Transport Operator in the Electronic Delivery Note System: Who Can Act as One and When Does This Model Make Sense?
Most companies are familiar with the three main roles in the electronic delivery note system. The sender dispatches the goods, the recipient receives and confirms them, and the carrier presents the document during an inspection. There is also a fourth role introduced by the Law without much attention, yet one that can significantly change who actually handles data entry in practice.
This role is the transport operator.
What Is a Transport Operator?
The Law on Electronic Delivery Notes defines a transport operator as a person who, at the instruction of another system user, records the movement of goods in its own name and on behalf of the principal by sending and receiving electronic delivery notes and electronic receipt notes.
Three elements of this definition are particularly important.
The first is the instruction. A transport operator does not act independently but operates at the request of another system user.
The second is that the transport operator acts in its own name. This distinguishes it from an authorized representative acting in someone else’s name. Within the system, the transport operator appears as an independent entity.
The third is that it acts on behalf of the principal. The economic interest in the goods remains with the principal, not with the transport operator.
Why Is This Not the Same as a Carrier?
The two terms are often used interchangeably in everyday conversation, but the Law clearly distinguishes between them.
A carrier is a person authorized to transport goods, as well as a person who transports goods for its own needs. Its role in the system is limited. The carrier accesses the system to retrieve an electronic delivery note for the purpose of presenting it during an inspection. A dedicated mobile application for transport companies is provided for this purpose.
In certain cases, a carrier does not have to access the system at all. If the sender prints an external representation of the electronic delivery note and the carrier signs it and returns it to the sender immediately before transportation begins, the carrier is not required to access the system. In that case, the carrier keeps one signed copy in its possession throughout the movement of the goods.
A transport operator, on the other hand, has a substantially broader role.
The transport operator can access and use the system to send, receive, accept, reject and store electronic delivery notes, confirm the physical receipt of goods, and retrieve delivery notes for presentation during an inspection.
The Law explicitly lists the transport operator among both the senders and recipients of electronic delivery notes.
In other words: the carrier presents the document. The transport operator creates it.
What Appears on the Electronic Delivery Note?
When an electronic delivery note is sent by a transport operator, this is not invisible within the system. The relevant regulations require such a document to contain specific identifiers.
An electronic delivery note sent by a transport operator, at the instruction of another system user, in its own name and on behalf of the principal, must contain the designation “third-party goods”, as well as the unique identification number of the principal’s electronic delivery note.
There is also a practical simplification.
When goods are dispatched under an instruction given to a transport operator, the principal’s tax identification number may be entered instead of the vehicle registration number. This addresses situations where the exact vehicle that will perform the transportation is not yet known when the electronic delivery note is created.
In the section concerning the method of transportation, the “carrier” option is also selected when the transportation is performed by a transport operator.
Responsibility Comes With the Role
This is an area where precision matters because it is easy to assume that engaging a transport operator means transferring the entire responsibility to another party.
The Law stipulates that the obligation to send an electronic delivery note lies with a private-sector entity or a public-sector entity for each movement of goods over which it has the right of disposal. The same obligation applies to a transport operator in relation to the movement of its principal’s goods.
The provisions of the Law applicable to private-sector entities also apply accordingly to transport operators. This means that a transport operator is not simply an auxiliary party operating outside the system of responsibility. It is a separate entity with its own obligations.
During an inspection, the transport operator is explicitly listed among the persons who may present an electronic delivery note by accessing the system and providing access to its contents.
The same applies to a signed printed external representation of the electronic delivery note and to a paper delivery note.
The transport operator is also explicitly provided for when goods are documented in paper form. The sender retains one copy, while the other two copies are handed to the carrier or transport operator for presentation and for subsequently handing one copy to the recipient.
What the Law does not explicitly state is that engaging a transport operator releases the principal from its own obligations.
The allocation of responsibility between the principal and the transport operator should therefore be clearly defined in a contract and reviewed with a legal advisor before implementing this model.
When Does This Model Make Sense?
This section reflects our assessment, not a statutory requirement.
The model can be particularly useful when logistics are outsourced to a third party that already has accurate information about the loading process, vehicle and departure time.
If your logistics partner knows these details before you do, it may make sense for the partner to enter them into the system.
The model can also make sense when deliveries depart from locations where your company does not have anyone available to work at a computer — for example, a rented warehouse, a cross-docking facility or a distribution center operated by a logistics partner.
In these situations, the question is not necessarily who should enter the data, but who is physically in a position to do so.
A third scenario is a high volume of deliveries to a large number of recipients, where data entry becomes a task in itself. In that case, it may be logical for the party whose core business is logistics to handle the process.
The model probably does not make sense if all deliveries leave from a single warehouse operated by your company, with employees who are already there and able to handle the process.
In that situation, you are simply adding another link without a clear operational benefit.
What Should You Check Before Introducing a Transport Operator?
These are also our recommendations, not statutory obligations.
First, check whether your partner is registered in the system and which roles it operates under. Registration in the system and the ability to act as a transport operator are not necessarily the same thing.
Define contractually what happens if information is not entered or is entered incorrectly. The deadlines for confirming physical receipt and issuing the electronic receipt note continue to run regardless of who was supposed to enter the information.
Define how the partner will provide you with status information.
You still need to know which electronic delivery notes have been sent, which have been accepted and where there are discrepancies in the quantity of goods.
Finally, test the process in a demo environment before the first truck operates under the new model.
How Does Docloop Help?
Docloop is the first information intermediary licensed by the Ministry of Finance, with more than 4,800 active clients and over 220,000 indirect users.
Through the My Document Management System (My DMS) platform, the flow of electronic delivery notes and electronic receipt notes remains transparent regardless of who performs the operational work.
The platform integrates with more than 220 enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, including SAP, Infosoft and Navision. This allows delivery data to remain within the system your company already uses instead of being scattered across multiple tools and logistics partners.
If you are considering how to organize your document flow when logistics are not entirely under your control, schedule a free consultation.
Contact us at prodaja@docloop.rs or call 011/43-50-555.
Comments