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september is the start of the school year and the start of the job season, and there is a strong demand for the delivery of important documents such as notices, graduation certificates, and files. what should i do if the courier loses important documents? if the courier does not insure the documents, will the courier only pay three times the shipping fee?

recently, the people's court of xuyi county, huai'an city, jiangsu province announced a case in which a courier company lost zhang's graduation certificate when mailing it. zhang believed that the loss of the graduation certificate had a great impact on him and asked the courier company for compensation. the courier company believed that it could only compensate no more than three times the 12 yuan postage fee, 36 yuan. the two parties had a dispute over this. the court recently ruled that the courier company should pay 9,000 yuan.

at present, according to the relevant provisions of the postal law, if uninsured registered mail is lost, damaged or missing, compensation shall be paid according to the actual loss, but the maximum compensation amount shall not exceed three times the collected charges. the interim regulations on express delivery stipulate that if express delivery is delayed, lost, damaged or missing, the compensation liability for insured express delivery shall be determined in accordance with the insurance rules agreed upon by the express delivery business and the sender; for uninsured express delivery, the compensation liability shall be determined in accordance with the relevant provisions of civil law.

in the aforementioned case, zhang believed that since he could not reissue his graduation certificate after losing it, he could only go back to school to reissue his student status certificate as needed. the loss of the mail affected his subsequent employment and promotion, so he asked the express company to compensate him for the cost of reissuing his student status certificate for multiple times, which was 5,515 yuan, and to pay mental damages.

because the package was not insured, the courier company believed that it could only compensate no more than three times the postage. the two parties failed to reach an agreement, so zhang took the case to court.

the judge said that the original degree certificate and graduation certificate cannot be replaced after being lost. although the relevant documents of the ministry of education have confirmed that the graduation certificate and the graduation certificate have the same effect, the two are different types of certificates. only being able to issue a graduation certificate but not a graduation certificate may cause inconvenience and impact to zhang in social activities such as job hunting and taking various exams, and will also cause mental damage to zhang.

according to the relevant provisions of the civil code, the parties shall fully perform their obligations in accordance with the agreement. this case is a courier service contract relationship. the courier company lost the certificate during the transfer process, which is improper performance of the contract. it should compensate zhang for his property loss and mental loss. therefore, the court ruled that the courier company should compensate zhang for the various expenses incurred by reissuing the certificate, totaling 4,000 yuan, and compensate zhang for mental damages of 5,000 yuan.

in previous cases, the court had made similar rulings, requiring the express delivery company to pay compensation far exceeding three times the postage.

in 2021, the file of xiao ming, a master's student, was lost after the courier failed to contact the recipient to sign for it. xiao ming asked the courier company for compensation of 37,000 yuan. the courier company argued that according to the "service cooperation agreement", it only needed to compensate three times the postage. after the court trial, it was found that the courier company had irregular delivery of the files involved in the case, which violated the mail delivery obligations agreed in the "service cooperation agreement" for the special delivery of student files signed between it and the sender, and also violated relevant legal provisions and express service industry requirements. it was negligent in the loss of the files involved in the case, and the court ruled that the courier company should compensate xiao ming for economic losses and mental damages of 25,000 yuan.

in response to the two cases where the courts ordered the courier companies to pay compensation far exceeding three times the postage, zhao guojun, director of the postal development research center of beijing university of posts and telecommunications, said in an interview with the workers' daily that graduation certificates, files and other mail items are representative because they are not replaceable. even if the sender does not insure the item, the courier company has the obligation to deliver the item safely to the designated location.

"the high amount of compensation awarded is mainly used to compensate the user for the mental damage and the manpower and material resources spent to prove that he lost his documents." zhao guojun told reporters.

there is a strong demand for the delivery of special items, and once an accident occurs, it is irreversible. how can express delivery companies avoid the loss or damage of special items?

"for special items, the express delivery industry should strengthen the construction of identification, protection and compensation mechanisms." zhao guojun suggested that express delivery companies should refine the categories and conduct full-process control when receiving and sending special items such as graduation certificates, and invest more control costs in possible risk points to minimize the occurrence of lost items, damage, etc. specifically, the categories should be marked accordingly during the collection and delivery process; since graduation certificates and other items are light in weight, manual sorting can be added during the sorting process to avoid possible damage to them by sorting machines.

in addition, zhao guojun said that many special items lost in the mail were caused by the end of the express delivery. therefore, the control of the end delivery link should be strengthened: the delivery personnel must choose one of the following methods when delivering special items: face-to-face delivery, delivery by others, delivery to intelligent delivery service terminals, or delivery to express service stations. the latter three methods must be inspected and confirmed and the corresponding procedures must be retained.

express logistics expert zhao xiaomin believes that the express compensation standards have always been controversial, and there are cases where different local courts have made inconsistent judgments on the same case.

"because it is difficult to determine the true value of special items when they are sent, it is difficult to balance the demands of both parties on compensation standards. we have also been calling on relevant departments to come up with a clear standard or precedent to regulate related issues," said zhao xiaomin.