Draft, to be checked by a lawyer

Terms for drivers

Version 2026-10-28

1. What Portovan is

Portovan is an app that passes transport orders from customers to independent van drivers. Portovan is an intermediary. You are not employed by Portovan: you work as an independent business, decide when you are online and which orders you accept, and carry out each transport under your own responsibility. Portovan is run by GK Coding (company details: to be added; see the legal notice).

• Free to decline: you can decline or ignore offered trips at any time without giving a reason. Portovan never suspends you, ranks you lower or penalises you for it.
• No exclusivity, no branding: you may drive for other platforms or your own customers at the same time. You do not have to wear Portovan clothing or put Portovan logos on your vehicle.
• Substitutes: you do not have to carry out the trips in person. You may have them carried out by your own employees or suitable subcontractors, provided they are verified as drivers on the platform themselves (trade licence, driving licence, insurance). As long as the app does not yet support handing a trip to a substitute, tell support before another person drives for you.

1a. When the contract is made

Until Portovan has checked your current GISA extract (trade licence) and your other documents and approved you, you only use a non-binding application view. This platform framework contract with Portovan is made only on approval after your GISA extract has been checked; your trade is then registered and you make the contract as a business.

2. Your responsibilities

• Trade licence: you hold the trade licence (Gewerbe) needed for your work in your country (in Austria the free trade "goods transport with motor vehicles up to 3,500 kg") and keep it valid. You carry a certified (stamped and signed) GISA extract in the vehicle; an electronic copy alone is not enough at roadside checks.
• Licence: you hold a valid driving licence for your van.
• Vehicle and registration: the van is registered, roadworthy and serviced, and its condition is safe.
• Insurance: throughout your work through Portovan you must hold current commercial motor liability insurance (use: commercial goods transport) and valid carrier liability insurance (Verkehrshaftung / Güterschaden), and enter the insurer, policy number and expiry date in the app. The carrier liability insurance must cover the statutory carrier's liability under § 439a UGB / CMR with at least €25,000 per claim. Portovan checks this before approving you. Without valid proof you cannot go online.
• Load safety: you secure the load in the van before driving, as the road traffic rules require (Austria: the driver is responsible for securing the load), take at least one photo of the secured load and confirm it in the app, and take a photo of the items at the drop-off. You carry straps and blankets. You may refuse goods that are dangerous, illegal, excluded from transport, or too heavy or large for the van.
• Accompanying person: only goods are carried. If the request shows that people accompany their goods, you may take up to two people along, in seats with a seatbelt, to accompany their own goods, free of charge as a favour. You may refuse them without giving reasons, at no disadvantage to you. Taking people without goods, or for payment, is forbidden.
• Taxes and social insurance: you declare your income and pay your taxes and contributions yourself.
• You follow the law, in particular the road traffic rules, and treat customers with respect.

3. Documents

Before you can go online, you upload the documents your country requires (in Austria: driving licence, vehicle registration, vehicle insurance, GISA extract (trade licence) and carrier liability insurance) and Portovan checks them. Keep them up to date: Portovan reminds you 30 days, 7 days and 1 day before a document expires; an expired document stops you from going online until you upload a new one.

4. Money

• Portovan as your agent: you instruct and authorise Portovan to make transport contracts in your name and for your account at the rates Portovan calculates. You instruct and authorise Portovan to collect the fare and any tips from the customers in your name and for your account, with effect that discharges the customer's debt (authority to collect). Portovan deducts the agreed commission (including VAT) from the amounts collected for you by way of set-off and transfers the remaining payout amount to your bank account monthly. Portovan acts only for you, never as the customer's agent. Card payments are processed by Stripe; you do not need a Stripe account.
• Price: the price in the app is a recommended guide price (maximum price) for the trip calculated by the algorithm (plus waiting after 15 free minutes at each stop). You see it and your earning before you accept an order and decide freely whether the job is worth it for you; by accepting you agree to carry out the order at this price. Your earning is also shown in your earnings page.
• Commission: Portovan keeps the commission at the rate in force under the fee overview (currently 23 % of the fare and waiting) or under an individual agreement (for example the founding driver offer: 18 % until 30 September 2027, confirmed by email). The customer pays Portovan no booking fee of its own; Portovan pays the card fees from its commission.
• Tips: voluntary tips from customers are collected by Portovan in your name as a pass-through item and paid to you in full (no commission) with the monthly statement. You are responsible for paying tax on your income, tips included.
• Refunds: your earning is reduced only if (a) the trip was stopped or performed badly through your fault, or (b) a chargeback happens for a reason you are responsible for. Goodwill refunds by Portovan without your fault are borne by Portovan. Your statement shows a reduction as a lower amount for the trip, or as a correction line if that statement was already released.

5. Payouts

• Your bank details: you enter the account holder, IBAN and BIC in the app. The account must be in your own name (for a GmbH or OG, the company name); your bank checks on every transfer that the name and IBAN match (verification of payee). Portovan stores the holder and the IBAN encrypted. Staff see them masked; only authorised finance staff can see them in full, and every view is logged. If you change the holder or the IBAN, you confirm it with your two-factor code or the full previous IBAN, you get an email, and Portovan's finance team approves the new account before the first payout to it.
• Monthly statement: after each calendar month, Portovan prepares one statement with your finished trips that are not on an earlier statement. A trip waits for a later statement while the customer's payment has not gone through, or while the money of an interrupted trip is still being decided. The statement lists each trip with your earning and Portovan's commission, tips, any adjustments (for example after a trip problem, a refund or a correction), held amounts and the payout amount.
• Credit note: you agree that Portovan issues this statement as a credit note (Gutschrift) for your services, in your name, instead of you sending Portovan an invoice (§ 11 (7) UStG). Before your first statement you choose in the app, bindingly, whether you are a small business under § 6 (1) 27 UStG (Kleinunternehmer: no VAT shown on your credit notes) or charge VAT at the standard rate (with your VAT number, which Portovan checks through VIES). Until a VAT number has been confirmed through VIES, Portovan treats you as a small business. You enter any change of your VAT status in the app at once (for example when you pass the small-business limit). The layout of the credit note is still being checked by Portovan's tax adviser.
• Release and payment: Portovan's finance team checks and releases the statements. Portovan then pays you by SEPA credit transfer from its business bank account, around the 7th of the following month (on the next working day if that day is a weekend or a public holiday). You get the statement by email and in the app.
• Objections: please check your statement within 60 days of receiving it and tell Portovan if something is wrong (in the app or by email to support); Portovan of course corrects factual mistakes or wrong VAT amounts after this period too, as far as the law allows. Portovan answers and, if you are right, corrects it.
• Corrections: a released statement is never changed. Anything that changes later (a late refund, a decided case, a mistake) appears as a correction line on your next statement, with the reason. If a month ends below zero, the amount is carried to your next statement.
• Waiting for the customer's payment: Portovan pays you what the customer actually paid. If a card payment finally fails after the trip (not recoverable after 14 days of reminders), Portovan tells you and gives you all the data you need to claim the amount from the customer yourself.
• Held trips: Portovan holds a trip (automatically, or by hand through the finance team) only in a dispute about the fare itself: the trip was not carried out, it was billed wrongly (for example the waiting time), fraud is suspected, or the customer's bank reversed the payment (chargeback). At most your earning for that trip is held; your other trips and the rest of the month are paid. The reason is shown on your statement. When the dispute is settled, the hold ends: the amount is paid with the same statement if it is not released yet, otherwise as a correction on your next statement.
• Damage and lost items: if a customer claims damage to their items or reports lost items, you settle it through your insurance; Portovan records the report and supports the communication. Such a claim or report never holds back your payout, neither automatically nor by hand.
• Failed transfer: if a transfer comes back (for example because the IBAN is wrong or the account is closed), Portovan tells you at once by email and in the app. Correct your bank details; Portovan then sends the payout again in an extra transfer, without waiting for the next month (a new account is approved by the finance team first). If it has not been sent again by the next monthly statement, the open amount appears on that statement as "carried over: open payout amount from credit note no. …"; the original credit note stays unchanged. If you do not correct your details, Portovan reminds you after 7 days. As long as the mistake lies on your side, no default interest or collection costs are owed by Portovan. Money owed to you is never lost and never paid twice.
• Wrong IBAN: you are responsible for the IBAN you enter being correct. If Portovan makes a transfer exactly to the IBAN you stored in the app, Portovan's duty to pay counts as fulfilled, unless the recipient's bank returns the amount to Portovan.
• Test mode: until Portovan's lawyer, tax adviser and bank have confirmed this process and Portovan's inquiry to the Financial Market Authority (FMA) has been answered, payouts run in test mode only.

5a. Tax data (DAC7)

Legal reporting duty (DAC7 / DPMG): under the Austrian Digital Platforms Reporting Act (DPMG) Portovan is legally required to report the drivers' tax identification data (in particular name, address, date of birth, tax number/TIN, VAT number, company register number, bank account) and the payments earned and commissions kept through the platform to the Austrian tax office every year. You must enter these data truthfully in the app and keep them up to date. If you do not do so despite two reminders, Portovan is legally required under § 20 DPMG to hold back your payouts or suspend your driver account until the data are complete. By 31 January of the following year Portovan gives you an overview of the data reported.

6. Cancellations, no-shows and interrupted trips

• You may cancel an accepted order before the trip starts; Portovan then looks for another driver. Please cancel only for good reasons.
• If the customer does not come and cannot be reached, you can end the trip as a no-show after waiting at least 10 minutes at the pickup. You then receive the cancellation fee minus the commission.
• A booked job can be given back up to 2 hours before the pickup; later it counts as a cancellation.
• Portovan may take a trip off you (for example after a breakdown, an accident or with goods that are not allowed). Who gets what depends on the cause (Portovan's server computes the amounts):

7. Ratings, flags and suspension

Customers rate you with 1 to 5 stars; customers see your average once you have 5 ratings. Portovan flags drivers for a review when their average is below 4.3 after 20 ratings, when they cancel more than 3 times in 7 days, or when a document expires. Portovan may restrict or suspend your account after a review, for example for repeated problems, a serious complaint or missing documents. For a temporary suspension you get the reasons by email at the latest when it takes effect. Portovan gives you at least 30 days' notice with reasons by email before ending your account for good, unless Portovan must act at once for binding legal or official reasons, there is a safety risk, or you have repeatedly and seriously breached these terms. You can always respond and ask for a review.

Declining or not answering offers is always allowed: Portovan may show its team how many offers you accepted, but never suspends, ranks or penalises you for declining. After a report in the chat, you and that one customer are no longer matched together; this does not restrict your account and changes nothing for other trips. If Portovan suspends your account and you then delete it, your email address cannot sign up as a driver again for 2 years; you can ask for a review of the block by email to support.

8. Liability and damage claims

You carry out the transport as an independent business (a carrier under the UGB/CMR) under your own responsibility. You are liable to the customer for loss of and damage to the goods carried, from taking them over for the transport until delivery, under the statutory rules (§ 439a UGB with the CMR). You are not liable for damage caused solely by the customers loading or unloading themselves (Art. 17 (4) (c) CMR); your duty to secure the load safely for the road before you drive off stays unaffected.

If a customer reports damage through the app, you are notified and must answer factually in the app within 7 days (accept the damage in principle, or dispute it with understandable reasons) and report the damage to your insurer without delay. Portovan may give the customer your legal name or company name, your address for service and the name and policy number of your insurer to settle the claim. Portovan supports the communication but does not settle claims in your name. Portovan is liable only for its own mistakes (the app and data) and for running the app with due care, except where the law says otherwise.

9. Data

While you are online, Portovan uses your location to offer you orders and, during a trip, to show the customer where the van is; never while you are offline. Your documents are kept while you are active and for one year after your last activity. Your bank details are deleted with your account, or 13 months after your last payout if that is later; statements are kept for 7 years (Austrian tax law, to be confirmed by Portovan's tax adviser), your tax data for 10 years (§ 16 (2) DPMG). See the Privacy notice for details. You can download your data and delete your account in the app.

10. Changes and law

Portovan may change these terms for good reasons. Portovan tells you about a change by email, with the new version as a PDF, at least 15 days before it applies. In the app you can accept at once ("Accept now") or be reminded later; you do not have to accept before the date given, and until then you keep driving as usual. From that date you need to have accepted to go online. If you do not agree, you can end the contract before then by deleting your account. Austrian law applies; the exclusive place of jurisdiction is the court competent for Linz (4020). Contact: support (email address to be added).