Our legal framework — cotransportage

Tipper operates within the framework of parcel cotransportage (cost-shared parcel carrying) set out by the French mobility law (loi d'orientation des mobilités, LOM).

A non-professional activity

Tippers are not professional carriers or employees. They carry a parcel on the occasion of a trip they are making on their own account.

Cost-sharing, not remuneration

The contribution asked for covers the costs of the trip (fuel, wear, tolls). It is not a wage or business income.

What about tax? Co-consumption

Non-profit cotransportage falls under what the French tax administration calls co-consumption (co-consommation): you share the costs of a trip you would have made anyway, without deriving any profit from it. On that basis, the sums received as cost-sharing do not constitute activity income.

« L'utilisation en commun, à titre privé, d'un véhicule terrestre à moteur effectuée à titre non onéreux, excepté le partage des frais, pour transporter des colis dans le cadre d'un déplacement qu'un conducteur effectue pour son propre compte. » — art. L.3232-1 du Code des transports

In English: the shared, private, non-profit use of a motor vehicle — save for cost-sharing — to carry parcels within a journey a driver makes on their own account.

Your concrete obligations as a Tipper

• Make trips on your own account, without any profit motive.
• Keep the contribution received to the sharing of real costs only (fuel, tolls, wear).
• Bear a share of the costs of the trip yourself — cost-sharing must not cover the whole of what the trip costs you.
• Keep it an occasional activity, neither regular nor commercial.
• Respect the cap Tipper applies to keep you within cost-sharing.

What would tip it into paid transport

If the contribution exceeds cost-sharing, or if the activity becomes regular or professional, it then falls under paid transport: registration (as an auto-entrepreneur or a company) and tax and social obligations. Tipper is designed to keep you within the non-profit framework. If you are unsure about your situation, get in touch with the tax authorities (applicable doctrine: BOI-IR-BASE-10-10-10-10).

Existing trips

Cotransportage attaches to a journey the Tipper would have made anyway; these are not dedicated trips.

No relationship of subordination

The Tipper freely chooses their trips, with no imposed schedule and no hierarchy. Tipper is a connection intermediary.

The role of merchants

A partner merchant simply offers the option "carrying by a Tipper"; it is the customer who chooses it at checkout. The connection is made between the customer and the Tipper.

An evolving regulation

The contribution stays within the cost-sharing limit set by the regulation applicable to cotransportage. Cotransportage evolves with the regulation; we adapt our practices accordingly.

Contact us

A question about our framework? Email us at contact@tipper.fr.