, etc., including roads in the community, are not public spaces, and the owners or owners' committees have the right to decide whether to allow takeaways and couriers to enter in accordance with relevant procedures. Whether the property management company has the right to prohibit takeaways and couriers from entering depends on whether the owners or the owners' committee have reached an agreement on this
● Residential areas and office buildings may formulate corresponding standards to manage their internal order and safety, including the prohibition of takeaway and express delivery vehicles, but the purpose of these provisions is to maintain the safety and management efficiency of the community or office space, which does not mean that residents cannot enjoy takeaway and express delivery services, and the community and office building that make the prohibition provisions shall ensure that takeaway and express delivery can be smoothly delivered to consumers
● The roads in the community should be kept smooth and clean, the damaged pavement and sidewalks should be repaired, and the food delivery workers and couriers should be able to drive safely, so as to improve the road capacity and safety, and reduce the occurrence of traffic accidents. At the same time, residential areas, office buildings and other places can establish a feedback mechanism for residents, timely understand the opinions and suggestions of residents, and improve management measures and service quality in a targeted manner
□ reporter Zhang Shoukun
A courier riding an electric car into the community, was stopped by two security guards for inspection, and the two sides had a verbal altercation during the communication process, which then escalated into a physical altercation; a delivery man had an argument with the security guard because he was obstructed from delivering food, and the delivery man sprayed the security guard with a fire extinguisher, and was then pressed down by multiple security guards and hit his head with a helmet......
In recent years, while people enjoy the convenient services of takeaway and express delivery, takeaways and couriers have repeatedly clashed with community security guards due to whether they can enter the community, ride electric vehicles on rampage, and park indiscriminately.
How to solve the dilemma between takeaways, couriers, and community security guards? A number of experts interviewed by the "Rule of Law Daily" reporter said that residential areas and office buildings can formulate corresponding standards to manage their internal order and safety, including the prohibition of takeaway and express delivery vehicles, but this does not mean that residents cannot enjoy takeaway and express delivery services, and the community and office buildings that have made prohibitive provisions should ensure that takeaway and express delivery can be smoothly delivered to consumers.
Whether you can enter the community for distribution
Property companies have different practices
At 1:10 a.m. on January 10, Zhang Feng (pseudonym), a delivery person, parked his car on the side of the road with a familiar car, and then walked into a small area in Hexi District, Tianjin with a takeaway.
"Every time I see the list of this community, I have to plan the route in advance, this community does not allow takeaway vehicles to enter, and the security guards have to check, and I have to delay for several minutes just to enter the door. With the same time, I can ride directly downstairs in other communities, and even go upstairs. Zhang Feng complained that when he first delivered takeaways, it took him more than ten minutes to deliver an order in this community; if customers ordered more things at one time, it would be difficult to carry them so far; and it was easy to lose food when the electric car was parked outside the community.
The reporter interviewed and found that the attitude of the property companies in the community towards takeaway and express delivery is not consistent, and some of them are allowed to take away and their electric vehicles, and they do not ask at all; some takeaways and couriers can enter the community, but their electric vehicles cannot enter the community; and some completely prohibit or restrict the takeaways, couriers and their electric vehicles from entering the community.
At around 1 p.m. on January 3, Liu Jie (pseudonym) from Wuhan, Hubei Province, saw at the gate of her community that a delivery man was stopped by a security guard. It is said that this regulation is due to complaints from property owners that the delivery staff enter and leave the community casually, and the personnel are too mixed and unsafe. So the delivery man called the customer who placed the order and asked him to go out to get it, but the other party firmly disagreed and asked for home delivery. In the end, the delivery man did not deliver the order and left angrily.
"In the past year, I have tossed back and forth several times for whether the takeaway and courier can enter the community. Liu Jie said that she asked the community security why they didn't let the takeaways and couriers enter the community, and the security guards said that the property company would do whatever they wanted, and if they found that the takeaways entered the community, they would be punished and deducted money.
At 1 o'clock in the evening on January 5, Wang Ning (pseudonym) from Tongchuan, Shaanxi Province, went home from overtime and wanted to order a takeout, but the delivery man asked her to pick it up at the door of the community by herself.
"Before, electric cars were not allowed to enter, but now delivery workers are not allowed to enter. The security guard told me that since last month, the community has been closed to delivery workers after 11 p.m., and advised me not to order anything at night. Wang Ning complained.
So, does the property management company have the right to prohibit takeaways and couriers from entering the community, and if it is found that there are takeaways and couriers entering in violation of regulations, can the security guards be punished?
Lawyer Liu Wei, a partner of Beijing Shengchi Law Firm, said that according to the relevant provisions of the Civil Code, the roads within the building zoning belong to the owners, except for the urban public roads, and the property management service enterprises shall provide the owners with property services such as the maintenance and maintenance of the building and its ancillary facilities, the management and maintenance of environmental sanitation and related order in accordance with the property service contract signed by the owners' committee and the owners. Therefore, residential areas and office buildings, including roads in the community, are not public spaces, and the owners or owners' committees have the right to decide whether to allow takeaways and couriers to enter in accordance with relevant procedures. Whether the property management company has the right to prohibit takeaways and couriers from entering depends on whether the owners or the owners' committee have reached an agreement on this.
"Generally speaking, there is an employment relationship between the property management company and the security guard, and the relationship between the two is that of the employer and the employee. As an employee, he or she is obliged to abide by the rules and regulations of the employer and obey the management of the employer, but it is generally considered that the employer does not have the right to impose financial penalties and has no right to impose fines on the employee. If the employee has dereliction of duty and causes losses to the employer, the employer may require the employee to compensate for the loss, or even compensate for the loss in the form of deduction of wages, but it is not entitled to impose financial penalties such as fines. Therefore, there is no legal basis for the property management company to fine the security guard on the grounds that it found that a takeaway courier had entered the room in violation of regulations. Liu Wei said.
Ride a bicycle in the wrong direction and park at will
Affect the environmental order of the community
There are constant conflicts between takeaways, couriers and community security guards, and many netizens express their incomprehension: it is not easy for everyone, they are all seeking a livelihood, why should they be so difficult for each other?
At the same time, during the interview, many community owners proposed to support the prohibition of takeaways and couriers from entering the community, not only because of the public security environment, but also because some takeaways and couriers rode electric vehicles in the community, parked at will, and blocked the road.
"Don't die, ride so fast in the community, and don't look at the road. At around 1 noon on January 13, in an online car-hailing car driving in a small area in Hedong District, Tianjin, the driver Li Huan (pseudonym) complained to reporters that just now, a takeaway electric car "wiped" the body, which scared him a lot.
"There are a lot of traffic violations on the road, and when you enter the community, you don't only go in the wrong direction, but you don't slow down. Li Huan said that he often saw riders in the community ignoring and rampage, and his car was rear-ended by a takeaway electric vehicle.
In a small area in Chaoyang District, Beijing, the road is not wide, and there are cars parked on both sides, and there are often takeaway and express delivery vehicles shuttling back and forth, and the speed is very fast. Some residents of the community told reporters that they walked close to the inside, for fear of being knocked down by speeding takeaway trucks and express delivery trucks, which is a big safety hazard for the elderly and children.
In this regard, Zhang Feng felt very aggrieved: "Ride fast in the community, sometimes it's really not what we want to do, some community building signs are very small, and at night it is even more difficult to see, and it is common to find the building and go the wrong way when delivering food. ”
A staff member of the community property company told reporters that it is the opinion of most owners not to let takeaway and express vehicles enter the community, and the property company only manages it on behalf of them. In order to ensure the safety of the lives and property of residents in the community, the takeaway staff need to walk into the community to deliver takeaways.
Wang Zikun, a lawyer at Beijing Yinghe Law Firm, believes that safety is an important factor for community and office building management. Some communities and office buildings are worried that the random entry and exit of takeaways and couriers may lead to road congestion and chaos, especially during peak hours, a large number of takeaway vehicles and personnel may bring inconvenience and safety hazards to the surrounding roads.
"Some office buildings or communities may not have clear takeaway and delivery areas or parking spots, resulting in takeaways and couriers unable to find suitable parking spaces or delivery locations. In such cases, delivery and couriers may park or walk through at will, causing inconvenience to residents. Wang Zikun said.
Liu Wei said: "As an important form of new employment form, food delivery has brought vitality and vitality to the gig economy and met the employment needs of many people, but this form of employment has high efficiency requirements, especially the delivery speed and income level of the food delivery industry are directly linked, which is a typical model of more work and more reward." Under the rule of the principle of speed first, delivery workers and couriers will inevitably be willing to be fast, which will lead to traffic violations and even traffic accidents. This phenomenon occurs in the community, which will affect the personal safety and normal life of residents, arouse residents' disgust, and eventually evolve into a direct confrontation between property management companies and express delivery and takeaway. ”
Actively improve management measures
Solve the delivery problem reasonably
A number of riders and owners interviewed said that it is okay for the community not to let takeaways in, provided that the delivery problem is reasonably solved.
The experts interviewed believe that residential areas and office buildings can formulate corresponding standards to manage their internal order and safety, including the prohibition of takeaway and express delivery vehicles, but the purpose of these regulations is to maintain the safety and management efficiency of the community or office space, and it does not mean that owners or tenants cannot enjoy takeaway and express delivery services.
In order to make food delivery more convenient, some cities have launched useful explorations.
Recently, in a number of communities in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, many couriers and takeaways found that a big sign was erected at the entrance of the community, prompting "Express takeaway brother look over, pay attention to me and don't get lost", marking the distribution location of each building in the community. In a community in Suzhou, Anhui Province, the community property company specially purchased bicycles and placed them at the main entrances and exits of the community to provide "transfers" to takeaways and couriers. Shandong Zoucheng Federation of Trade Unions assisted relevant platforms to handle "one person, one permit" for takeaway delivery workers, and issued the first batch of 1000,<> work permits for entering and leaving the community. For communities that require identity registration, delivery workers can enter without registration with a certificate, which effectively improves the efficiency of traffic.
Dong Laichao, an expert in traffic law practice and director of Beijing Kaiya Law Firm, told reporters that from a practical point of view, it is a good practice to establish an independent takeaway counter in the community office building, implement the relative separation of residential office and takeaway vehicle personnel, and do not affect each other, or shoppers go to the gate of the community or the designated area of the office building to pick up their own mail.
How to ensure the safe driving of takeaway and express delivery vehicles in the community and the safe delivery of goods?
The delivery time is related to the safety and rights of every delivery person. In July 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the Cyberspace Administration of China and other seven departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Implementing the Responsibilities of Online Catering Platforms and Effectively Safeguarding the Rights and Interests of Takeaway Delivery Workers", requiring that the "strictest algorithm" should not be used as an assessment requirement, and that assessment factors such as the number of orders, on-time rate, and online rate should be reasonably determined through methods such as "algorithm selection", and the delivery time limit should be appropriately relaxed.
The reporter learned that since 2021, some food delivery platforms have taken corresponding measures to promote the disclosure and improvement of algorithm rules, and actively implement the "algorithm center". For example, when the rider encounters some abnormal scenes, such as difficult elevators during peak hours and the community does not allow electric vehicles to enter, the platform will identify and predict the occurrence of such abnormal scenarios from the perspective of orders, through "single stoppage time + system correction" At the same time, the platform will identify the delivery difficulty of the delivery address based on historical data, providing time supplements for scenarios such as riders contacting users, walking, and waiting for elevators, and giving a more reasonable delivery time.
In July 2023, Tianjin Binhai New Area launched the self-developed "Ride Code into the Door" App, which can standardize rider behavior from identity authentication, speed reminders, trajectory monitoring, illegal parking and other aspects. Riders must ride at a speed of less than 7 kilometers per hour in the community and ride according to the planned route. If the rider is speeding instantaneously, the rider will receive a reminder from the app, and behaviors such as continuous speeding, riding not following the prescribed route, and evading monitoring will be suspended.
In Liu Wei's view, the safe driving of takeaway and express delivery vehicles in the community requires the property company to make efforts in terms of management methods, such as putting forward clear requirements in terms of limiting driving speed, planning special driving roads and parking spaces, etc., and also requiring property companies and express delivery companies and takeaway platforms to negotiate and reach an agreement, such as according to the geographical location of the community, the platform extends the delivery time of takeaway and express delivery by modifying the background settings, so as to avoid too much pressure on takeaways and couriers.
Wang Zikun said that the roads in the community should be kept smooth and clean, the damaged road surface and sidewalks should be repaired, and the food delivery and couriers should be able to drive safely, improve road capacity and safety, and reduce the occurrence of traffic accidents. At the same time, residential areas, office buildings and other places can establish a feedback mechanism for residents, timely understand the opinions and suggestions of residents, and improve management measures and service quality in a targeted manner. (Rule of Law Daily)