The real-name system will be fully covered within the year, and the packaging will be transformed to green. The "Interim Regulations on Express Delivery" has many tricks--

Are you satisfied with the new express delivery regulations? (People's Livelihood View)

The "Interim Regulations on Express Delivery" will be officially implemented on May 1. Last year, China's express delivery business reached 40.06 billion pieces, which can be called a "express delivery power". As China's first law and regulation for the express delivery industry, the "Regulations" are not only closely related to thousands of households, but also related to the healthy development of the logistics industry.

Should couriers be fined for putting express parcels into express lockers without authorization and refusing to deliver to the door? With the official implementation of the real-name system for delivery, who will guarantee the security of consumers' personal information? What new measures are there to curb excessive packaging and ensure the green development of the industry? Has the "Regulations" fully responded to these issues of concern to everyone? Our reporter will find out for you.

--Editor

Express lockers are not "hands-off lockers"

If express parcels are placed in express lockers without consent, consumers can refuse to receive the parcels

"Since the community installed smart express lockers, couriers often put parcels in them and leave it at that, and door-to-door delivery services are becoming less and less." Xia Xiaoqi, a resident of Huilongguan Community in Changping District, Beijing, complained to reporters that the courier asked her to carry heavy goods such as baby beds and playpens up the stairs by herself.

And the fact that some companies' express lockers have begun to charge "overtime fees" has aroused public dissatisfaction. Monitoring by the Public Opinion Monitoring Room of China Postal Express News Agency shows that in March this year alone, consumers in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Hefei, Ganzhou and Jiujiang have concentrated and strongly reflected the service problems of smart express lockers. For example, "express delivery cannot be fast without delivering", "express delivery cabinets are not "hands-off cabinets" nor "cash cabinets", "express delivery becoming "quick pickup" is an infringement of consumer rights"...

Does the "Interim Regulations on Express Delivery" make provisions for these issues?

Liu Junhai, a professor at the School of Law of Renmin University of China, said that according to the "Regulations", companies engaged in express delivery business shall deliver express parcels to the agreed receiving address, the recipient or the recipient's designated agent, and inform the recipient or the agent to inspect and accept the parcel in person. Therefore, when placing express parcels in express delivery cabinets, the consent of consumers must be sought. If consumers disagree, the promise of "express delivery to home" should be fulfilled. Even if they are placed in express delivery cabinets, the obligation to inform must be fulfilled, rather than just putting them in the express delivery cabinet and walking away.

"If the express delivery cabinet is delivered without permission, consumers can refuse to pick up the parcel and require the express delivery company to deliver the parcel directly to consumers." Liu Junhai added.

A member of the drafting group of the Regulations further explained to reporters that "express delivery" belongs to "mailing". According to the meaning of mailing stipulated in Article 84, paragraph 2 of the Postal Law, express mail should be "delivered by name and address". "This is not only the provisions of the Regulations, but also involves the issue of compliance with superior laws." The member said that without the consent of the user, the enterprise cannot use other methods such as delivery by address or user collection, and must deliver to both the "name" and the "address".

So, if the user agrees that the courier brother will put the express in the express cabinet, is it reasonable to charge the consumer an "overtime fee"?

"If the community express cabinet is built by the express company, no fees should be charged, because this is part of the service purchased by the consumer. More importantly, the express industry has improved efficiency and expanded its business through smart express cabinets, and there is no need to compete with consumers for profits. Even if the express cabinet comes from a third-party platform, if a fee is to be charged, the consumer's consent should be obtained first." Liu Junhai said.

However, the operator of the express cabinet believes that as a basic convenience service facility in the community, the express cabinet is not purely public welfare in nature. Based on its potential market value, enterprises are laying out market behaviors, and are gradually becoming an important supplement to urban terminal delivery services. To maintain this mode of operation, it is necessary to reduce the losses of express locker operators, and charging is also a last resort.

In this regard, many consumers call for the introduction of relevant industry standards as soon as possible to clarify the collection standards of "overtime fees" for express lockers, and reduce the friction and conflicts that may arise between express companies, express locker companies, and customers. The reporter learned from the State Post Bureau that the relevant management measures for express lockers are currently being formulated and are expected to be released in the first half of this year.

In addition, the Regulations also made relevant provisions on the "pain points" of industry services such as violent sorting, private unpacking of packages, and loss of express mail. For example, according to the Regulations, if the legitimate rights and interests of users are damaged due to delays, loss, damage, or shortage of contents of express mail, users can file claims with express companies. At the same time, the Regulations also stipulate that companies should standardize operations to prevent damage to express mail.

The real-name system for express delivery is officially implemented

About 100 million pieces are collected and sent under real name every day, accounting for 83% of the daily express delivery business volume, and the remaining 17% will be fully covered within the year

With the formal implementation of the "Regulations", the real-name collection and delivery of express delivery is also clarified in the form of regulations. In the future, if the sender refuses to provide identity information or provides false identity information, he shall not send parcels.

Why should the real-name system be implemented? "Ensuring the safety of delivery is the primary purpose. Whether it is accommodation or traveling by high-speed rail or airplane, you must show your identity document, and the same is true for express delivery." A relevant person in charge of the State Post Bureau said.

Secondly, real-name collection and delivery also embodies the principle of honesty and trustworthiness. It is understood that the express delivery waybill is a contract. The sender and the express company sign a contract. The name of the express company should be real, and the name of the sender should also be real.

In real life, the sender may be a natural person or an organization. If the unit sends the parcel, how is the real-name system implemented? The Regulations stipulate that when a sender sends a parcel, he or she shall truthfully provide the name of the sender and the name (name) of the recipient, and the responsibility shall be assigned to the person. In other words, if a unit sends a parcel, the name of the specific person in charge must be written for traceability. The requirements for the recipient are much more flexible, and can be written as a personal name or a unit name.

If the parcel is sent by a smart express locker, how can the real-name collection and delivery be guaranteed?

A relevant person in charge of Fengchao, an express locker operator, said that in Shenzhen, Fengchao has already achieved real-name delivery of parcels in express lockers. "In Fengchao's self-service delivery system, customers complete the filling of the delivery information through the web page, and need to submit photos of the front and back of their ID cards for real-name authentication. After placing an order, when the parcel is stored in the locker, Fengchao will use the locker's high-definition camera to verify the real name of the sender. If the person who placed the order does not deliver the parcel in real name, the locker entry operation will be restricted."

When implementing real-name collection and delivery, users are most worried about the security of their personal information. Liu Junhai introduced that the Regulations regulate related issues from a legal perspective. The Regulations stipulate that if an express delivery business and its employees sell, leak or illegally provide user information learned during the express delivery service, they may be fined up to 100,000 yuan.

The real-name collection and delivery information system of the State Post Bureau's Postal Industry Security Center, Anyi Di, was launched last year. The system can provide users with a real-name QR code that is universal across the entire network and China and uniquely identifies identity information. When sending a parcel, you only need to show the QR code, and the courier can quickly scan and verify the user information to prevent the risk of identity information leakage.

Since last year's "Double 11", companies such as SF Express have promoted privacy labels. On the privacy label, the recipient's name and phone number are hidden, and can only be obtained when the courier scans the barcode with a bar gun, which largely protects the user's personal information security.

Data shows that there are currently 153 cities in China that have piloted real-name delivery, with about 100 million pieces of real-name collection and delivery every day, accounting for 83% of the daily express delivery business volume. Ma Junsheng, director of the State Post Bureau, said at the "Minister's Channel" of this year's two sessions that full coverage of the remaining 17% will be achieved within the year.

Transformation of packaging to green and environmental protection

The plastic bags currently used for packaging take 200 years to degrade under natural conditions

According to statistics, China's express delivery volume in 2016 was 31.35 billion pieces, consuming a total of about 3.2 billion woven bags, about 6.8 billion plastic bags, 3.7 billion packaging boxes, and 330 million rolls of tape. As the industry strictly controls costs, most of the plastic packaging used in express delivery is non-degradable and low-quality plastic products, which has a serious impact on the environment. This "Regulations" points out the direction of green development for the industry, encourages enterprises and senders to use degradable and reusable environmentally friendly packaging materials, and encourages enterprises to take measures to recycle express packaging materials to achieve the reduction and reuse of packaging materials.

Zhao Xiaomin, an expert in the express delivery industry, said that the current "Regulations" only emphasize the need to establish a green production and consumption system from a guiding perspective, "which is not enough. It is necessary to strengthen and refine the relevant green environmental protection requirements from the institutional perspective."

From September 1, the newly revised "Express Packaging Supplies" series of national standards will be officially implemented. The new national standard supplements and improves the original standard from three aspects: "reduction", "greening" and "recyclability".

"The new national standard strengthens the reduction requirements." Ning, executive deputy director of the Testing Center of the Postal Science Research and Planning Institute, said that on the one hand, the new national standard reduces the quantitative requirements for express envelope paper and the thickness requirements for plastic film express packaging bags; on the other hand, it no longer stipulates the selection of single and double corrugated materials for express packaging boxes, as long as the materials meet the indicators of tear resistance, edge pressure and puncture strength. At the same time, it is required that the printing of express packaging supplies should maintain the original color of the material and reduce the use of ink.

"At present, the industry has made some progress in this regard." Ba Ning said that according to the survey of the Postal Science Research and Planning Institute, the use of single corrugated boxes in the industry is gradually increasing, and the awareness of enterprises to reduce volume is gradually strengthening.

In addition, the new national standard has increased the limit requirements for heavy metals and specific substances, and for the first time clearly proposed that "biodegradable plastics should be used for express packaging bags", and correspondingly increased the requirements for the biodegradability of biodegradable plastic express packaging bags. "The plastic bags we currently use take 200 years to degrade under natural conditions, while after using biodegradable plastic express packaging bags, more than 90% can be degraded by composting in half a year. If the temperature and humidity are suitable, they can be completely degraded into carbon dioxide and water within one year. It is a truly environmentally friendly packaging bag." Ba Ning said.

"The implementation of the new national standard has the greatest impact on enterprises, which is biodegradable plastic packaging bags." Ba Ning introduced that the cost of using biodegradable plastic packaging bags may be more than twice that of existing packaging bags, which poses new challenges to cost control in the express delivery industry, and also requires consumers to raise their awareness of green environmental protection and pay more for the "environmentally friendly express delivery" that may be implemented in the future.

Ba Ning said that he hopes to eliminate low-end packaging bags and promote the greening of packaging products by raising the standards for heavy metal and specific substance limits.

However, as a recommended standard, how can the implementation rate of the new national standard be guaranteed? Jin Jinghua, director of the Policy and Regulations Department of the State Post Bureau, introduced that the bureau will cooperate with relevant departments to carry out green certification of express packaging products, and guide and support e-commerce, express companies, and consumers to use express packaging products that have passed green certification. "At the same time, we will strengthen supervision and inspection of the implementation of corporate standards, increase supervision and inspection of the quality of green express packaging products and situation reporting, incorporate express green packaging into the construction of the green product credit system, explore the establishment of a blacklist system, and promote the establishment of a joint punishment mechanism." Jin Jinghua said. (Reporter Li Xinping of this newspaper)

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