Recently, the news that "the pilot of car-free carrier is expected to start" has caused quite a stir in the industry. It is reported that the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission are examining and approving the relevant documents to start the pilot work of car-free carriers, and the car-free carriers that have been discussed for many years are really coming!

The pilot launch means that the Ministry of Transport will issue relevant pilot documents to the transportation departments of all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China to lead the pilot work of car-free carriers in this region. The leading role of the pilot work of car-free carriers is mainly in the transportation departments of provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. Enterprises interested in being included in the pilot can apply to the corresponding departments responsible for the work. After screening and auditing, three enterprises are finally selected to be included in the first batch of pilot lists and reported to the Ministry of Communications for unified filing. Car-free carriers who enter the pilot list will get the "identity card" of non-means-of-transport carriers and can pay VAT at 11%.

In the document No.36 of VAT reform issued by the Ministry of Finance and State Taxation Administration of The People's Republic of China, freight forwarding services are divided into non-means of transport services and freight forwarding services for the first time. It is clearly pointed out in the document that value-added tax is paid according to transportation services for non-means of transport services. As a result, the status of carrier without means of transport in tax law has been clarified for the first time.

I. What is a car-free carrier?

"Non-vehicle-driving carrier" is an extension of non-vehicle-driving carrier on land, which evolved from the term track broker in the United States. "Car-free carrier" refers to an individual or unit engaged in the transportation of goods without owning a vehicle. "Car-free carrier" has a dual identity. For a real shipper, it is the carrier; But for the actual carrier, it is also the shipper. "Car-free carrier" generally does not engage in specific transportation business, but only engages in transportation organization, cargo distribution, transportation mode and logistics transportation route selection, etc. Its income source is mainly the freight difference caused by large-scale "wholesale" transportation, and it achieves the goal of win-win for many parties through effective integration of resources and innovative operation of diversified business forms. It generally does not engage in specific transportation business and adopts light asset operation.

Second, car-free carriers and freight forwarders

There are both connections and differences between them. Judging from the relationship between them, they are the same in essence, function, asset purchase requirements and profit model. "Car-free carrier" and "freight forwarder" are both transportation intermediary organizations, and they both play the role of organizers in the whole transportation process. Both of them are asset-light strategy, and they don't need to buy vehicles specially. Moreover, both of them make profits by using information asymmetry and charge "information resource fees". However, there are great differences between "car-free carrier" and "freight forwarder".

First of all, the legal status is different. "Car-free carrier" belongs to the category of carrier, and its business activity is to accept the goods as a carrier, entrust the carrier as a shipper, issue its own bill of lading, and be responsible for the safety of the goods. In the case that both the "car-free carrier" and the actual carrier are liable for the loss of the goods, they should bear joint liability; The freight forwarder is the person entrusted by the consignor to handle the cargo transportation on behalf of the consignor, belonging to the category of agent. Its business activities are to handle the business of booking shipping space and customs declaration on behalf of the consignor, and it is not responsible for the safe transportation of goods.

Second, the identity is different. Although both of them are intermediary organizations, "car-free carrier" is a form of business between intermediary organizations and actual carriers, which has both common characteristics. The "car-free carrier" has a supporting relationship with the shipper, and the consignee is the relationship between the issuer and the holder of the bill of lading. That is, for the shipper, he is the carrier; For the actual carrier, he is the shipper. Freight forwarders are entrusted by others to handle service affairs. They have nothing to do with the shipper and the consignor, but only assume the role of introducer between the shipper and the consignee.

Third, the nature of fees is different. "Car-free carrier" collects freight from the owner as a carrier. In the whole transportation process, the "car-free carrier" needs to entrust the actual carrier to complete the transportation and pay the freight to earn the freight difference between the two; Freight forwarders charge service agency fees. Therefore, whether to earn the freight difference is an important basis for judging whether the operator undertakes the car-free transportation business.

Fourth, the conditions for establishment and the order of examination and approval procedures are different. According to the regulations, China implements the examination and approval system for the establishment of freight forwarding enterprises, and makes strict requirements on the scale of registered capital. The minimum registered capital of an international land freight forwarding business or international express delivery business is RMB 2 million. If a freight forwarding enterprise wants to set up branches, it shall increase its registered capital by 500,000 yuan for each branch. However, it is widely rumored that the "car-free carrier" pilot will be launched soon, and the reporting enterprises can apply to the corresponding departments responsible for this work. After screening and auditing, they are finally selected and included in the first batch of pilot lists, and reported to the Ministry for unified filing.

3. Who are the car-free carriers?

First, information platform enterprises. The development of information technology has given all kinds of Internet companies focusing on a certain field the opportunity to develop car-free carrier business. In recent years, various car-goods matching platforms, supply chain management platforms and logistics information trading platforms in the industry have more or less intervened in the car-free carrier business from different angles. Their advantages lie in capital and technology, and their disadvantages lie in the lack of resources for the sustainable development of the industry needed for long-term business in the freight industry.

Secondly, traditional freight forwarding enterprises. Due to the constant adjustment of industry policies, the days of traditional freight forwarding enterprises are influenced by new policies such as the pilot reform of the camp, which makes traditional freight forwarding enterprises look for new ways of development. Car-free carriers are undoubtedly an alternative road. At present, there are many cases of successful transformation of traditional freight forwarding, but at the same time, mixed situations can be seen.

Third, the truck intelligent technology provider. With the improvement of vehicle manufacturing technology, truck manufacturers, specialized freight technology providers, and freight intelligent system manufacturing institutions have all put forward the capacity system of real-time dispatching, vehicle and cargo networking, vehicle safety and online trading through technology, such as bus communication technology provided by big brands such as Hongyan, Futian and Shaanxi Automobile, which is undoubtedly a value-added service for car owners.

Fourth, third-party logistics enterprises. At present, typical third-party logistics enterprises in China are learning from Robinson of the United States, learning from his idea of "non-vessel carrier", transforming to "non-vehicle carrier", giving up their own transport vehicles, establishing an information system that integrates social carriers, gathering a large amount of demand information first, learning from "the first person to eat crabs", mastering the right to speak on service pricing, and occupying the market of non-vehicle carriers.

Fifth, the logistics park. In September 2015, the General Office of the State Council officially issued the Opinions on Promoting Online and Offline Interaction and Accelerating the Innovation, Development, Transformation and Upgrading of Commercial Circulation, which indicated that car-free enterprises engaged in freight mode were officially recognized and supported by policies in China. The the State Council executive meeting held on April 6th this year proposed to build a business public service cloud platform to allow car-free enterprises to engage in freight transportation. This has given the transformation of car-free carriers in logistics parks the wings to take off.

Finally, leading freight enterprises. Leading by leading freight enterprises and involving many small and medium-sized enterprises, the situation of high industry concentration, standardized freight market and flexible small and medium-sized enterprises has always been the direction of government departments and industry associations to promote industry transformation and upgrading, supply-side reform, and organically combine with Internet and capital. In China, under the actual situation of tight supply information and excessive vehicle information, leading freight enterprises relying on service brands and industry influence can and should become the backbone of car-free carriers.

Fourth, the advantages of car-free carriers

For a long time, China's road freight industry has been labeled as "more, smaller and scattered". According to incomplete statistics, there are 30 million truck drivers in China, 95% of whom are self-employed. This group is often limited to face-to-face acquaintance trading mode, and the matching efficiency between goods and cars is not high, and the final result is that the logistics cost is too high.

As a traditional industry, logistics is a hierarchical outsourcing world, and general factories will be outsourced to well-known logistics companies to ensure freight safety and efficiency. Logistics companies will subcontract the goods to different trunk logistics companies, which will then subcontract them to various branch logistics companies and finally deliver them to private car owners. Carrying out the pilot project of allowing car-free enterprises to engage in freight transportation will promote the structural adjustment of circulation industry and release the circulation potential.

"The logistics industry is a compound service industry integrating transportation, warehousing, freight forwarding, information and other industries. Although China's logistics industry has entered a new stage of transformation and upgrading, the overall level of logistics industry development is still not high, the development mode is relatively extensive, and there are still obvious shortcomings in the industry. " Tan Yunming, a professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics, said that the pilot project of allowing car-free enterprises to engage in freight transportation will fully mobilize the enthusiasm of social investment, promote the structural adjustment of the circulation industry, maximize the circulation potential and reduce the circulation cost, which is of great significance to improving the competitiveness of the national economy.

Five, the follow-up related tax problems need to be solved urgently.

The the State Council executive meeting held on April 6th this year proposed to build a business public service cloud platform to allow car-free enterprises to engage in freight transportation. Car-free carriers who enter the pilot list will get the "identity card" of carriers without means of transport. After obtaining this status, enterprises can pay value-added tax according to transportation services. At this point, it will become history that car-free carriers cannot issue 11% VAT invoices.

Under the background of favorable policies, which kind of enterprises are most suitable for developing the car-free carrier model? Who can get the license of car-free carrier first? Who can open China's Robinson dream? A series of problems have also become the focus of many enterprises.

Wang Jian, the rotating president of the China Federation of Things Road Freight Branch, believes that at present, there is strong support for the development of car-free carriers from the central government to the local government. In the past, the tax law did not fundamentally change the various tax rates of the logistics industry (11%, 6% and 3%), and the integrated operation of transportation, warehousing and freight forwarding must be clearly divided in taxation, otherwise the tax will be levied from a high level. The provisions of the reform of the camp also provide a legal basis for decoupling the billing amount from the tonnage. Under the influence of this policy, some companies that originally registered as freight forwarders or spun off their means of transport to become freight forwarders, hoping to use the original policy, will be greatly affected. Now, it will become history for some special-line LTL companies and three-party logistics companies not to provide 11% VAT invoices because they have no means of transportation.

Affected by this policy, some companies that can provide transportation organization services without means of transportation will benefit from it. They can issue an 11% invoice properly. Some air agents and railway agents will also be required to pay 11% value-added tax, and the problem that the input that troubled them in the past exceeded the output will be solved, and the companies that get their services will get more deductions. The resulting problem is whether and how to control the amount of invoicing.

In this regard, Wang Jian believes that it is still necessary to control the issue of invoicing, otherwise it will bring a lot of fake tickets. If there is a means of transport, it should be controlled according to the tonnage of the means of transport. If there is no means of transport, the billing amount should be controlled according to the transportation cost provided by the supplier. From a larger perspective, it is also worth discussing whether the transportation business without means of transport needs administrative license and whether it should also obtain road transportation license.

In Wang Jian's view, the transportation business without means of transport still needs a certain administrative license, and it cannot be simply released. When the car-free carrier's billing problem is solved, how to identify the cost and input of the car-free carrier is a big problem. If the entrusted party of the car-free carrier can issue invoices, this is certainly not a problem, but the status quo in China is that more than 80% of the drivers are self-employed, and it is obviously unreasonable for the car-free carrier to use the fuel tickets and road and bridge tickets of the individual drivers to offset the cost and input. Individual drivers can't provide invoices, so whether the car-free carrier can issue invoices for individual drivers has become the biggest suspense of this topic.

(Source: Truck House)