Gray area in the "cargo pull" accident: can freight vehicles carry people? Does the platform need to take responsibility?
Reporter | Jun Tang
Recently, a 23-year-old girl jumped to her death while renting a cargo pull van, pushing the cargo pull platform to the forefront.
Cargo Lala is the head enterprise in the field of freight transportation in the same city. Many people rent cars through cargo Lala when moving or transporting large items. Although the cargo Lala provides truck rental service, in order to look after the goods and facilitate travel, the owner usually follows the car to the destination, and the cargo Lala also provides the option of following the car on the order page. There are even some consumers who can’t get a taxi online during the rush hour, and they will ask the cargo girl to send themselves to their destination, and jokingly call "goods are people."
According to the Road Traffic Safety Law, freight motor vehicles are prohibited from carrying passengers. Then, can vehicles that provide freight services through the cargo pull platform carry people when transporting goods? If there is an accident that harms personal safety during transportation, should the cargo pulling platform bear the responsibility?
On this issue, the interface journalist left a message on the website of the Ministry of Transport as a public. The Ministry of Communications replied: The Road Traffic Safety Law stipulates that freight motor vehicles are prohibited from carrying passengers; If a freight motor vehicle needs to carry operators, it shall set up safety measures to protect the operators.
In other words, as an attached operator, you can take a freight vehicle, but the definition of an attached operator is not clear.
Regarding the stipulation that "freight motor vehicles are prohibited from carrying passengers", the interface journalist also consulted the public security traffic control department. The staff said that whether the truck carries passengers depends on whether the passenger fee is charged. If no fee is charged, it is not illegal to carry passengers, as long as it is not overloaded.
Consumers only need to pay the freight when placing an order at the cargo terminal, and there is no extra charge for following the car. From this point of view, the cargo pulling platform and drivers did not provide passenger service, so it is theoretically not illegal for trucks to carry passengers. However, if consumers don’t need to transport goods, they just use the cargo trolley as a network car, which violates the regulation of "no cargo motor vehicles carrying passengers".
It should be noted that if there is an accident that hurts personal safety during driving, consumers will not be able to get insurance compensation.
According to the requirements of the Regulations on Road Transportation, passenger transport operators should take out carrier liability insurance for passengers, so all passenger transport services, including online car service, will theoretically buy insurance for passengers. Freight vehicles do not need to buy such insurance because they do not carry passengers.
Interface news learned from the customer service office of cargo Lala that the cargo Lala platform did not buy insurance for the car followers, so unless the driver or consumer buys additional insurance himself, it is impossible to get compensation for the accident.
There have been precedents for how to divide the responsibilities of all parties in the event of an accident on the way between the shipper and the truck.
According to a judgment issued by China Judgment Document Network on December 31, 2020, in November 2018, the consumer Wang Long hired a cargo truck to deliver goods, and a traffic accident occurred on the way with the car because the driver did not drive properly, which caused Wang Long to be injured.
The transportation department decided that the driver of the cargo truck should be fully responsible for the accident, so Wang Long asked the cargo truck company to bear joint and several liability for compensation.
There are two main points of controversy in this case. First, what kind of legal relationship is formed between the cargo girl and the driver; The second is whether the cargo Lala should bear legal responsibility for the personal injury suffered by Wang lung on the way to the car.
Regarding the relationship between the platform and the driver, Wang Long advocated that the platform is the operator of freight behavior, while the court held that the cargo lesbian is only the intermediary service provider of cargo transportation information.
With regard to the liability of the platform, the court held that the possibility of the operator accompanying the vehicle could not be ruled out in freight transportation, and the vehicle attendant had the right to claim relevant compensation from the platform.
In this case, the driver did not have the corresponding freight business qualification and vehicle operation license. The E-commerce Law of the People’s Republic of China stipulates that the operators of e-commerce platforms have failed to fulfill the obligation to review the qualifications of the operators in the platforms, or have failed to fulfill the obligation to ensure the safety of consumers, causing damage to consumers, and shall bear corresponding responsibilities according to law.
The court held that the cargo pulling company should bear supplementary responsibility for the personal injury of the car-follower because it violated the obligations of good faith intermediation and reporting, and failed to fulfill the obligations of safety guarantee and qualification examination.
Supplementary liability means that when the property of the responsible person is insufficient, the relevant person or unit will make supplementary commitment. In this case, the main responsible person is the driver, and the court ruled that the cargo girl should bear 50% of the driver’s unpaid obligations as a supplementary responsibility.
Since 2019, ordinary freight vehicles with a total mass of 4.5 tons or less no longer need the general freight qualification certificate and vehicle operation certificate, and the platform no longer needs to review the qualifications of these vehicles and personnel. However, for trucks over 4.5 tons, they still need professional qualifications to register.
The incident of "a woman jumping to death by a cargo girl" uncovered not only the management loopholes of the cargo girl, but also the safety problems of the whole freight industry in the same city.
It is inevitable to follow the car. At present, the cargo girl has put forward rectification measures, including increasing mandatory recording and expanding the deployment of safety equipment. The effect needs further observation. Other freight companies in the same city should also check for leaks and fill gaps to avoid similar security incidents from happening again.


