The user gives a bad review and encounters a "death threat", the driver charges privately higher than the platform price, expert advice
Online freight platform urgently needs classification management
Trainee reporter Sun Tianjiao
Our reporter Chen Lei
The user encountered a "death threat" from the driver because he gave a bad review to the moving driver of an online freight platform; the driver charges more privately than the price of the online freight platform; the driver expresses his dissatisfaction with the user in a bad tone...
With the rise of emerging online freight forwarding platforms, some problems were immediately exposed.
Are there problems with the supervision of online freight forwarding platforms?
How should the management of the drivers of the online freight forwarding platform be carried out?
Experts interviewed by a reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" believe that online freight platforms such as Huolala are not only different from traditional moving companies, but also different from Internet passenger transportation platforms such as Didi Dache. At present, they still lack adequate security measures and platform risk management and control. .
Among them, the management of drivers should be regarded as an important link.
Experts suggest that the online freight forwarding platform, a new model that integrates "Internet + passenger transportation + logistics", has gone beyond the legal regulation of the traditional logistics industry or passenger transportation industry. It is necessary to add relevant legislation to solve the current Internet background. The issue of this issue should be included in the scope of legal adjustment to protect the legitimate rights and interests of users.
Users are threatened by drivers when they move
Uncontrollable risks of online freight platforms
"I'm going to kill you! Don't think about peace in your life, I will give you my life!"
Weibo user @野路子小徐 once used a certain online freight platform when moving. Due to the poor attitude of the driver, failure to complete all the moving requirements, and multiple changes to the service price, he gave the driver a bad review on the platform. Two days after I received a call from the driver, he said that the bad review made her unable to take orders and threatened her to delete the bad review immediately.
Ms. Fan, 29, has had a similar experience.
In May 2020, Ms. Fan rented another room with a friend due to the expiration of the house lease. On the day of moving, she ordered a van through an online freight forwarding platform.
On the day of moving, Ms. Fan and her friends arranged all the things to be moved early and placed them in the lobby on the first floor of the residential building, waiting for the driver to come.
Seeing the appointed time, the driver still did not come.
Calling the driver, the driver said that something went wrong on the previous order and that he had to arrive later, "I have been waiting for nearly an hour."
After the driver came, Ms. Fan ran into trouble again.
Because when making an appointment on the online freight forwarding platform, Ms. Fan checked that there is no need for the driver to help carry it, so the driver directly told them "to move into the car by yourself, there will be a fine for overtime", and she does not provide transportation tools, and she returns to the driver's seat to rest. went.
After Ms. Fan and her friends tried to put everything in the car, after over half an hour, the driver clearly told them to pay 40 yuan more.
On the way to the new home, the driver told Ms. Fan about his last order: "A young man moved, and the price was agreed upon, but it was too expensive when he arrived. How can I get used to his temper, I slapped him with a slap in the face. Now, (look at him) give me a cross again."
After arriving at the destination, Ms. Fan and her friend originally planned to move by themselves, but after being told by the driver that they would charge more for overtime, they decided to directly pay the driver for help.
"In the beginning, he said that the price of moving upstairs was 300 yuan. We felt that the price was too high because the elevator was directly accessible from where we lived. In the end, the price was 200 yuan." Ms. Fan said, "The driver also intentionally or unintentionally during the move. Inquiring about our age, work situation and other information makes people feel scared."
Ms. Fan bluntly said that the family was struggling to move: "The basic cost plus various additional charges cost a total of more than 300 yuan. Later, I chose the same route on the platform and checked the removal service and found that the platform price was only a little over 200 yuan, and we had 240 yuan was transferred directly to the driver’s personal account."
In the death of a Hunanese girl who jumped out of a window from a cargo truck, according to a police report, the driver Zhou Mochun had "urged" the car several times, changed the route without authorization during the subsequent driving, and made the request twice in the car. After the vehicle yaws, "express dissatisfaction with the car in a bad tone", ignore the behavior when the car asks to stop, etc.
In response to the driver problems exposed by online freight forwarding platforms such as Huolala, Professor Ren Chao of East China University of Political Science and Law said in an interview with a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily that although Huolala is an online freight service provider, The location provided by the co-pilot's office for people and goods to travel together also gives it the characteristics of online car-hailing. The goods may be lost and the accompanying persons are also at risk for personal safety.
"More serious than travel risks, more private information such as the user's phone number, home address, and personal situation is exposed to freight drivers. In the absence of adequate security measures and platform risk management and control, some drivers may use platform information to arbitrarily increase prices. , Threats, etc., and even engage in illegal and criminal activities."
The operating model is different from online car-hailing
Drivers charge extra to disrupt the market
A reporter from the "Rule of Law" inquired on Huolala's official website and found that its profile claimed to be an Internet logistics mall, providing intra-city/inter-city freight services, covering a variety of models from vans to 13-meter trucks. Users "one-click calls" and drivers grab real-time calls. single.
In the "Software Use Information Service Agreement" that must be agreed when registering as a driver, Huolala clearly stipulates that Huolala only provides neutral and independent third-party information intermediary services for transportation service providers and transportation service demanders.
The driver agrees and acknowledges that Huolala is not the driver’s agent or the transportation service demander’s agent, is not the demander or provider of transportation services, nor is it a party to a contract to hire a driver or a contract to hire a participating vehicle, nor does it have any relationship with the driver. There is any affiliation, employment, partnership, joint venture or other relationship.
According to public reports, the registration threshold for online freight platform personnel such as Huolala and Kuaigou Taxi is low.
Driver registration does not impose restrictions on driving experience, educational background, and whether you are the owner of the car, and does not require a qualification certificate.
The “offline training” of the freight platform is very short, and the training content mainly focuses on teaching drivers how to take orders.
Ren Chao believes that both online freight platforms and online car-hailing platforms are Internet platforms engaged in the transportation field, but they are different in terms of functions, charges, and supervision.
The online car-hailing platform is a “one-stop” travel platform that covers multiple services such as taxis, special cars, express cars, ride-hailing, and on-demand driving. The online-hailing freight platform is engaged in O2O (online-to-offline) intra-city, real-time , The "Internet + passenger transportation + logistics" enterprise of the whole vehicle freight business, that is, the online car-hailing platform is a taxi-hailing platform for people to travel, and the online-hailing freight platform is a taxi-hailing platform mainly for cargo transportation.
In terms of thresholds, government departments have a clear regulatory attitude towards online car-hailing, so the threshold is relatively high. However, government departments' supervision of online-hailing freight platforms such as Huolala is not very strict.
Zhu Wei, associate professor of China University of Political Science and Law and vice president of the Beijing Law Society’s E-commerce Rule of Law Research Association, said in an interview with a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily that, for consumers, the transportation behavior of online freight forwarding platforms like Huolala, Whether it is only for the purpose of soliciting goods, or whether it can solicit goods or attract people, the nature is actually not clear.
“In practice, I’ve seen friends around me, because they couldn’t get a taxi at the airport, they looked for a cargo truck to pull their luggage, and then escorted their luggage on their own. Therefore, when people use these online freight forwarding platforms, they often use it as A phenomenon of passenger transportation."
"But the business model of platforms such as Huolala and the clear car-hailing platform of Didi are not the same." Zhu Wei said that every order of car-hailing platforms such as Didi requires a commission.
On the other hand, online freight platforms such as Huolala and Kuaigou Taxi do not charge a percentage for each order. Instead, the driver pays a fixed amount of money to the platform every month, and the driver earns his own money.
"Therefore, there are often cases where the driver charges additional fees when offline, such as helping you move things, asking for money, and the entire market is rather chaotic."
Zhu Wei believes that from this business model, the platform is only a network service provider, and the coefficient of its security obligations is relatively low. It is in "weak management" and there are indeed difficulties in driver management.
The nature of emerging modes of transport is unknown
Need to introduce regulations for categorized management
"But the security responsibility of the platform should not be downplayed. Security issues are issues that all new Internet formats need to face together. No matter what the level of development, security is a shortcoming. If security issues do not go up, there will be no other developments. Meaningful.” Zhu Wei said that the online freight forwarding platform must assume corresponding social responsibilities and implement the safety guarantee obligations for passengers into the normal operation process.
Regarding the safety supervision of online freight platforms such as Huolala, especially its driver management, experts have provided suggestions from different angles.
Zhu Wei believes that the situation of Huolala, an online freight platform, is more complicated.
"Like the Civil Code, there are provisions on freight contracts and passenger transport contracts. However, it is hard to say what kind of contract this type of transportation belongs to. Similarly, we currently have laws and regulations related to the logistics industry, and there are also related laws and regulations on passenger transportation, but The relevant departments have not yet clarified which regulations should be followed in the situation of both pulling people and pulling goods."
Zhu Wei suggested that the Ministry of Transport and relevant management departments should identify its nature as soon as possible, classify it, and issue targeted regulations and standards for classification management in the future.
Ren Chao also put forward his own suggestions. First, we must solve the problem of entry barriers. The current online freight platform personnel registration threshold is relatively low. We should refer to the management experience of the online passenger transport platform to require drivers to obtain a qualification certificate and conduct operational standards for drivers. , Relevant laws and regulations and other content training.
The platform setting system should require users and drivers to fill in relevant information in the actual operation process to ensure that there is corresponding data support in the event of disputes between the two parties.
At the same time, safety management measures should be strengthened to rectify irregular drivers and vehicles, provide users with emergency alarm plans, provide pre-treatment plans for users' possible risks in the freight process, and implement platform responsibilities.
Zhu Wei said frankly that we should attach importance to the "credit management" of drivers.
The platform should improve the complaint mechanism, and punish drivers to varying degrees according to the severity of user feedback.
"If it is a serious complaint involving sexual harassment, threats of violence, etc., it must be blocked or even cancelled. If necessary, you should actively cooperate with passengers to seek legal help. Of course, a very important point is to pay attention to the complainant and the specific complaint information. privacy protection."
Ren Chao said that it is also necessary to strengthen the management mechanism for dispute resolution that arises in the operation process. For example, when a customer and a driver have conflicts over overloading, handling, waiting, and distance, the platform should resolve it, and ensure that it is guaranteed by pre-regulation and post-penalty. The legitimate rights and interests of users.
"The platform not only assumes the role of an'information intermediary', but also assumes the responsibility of platform supervision." Ren Chao believes that the online freight forwarding platform should manage drivers and operating vehicles, restrict qualifications, and provide service quality and professional ethics for employees. Training, improve rules and regulations, clarify punishment measures, determine the main responsibility, and reduce safety risks.