The annual inspection of vehicles is chaotic. Experts suggest that the annual inspection of motor vehicles should be socialized.
● The annual inspection system of motor vehicles has played a positive role in strengthening the safety management of motor vehicles. However, with the continuous acceleration of motorization, there are more and more shortcomings and problems exposed in the annual inspection system of motor vehicles, and the voice of socialization of annual inspection of motor vehicles has risen accordingly.
● The socialization of annual inspection can improve the neutrality and objectivity of motor vehicle safety technical inspection, and prevent technical inspection from becoming administrative management, and the government supervision department from playing the role of referee and athlete. At the same time, it can also clarify the rights, obligations and responsibilities of both parties to prevent the safety technical inspection from becoming a mere formality.
● The key to the direction of motor vehicle annual inspection system reform is to implement the spirit of "streamline administration, delegate power, strengthen regulation and improve services" reform of the central government. We can neither stick to the old ways, do not think about change, nor abandon it and let it go.
Reporter Wang Yang
Trainee reporter Bai Chuxuan
The policy of annual inspection of motor vehicles has always been concerned by car owners.
In March, 2020, great changes have taken place in the annual inspection of motor vehicles — — Motor vehicle inspection signs are electronic, and 16 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Nanjing have become pilot cities. Since June 20, the electronization of motor vehicle inspection marks has been popularized and applied throughout the country. It is understood that the electronization of motor vehicle inspection marks is an important measure in the reform of streamline administration, delegate power, strengthen regulation and improve services.
During the interview, some experts told the reporter of Legal Daily that the annual inspection system of motor vehicles has played a positive role in strengthening the safety management of motor vehicles. However, with the continuous acceleration of motorization, there are more and more shortcomings and problems exposed by the annual inspection system of motor vehicles, and the call for socialization of annual inspection of motor vehicles has arisen.
"The socialization of motor vehicle annual inspection is to turn motor vehicle safety technical inspection into a professional social service." The above-mentioned experts believe that the socialization of motor vehicle annual inspection can improve the neutrality and objectivity of motor vehicle safety technical inspection, prevent technical inspection from becoming administrative management, and make the government supervision department play the role of referee and athlete. At the same time, it can also clarify the rights, obligations and responsibilities of both parties to prevent the safety technical inspection from becoming a mere formality.
Supervise the regular inspection of vehicles
Ensure the safety of life and property
Automobile inspection is a familiar and unfamiliar industry.
The annual inspection system of motor vehicles refers to an inspection that every vehicle with official license plate and driving license must undergo once a year, which is divided into initial annual inspection and regular annual inspection. As far as the development and management of motor vehicles in China are concerned, the annual inspection system of motor vehicles can not only effectively urge motor vehicle owners to regularly inspect vehicles, but also ensure that motor vehicle owners manage, use and maintain vehicles according to law, and also provide institutional guarantee for safeguarding people’s life and property safety, public property safety and environmental protection.
On May 1, 2004, the implementation of the Road Traffic Safety Law and its implementing regulations marked that China’s public security traffic management established the motor vehicle safety technical inspection system from the legal level. Subsequently, the formulation and implementation of the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Motor Vehicle Safety Technical Inspection Institutions, the Items and Methods of Motor Vehicle Safety Technical Inspection, and other supporting regulations and standards clarified the entry conditions, qualification approval, supervision and inspection of inspection institutions, and further standardized the inspection behavior of inspection institutions.
At this point, the framework of laws, regulations and standard system for motor vehicle safety technical inspection in China has been initially established, forming a working pattern of safety technical inspection according to laws and regulations, better ensuring the safety performance of vehicles on the road and effectively preventing and reducing traffic accidents.
The "Legal Daily" reporter combed the information and learned that motor vehicle inspection has always occupied an important position in countries with more developed automobile consumption. Through long-term data comparison and analysis, Japan, the United States and the European Union have proved that regular inspection is an effective way to eliminate hidden dangers of vehicle safety in time, urge and strengthen vehicle maintenance and reduce traffic accidents.
In Japan, according to the law, the first inspection of new cars of ordinary cars is the third year after the registration of car purchase, and then every two years, among which trucks, buses and special vehicles need to be inspected every year.
In the United States, each state has different policies. For states with annual inspection requirements, the law requires car owners to ensure the safety of their vehicles and improve the safety of vehicles and pedestrians on other roads. States that have no annual inspection have neither safety inspection nor exhaust emission inspection, that is to say, there is no such thing as annual inspection of automobiles. In Europe, according to the EU traffic legislation passed in 1996, the annual inspection system in many countries is basically the same, and all member countries have to conduct annual inspections on vehicles regularly, but there are some differences in details, and each country will make appropriate arrangements according to its own situation.
In terms of specific implementation, Europe, the United States and Japan are also different. In Japan, as in China, there is a special vehicle inspection place (except Tokyo and its surrounding areas), and the vehicle inspection work will basically be authorized to some large automobile supply stores, and even some gas stations will be authorized to do it as agents in relatively small areas, but the vehicle inspection process is more complicated than in China.
Europe and the United States are similar in this respect. They don’t have a special vehicle inspection agency. In the United States, all vehicle annual inspection work is basically done by authorized car dealers or repair shops and gas stations, and the vehicle inspection process is relatively simple. There are no government-run vehicle inspection agencies in most European countries, and all vehicle inspection sites are private enterprises.
In the interview, Hu Gongqun, an expert on legislative consultation of the Standing Committee of Beijing Municipal People’s Congress, said that with the rapid economic development in China, the automobile industry has brought great pressure and challenges to the environment and traffic safety, but it will take time to develop good motor vehicle cognitive knowledge and environmental protection and safety concepts. The purpose of annual inspection of motor vehicles is to ensure road traffic safety, that is, the personal and property safety of motor vehicle drivers and others and the public property safety, as well as to control vehicle exhaust emissions and protect environmental safety. "It is very necessary for motor vehicle drivers and the whole society to inspect motor vehicles regularly to make them in a good standby or running state."
On January 14th, this year, the Ministry of Public Security held a press conference to inform the traffic control department of public security of six new reform measures to facilitate people and enterprises in 2020, including three pilot reform measures and three comprehensive reform measures, among which the electronic inspection marks of pilot motor vehicles are one.
After the implementation of this measure, car owners can issue the inspection mark electronic certificate through the national unified Internet traffic safety comprehensive service platform or the "Traffic Management 12123" mobile App. After completing the vehicle registration and inspection business, vehicles can view and download the inspection mark electronic certificate through the Internet traffic safety integrated service management platform or the "Traffic Management 12123" mobile App, and vehicles do not need to paste paper inspection marks, thus avoiding the trouble of pasting.
Barbaric binding and fraud
The annual inspection of vehicles is chaotic
On February 28th, the Statistical Communiqué on National Economic and Social Development in 2019 issued by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the number of civilian cars in China was 261.5 million at the end of last year (including 7.62 million three-wheeled cars and low-speed trucks), an increase of 21.22 million over the end of last year, of which the number of private cars was 226.35 million, an increase of 19.05 million. The number of civilian cars was 146.44 million, an increase of 11.93 million, including 137.01 million private cars, an increase of 11.12 million.
At the same time, the annual inspection system of motor vehicles based on ensuring road traffic safety has exposed many problems in actual operation. Among them, the annual inspection of bundled motor vehicles is controversial.
The so-called annual inspection of bundled motor vehicles refers to the behavior of tying the handling of traffic violation records with the annual inspection of motor vehicles. When going to the vehicle management office for the annual inspection of vehicles, the driver must deal with the violations of vehicles in the past year before passing the annual inspection.
On August 6, 2018, because the traffic police detachment failed to issue inspection marks for more than 110 motor vehicles with unprocessed illegal records, Liao, a man from Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province, sued the traffic police detachment of Fuzhou Public Security Bureau to the court, demanding that the motor vehicle be issued with the annual inspection mark according to law. On April 18, 2019, the case was pronounced in the second instance, and the court upheld the judgment of the first instance and ordered the traffic police detachment of Fuzhou Public Security Bureau to re-process Liao’s application for the inspection mark.
Xiao Dongping, a lawyer in Beijing, believes that motor vehicle violation and annual inspection, one is administrative punishment, and the other is administrative license. The former points to specific actors, while the latter points to vehicles. From the nature, the two are completely irrelevant. Untreated vehicle violations are not subject to annual inspection, because "people" punish "vehicles" for traffic violations. Rough bundled management leads to the failure of new vehicles to obtain vehicle inspection certificates, which not only deviates from the concept of the rule of law, but also undermines the authority and credibility of the rule of law.
In fact, in addition to dealing with traffic accidents and motor vehicle traffic violations as a prerequisite for issuing motor vehicle safety inspection certificates, there are other problems in the current annual inspection of motor vehicles, which have been criticized by car owners.
When the reporter of Legal Daily searched online with "annual inspection of motor vehicles" as the key word, he saw a lot of questions and discussions about "how to complain about the damage of motor vehicles caused by annual inspection", "how to avoid the violent inspection of vehicles by the inspectors" and "many failures after the annual inspection", among which Weibo’s comments and reprints of "suggesting to cancel the annual inspection of motor vehicles" reached hundreds of thousands of times.
Previously, it was exposed by the media that there was a phenomenon of "price increase package" in the annual inspection of motor vehicles in many places. In June 2019, in a motor vehicle testing center in Nanning, Guangxi, when Ms. Xu handled the annual inspection of motor vehicles, the staff directly gave her two prices for her to choose: "I will run 160 yuan myself, and I will do it for 270 yuan."
In addition, there are still some problems such as poor service attitude of testing institutions and long waiting time in line, which makes the annual inspection of motor vehicles, which is supposed to prevent vehicle risks and ensure driving safety, be questioned more and more.
On April 29, 2014, the Ministry of Public Security and the former General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine issued the Opinions on Strengthening and Improving the Annual Inspection of Motor Vehicles, stipulating that public security, quality supervision and other government departments may not set up vehicle inspection institutions, and those that have already started must be completely decoupled before the end of September.
During the interview, some experts told the reporter of Legal Daily that the road traffic safety law has defined the direction of socialization of motor vehicle safety inspection, but it has not turned it into a mandatory regulation. The so-called socialization of safety inspection is to turn motor vehicle safety technical inspection into a socialized and professional social service, with one party paying and the other providing qualified services. Both parties have equal rights and obligations and are responsible for each other. Socialization of safety inspection can improve the neutrality and objectivity of motor vehicle safety technical inspection, and prevent technical inspection from becoming administrative management, and the government supervision department from playing the role of referee and athlete. Socialization of safety inspection can also clarify the rights, obligations and responsibilities of both parties and prevent safety technical inspection from becoming a mere formality.
Previously, the case of Teng Yang, a policeman from the Traffic Police Detachment of Yichun City, Heilongjiang Province, aroused social concern. In less than three years, Teng Yang took advantage of the convenience of being stationed at the motor vehicle inspection station to handle the annual inspection of motor vehicles without being present for inspection, and successively accepted bribes of more than 2.31 million yuan, putting on an ugly drama of "greed of clerks".
On October 8, 2018, the court of second instance ruled that Teng Yang was guilty of accepting bribes, sentenced to 7 years in prison and fined 1 million yuan; His mother, Yang Kuiwu, was sentenced to 4 years in prison and fined 700,000 yuan for covering up and concealing the crime. 1.961 million yuan of Tengyang’s criminal proceeds were recovered and turned over to the state treasury, of which 790,000 yuan could be recovered from Yang Kuiwu. Zhan Mou, Cui Mou, An Mou and others related to this case were also severely punished by law for accepting bribes and bribery.
Sun Xiangqi, an associate professor at the School of Law of Beijing Jiaotong University, believes that since the safety of vehicles is a professional and technical issue, whether vehicles meet the safety standards needs to be judged by a third-party professional organization, which is the original intention of the motor vehicle safety technical inspection system.
Sun Xiangqi said that there are three problems in the current motor vehicle inspection system that should be paid attention to: First, although the law stipulates that the safety and technical inspection of motor vehicles should be socialized, it is not mandatory. Some inspection agencies still have certain interests with public security organs and technical supervision departments, and their positioning is unclear, lacking neutrality and objectivity, and some inspection agencies actually play the role of state organs. The unclear positioning of inspection institutions leads to a mere formality of inspection, and some inspection institutions even give inspection certificates as long as they pay.
Second, the responsibility of inspection agencies is not clear. Technical inspection should be a kind of social service, just like certified public accountants. If a result is produced without providing service or a false inspection result is issued, compensation should be paid for the loss caused by the wrong inspection result, so as to reflect the unity of power and responsibility.
The third is to link the vehicle safety inspection with the vehicle’s compulsory insurance. If the vehicle does not pay compulsory insurance, it will not be tested. Although this binding operation is useful, it is actually unreasonable because it is two different systems.
Vehicle annual inspection is a mere formality.
The call for reform is endless.
With the improvement of China’s economic level, the number of cars is increasing. "It is easier to buy a car than to maintain it", which may be the feeling of many people after buying a car, and the most annoying thing for everyone is the annual inspection.
A car owner in Shanghai believes that if a car is allowed to be produced, sold and used, it should be legally presumed that it meets the national environmental protection standards. Before the vehicle reaches the scrapping standard, if the vehicle can’t run normally, the maintenance organization can only use the accessories that meet the national standards, and basically there will be no abnormal emission problem. Therefore, whether the vehicle meets the environmental standards is not the obligation of the vehicle owner at all, but the problem that the state should strengthen the supervision of automobile manufacturers, maintenance agencies and oil suppliers. "Compulsory vehicle inspection is actually a false proposition and an extra-legal obligation imposed on the owner."
Relevant information shows that the market of vehicle inspection is very huge. Even according to the "average annual inspection of more than 70 million vehicles" revealed by the Ministry of Public Security and the former General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine five years ago, it takes about 100 yuan to 200 yuan for each vehicle inspection, and the annual vehicle inspection consumption in China reaches as much as 10 billion yuan.
Insiders told the reporter of Legal Daily that although the administrative organ is responsible for the transformation to the market, there are no corresponding supporting rules, and it is obviously controlled by power. The organization in charge of vehicle inspection has not undergone open competition and does not need to undertake more obligations to the state. Therefore, the biggest purpose of existing testing companies is not to maintain the safety performance of vehicles, but to pursue profits as the ultimate goal. Almost all problems encountered in the annual inspection of vehicles can be settled by paying money. It is an open secret that the annual inspection of automobiles is a mere formality, charging fees under various pretexts, and the huge underground gray interest chain caused by it. The company is an equal market subject, whether the vehicle inspection should be voluntary by the owner. However, under the existing system, car owners have no freedom not to carry out car inspection, and they can only choose between a limited number of car inspection companies.
According to official website, the people’s court of Taishun County, Zhejiang Province, Mao, Lin, Xia and Tang, employees of the automobile comprehensive performance testing station in Taishun County, took advantage of their positions in charge of automobile inspection to help unqualified vehicles pass the inspection, and illegally accepted 85,000 yuan from the vehicle inspection personnel. In the end, the court sentenced Mao, Lin and Xia to accepting bribes, sentenced them to 8 months in prison and fined them 100,000 yuan. Tang was convicted of accepting bribes and was sentenced to four months’ criminal detention and fined 100,000 yuan.
In recent years, the call to cancel the annual inspection system is endless. During the two sessions each year, the annual inspection system of motor vehicles often becomes one of the hot topics.
During the two sessions in 2019, Chen Xunhua, deputy to the National People’s Congress and mayor of Anshun City, Guizhou Province, submitted the Proposal on Cancelling the Annual Inspection of Private Cars with Less than Seven Seats to the General Assembly. The suggestion was called conscience suggestion by the majority of netizens, and was praised by millions of netizens, which reflected the dissatisfaction of car owners with the annual inspection system.
Some netizens believe that the original intention of the annual inspection system is to help car owners check the working conditions of vehicles, and the starting point is good. However, compared with the annual expenses paid by car owners on this annual inspection system, it seems that the cost performance ratio is not high, and there are many unreasonable problems in the annual inspection of cars. Car failures can’t be detected during the annual inspection, and there are a lot of car failures after the annual inspection, which is also the reason why many car owners complain.
Some traffic management departments are worried that after the annual inspection of automobiles is cancelled, illegally modified cars will become more rampant. At present, environmental protection is the mainstream, and automobile exhaust has become a source of pollution in many cities. After canceling the annual inspection, illegal cars will drive on the road at will, which will make the air pollution in the city more serious.
Li Honglei, a researcher at the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the key to the direction of the reform of the annual inspection system of motor vehicles is to implement the spirit of the central government’s "streamline administration, delegate power, strengthen regulation and improve services" reform. For the projects that are really related to the safety of motor vehicles, especially the safety of operating motor vehicles and the protection of ecological environment, we should manage them well, and let go of other projects. For those who are exempted from inspection according to law, they should not be required to go to the vehicle management office to get the inspection mark. The specific implementation of the annual inspection can be carried out by qualified market entities such as auto repair shops, and the relevant competent departments will focus on supervision.