Come on, get off: couriers may be banned from working on personal mopeds

Couriers may be prohibited from delivering orders on personal electric scooters and electric scooters, allowing them to use only rental equipment or equipment provided by the delivery services themselves. This will strengthen control over the deliverers, experts say. This and other proposals aimed at reducing accidents involving couriers were discussed at a round table in the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. The details are in the Izvestia article.

"It's easier to ask them"

In Russia, there are about 1.5 million couriers delivering orders on electric bicycles. This was announced by Alexander Mityukov, President of the Association of Transport, Logistics, Postal and Courier Companies MAX, at a round table in the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. In Moscow alone, more than 50,000 people are involved in this area, and about 70% of them use personal equipment to deliver orders.

— It is necessary to develop and expand the electric scooter sharing fleets used by delivery couriers. They are easier to control from the point of view of compliance with the technical requirements for such equipment, it is easier to ask them. At the same time, couriers should gradually abandon the use of personal equipment," he said.

Rolling electric scooters for delivery workers should be equipped with telematics, which, by analogy with kicksharing scooters, allows them to limit their maximum speed, can automatically reduce it in the so-called "slow" zones, and is capable of detecting certain violations committed by the user, Alexander Mityukov believes. At the same time, he considers it inappropriate to introduce additional capacity restrictions for such equipment.

— It should be understood that the courier is traveling on an electric scooter with cargo. In some situations, for example, when driving uphill, sometimes even our 250 watt limit is not enough," he noted.

In Russia, there are two GOST standards at once concerning the equipment used by couriers of delivery services, said Denis Zagarin, Deputy General Director, head of the testing center of FSUE NAMI. They specify the requirements for the power, weight, maximum speed, and lighting technology of such devices. However, these requirements are voluntary. In order for them to become mandatory, these documents must have a different legal status, Denis Zagarin noted.

Delivery services should adopt the experience of kicksharing companies regarding user control, said Tatyana Gorovaya, chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation.

The regional issue

The operation of electric motor vehicles by couriers is not clearly seasonal, said the head of the Scientific Center for Road Safety (NCBDD) Russian Interior Ministry Police Colonel Dmitry Mitroshin. At the same time, the impact of this technique on accidents in general is relatively small, he noted. So, according to the results of last year, a total of 2,275 road accidents involving SIM were recorded in the country, in which 68 people were killed and 3,379 injured, said the head of the NC BDD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

— At the federal level, special attention has been paid to the issues of SIM operation in the Road Safety Strategy adopted last year. There is an approved roadmap for the regulatory regulation of SIM. Now it is necessary to resolve these issues at the regional and municipal levels," Dmitry Mitroshin said.

Nikolay Cherdnichenko, Acting Deputy Director of the Department of State Policy in the field of automobile and urban passenger transport of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, agrees with him. Federal legislation is the starting point, concrete steps should be taken already "on the ground," he believes.

— There are tools for point regulation of the SIM sphere and delivery services. Perhaps, where there are narrow sidewalks or roads, bans on the movement of this equipment are necessary, somewhere special "slow" zones are required - these decisions should be made at the regional level and even municipalities, — said Nikolay Cherdnichenko.

Balance of interests

There is a fundamental difference between ordinary SIM users and couriers of delivery services, emphasizes Alexander Kholodov, Deputy chairman of the commission of the Russian Public Chamber for cooperation with the Public Information Company.

— A simple person goes wherever he wants on a SIM card, a delivery courier goes wherever he is told. As a result, if an ordinary user can choose a route where there is the necessary infrastructure, then the courier, when completing the order, takes the shortest route," explained Alexander Kholodov.

There is clearly a conflict of interest in the work of delivery couriers: on the one hand, they must comply with safety requirements, on the other, they need to deliver the order on time, said Valery Soldunov, a member of the civic chamber. As a result, they often ignore traffic regulations in pursuit of orders, he believes.

To avoid this, it is necessary to prescribe fines or coefficients in contracts between couriers and delivery services that reduce premiums for deliverers for violations committed by them, says Maxim Belugin, deputy chairman of the All-Russian Society for Motorists.

— This will make it economically unprofitable to pursue a large number of completed orders. In addition, the applications used by couriers need to be improved so that they build a delivery route not along the shortest route, but where there is the necessary infrastructure for the movement of SIM or electromopeds, he is sure.

Social function

Legal regulation and potential restrictions for delivery couriers should be taken into account their important role in the life of modern cities, says Ksenia Erdman, member of the Public Council at the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, director of the Association of Micromobility. Couriers completed more than 250 million deliveries in Moscow alone last year, she noted.

— This is an important social function that has become a separate area of the economy. Bans and drastic restrictions are impossible here," she stressed.

According to her, Moscow, where delivery services have been operating for a long time, has accumulated vast experience both in regulating the activities of couriers and in monitoring their work, including with the help of cameras and artificial intelligence. This experience should be adopted by other regions of the country, Ksenia Erdman is sure.