Draft, to be checked by a lawyer

Terms for customers

Version 2026-10-28

The German version is binding; this translation is for information only.

1. What Portovan is

Portovan is an app that connects you with independent van drivers. Portovan is an intermediary: the transport itself is carried out by the driver who accepts your order, as an independent transport business in the driver's own name and under the driver's own responsibility. Portovan is run by GK Coding (company details: to be added; see the legal notice).

1a. Who your contract is with

• Portovan is an online marketplace: through the app you book the transport with an independent driver. The transport contract (contract of carriage) is with the driver who accepts your order (the carrier), not with Portovan. The app shows the driver's name, van and plate once a driver accepts. For a now order, tapping "Order with obligation to pay" is a binding offer to make a contract of carriage with an independent transport business. Portovan arranges the contract of carriage and concludes it as the driver's agent, in the driver's name.
• Every driver on Portovan is a business (a trader) or drives for a transport company (a fleet partner): drivers or their company must hold a trade licence and their own carrier liability insurance. The consumer rights of EU and Austrian law therefore apply to your contract with the driver.
• Portovan's part: the app, finding a driver (an order is given automatically to a suitable available driver nearby; with a fleet partner, its dispatch may assign one of its own drivers), calculating the fare, taking your payment in the driver's name, the order email and receipt, customer support, and recording and passing on problems and claims. The driver's part: carrying out the transport with care, securing the load, and liability for your goods during the transport (backed by the carrier liability insurance).
• If no van of the chosen size is free, a driver with a bigger van who accepts smaller jobs may take your order. You always pay the price of the size you chose; the app tells you when a bigger van is coming.
• If the driver belongs to a fleet partner (a transport company with several vans), that company is the carrier: you conclude the transport contract with the company, not with its driver, and Portovan concludes it as the company's agent, in the company's name. The app shows you "operated by" with the company's name; the email after the acceptance and the receipt name the company, its address and its VAT status. What these terms say about the driver as your contract partner then applies to the company.
• Questions and complaints about a trip go to Portovan's support in the app; Portovan passes them to the driver where needed.

1b. Paying Portovan in the driver's name

For finding the driver, making the contract and collecting the fare, Portovan acts solely on behalf of and in the name of the driver concerned; Portovan does not act as the customer's agent. When you pay Portovan, you have met your duty to pay the driver, with immediate effect that discharges your debt (§ 1424 ABGB). Portovan charges you no booking fee of its own; its commission for the arrangement is paid by the driver.

2. Your account

You sign in with your email address and a one-time code (or your password or passkey). Keep your device safe; you are responsible for orders made from your account. You must be at least 18 years old to order.

3. Prices

• Before you order, the app shows the final price for each van size (including VAT where the driver charges it, and the extra for a second stop). It comes from Portovan's server, is the driver's single fare and is fixed for the route shown: a detour or traffic does not change the fare.
• Loading and unloading: at the pickup and again at the drop-off the first 15 minutes are free. After that, each full minute costs the waiting price shown before you order.
• When you order, your card is authorised (held) for the fare plus 30 % for possible waiting; you see the exact maximum before you pay (for example: fare €35.00, card hold up to €50.00 including the waiting buffer). Only the actual amount is charged after the trip; the rest of the hold is released at once. Waiting can never cost more than this 30 % buffer.
• You book a trip for later at least 30 minutes and up to 5 days ahead. For a trip booked more than 24 hours ahead, the hold is made 24 hours before the pickup. If your card is not accepted then, the app asks you to confirm or change it; if it is not fixed 60 minutes before the pickup, the trip is cancelled at no cost.
• Card payments are processed by Stripe. Portovan never sees your full card number.

3a. Tips

After a trip is finished you can give the driver a voluntary tip (€1 to €50) through the app. Portovan collects the tip in the name and for the account of the driver and passes 100 % of it to the driver, with no deduction.

3b. Promo codes and invitations

• One code applies per order (a promo code or an invitation code); codes cannot be combined. Whether a code has a minimum fare, is for new customers only and until when it is valid is shown in the app before you order. Portovan bears the discount; the driver gets the full share.
• Invitations: with your personal invitation code, which you share yourself (for example by messenger), you get a reward code for a trip of your own after the first finished trip of a newly invited person, at most 10 per calendar year. A reward code is valid for 90 days. Portovan never sends messages to your contacts itself.
• Credit, discounts and reward codes are never paid out in cash and lapse on their expiry date.
• You may not sell your invitation code or publish it on voucher portals or other public sites. Portovan may cancel credit and codes obtained by abuse (for example inviting yourself with the same card or device).

4. Cancelling

• Free: while Portovan is still looking for a driver, within 2 minutes after a driver accepted, and for a booked trip up to 2 hours before the pickup.
• Later, or when the driver is already at the pickup, cancelling costs the cancellation fee shown in the app (currently €10.00). It is a flat proportionate payment for the service already performed (§ 16 (1) FAGG), or a cancellation fee for the provision of the van and the drive already begun. You keep the right to prove that the cancellation caused the driver or Portovan no loss or effort, or a much smaller one, or that the proportionate value of the service performed so far was lower.
• If you do not come to the pickup and cannot be reached, the driver may end the trip after waiting at least 10 minutes. You then pay the cancellation fee (with the same right to prove a lower amount).
• If a driver cancels, Portovan looks for another driver for you once; you pay nothing for the driver's cancellation.
• In the app you cancel with "Cancel trip / withdraw" in your booked trip; after you confirm, you get a confirmation by email.

4a. Right of withdrawal

• A Portovan trip is the transport of goods at an agreed time or period (a booked time, or for a now order the pickup window the app shows you before you order and in the confirmation). For such contracts Austrian law gives consumers no right of withdrawal (§ 18 (1) 10 FAGG). Cancelling follows section 4.
• Where a right of withdrawal exists all the same, it runs for 14 days from the order. When you order as a consumer you expressly ask that the trip begins before these 14 days end, and you confirm that you know you lose the right once the trip has been fully performed. If you withdraw after the trip started, you pay a proportionate amount for the part already performed.
• To withdraw, send a clear statement (for example an email) to george.kassih@gkcoding.dev. You can use the model withdrawal form at app.portovan.at/api/legal/withdrawal_form; you do not have to.
• Portovan confirms your order, the sentence you ticked and its date by email and on the receipt. Orders under a business account are not consumer contracts; this section does not apply to them (see the Additional terms for Portovan Business).

4b. Interrupted trips

If a trip has to be stopped early, Portovan will, at your request, try to find a replacement driver who takes your items to the destination or back to the pickup. Whether a stopped trip costs anything, and how much, depends on who caused the stop (by the price split below): if the reason lies with the driver (for example a breakdown), you pay nothing for the stopped trip; if the reason lies on your side (for example items that are not allowed, or not showing up), the proportionate payment in the table applies, and you can always prove that no effort or a smaller one arose. In no case is more charged than the maximum held in advance.

"Km driven" is the recorded route from the pickup to the stop at your order's price per km; the drive back is not charged. You see the amount and the reason in the app and on the receipt and can dispute them with "Report a problem". Portovan may lower the amount in your favour, never raise it.

5. Loading, goods and accompanying your goods

• You make sure that people are there to carry, load and unload: you or your own helpers, at the pickup and at the drop-off. You confirm this with every order. A contact person who hands over or receives for you does not have to carry. The driver only drives and secures the load.
• Accompanying your own goods: Portovan arranges the carriage of goods, not of people. Where the app offers it, up to two people may accompany their own goods on a move, on the same trip (same pickup and drop-off, only in seats with a seatbelt). Taking up to two people along to accompany their own goods is free of charge as a favour; there is no right to it; the driver may refuse without giving reasons, without a price reduction. Without goods, and on deliveries, nobody can come along. Otherwise you and your helpers travel separately to the pickup and the drop-off (for example by your own car or public transport).
• Excluded from transport: goods worth more than €1,000 in total per trip; cash, jewellery, precious metals, watches, securities, irreplaceable documents and certificates, works of art; dangerous goods (for example gas bottles, fuel, chemicals), weapons, explosives, illegal substances; living animals, perishable food, human remains; fragile electronics without original or protective packaging; and more weight or volume than the van can safely take. You also see this list when you order.
• If you hand over excluded goods or goods worth more than €1,000 without saying so, the driver may refuse to take them (the cancellation fee then applies), and in case of damage the driver's liability is limited or excluded under § 431 UGB or because of your predominant contributory fault (§ 1304 ABGB).
• You are responsible for packing your goods so that they can be transported safely. Tell the driver about fragile or heavy items.
• The driver secures the load in the van before driving and takes a photo of it, and is the carrier while driving. Every Portovan driver has carrier's liability insurance (Verkehrshaftungsversicherung) for their liability as the carrier (CMR). By law this liability is limited by weight: at most 8.33 special drawing rights (about €10) per kilogram of gross weight of the lost or damaged items (Art. 23 CMR), except for intent or gross negligence.
• Keep cash, jewellery and important documents with you; neither the driver nor Portovan is liable for such valuables if you send them all the same.

5a. Portovan Delivery

• With a delivery the driver takes an item to the destination without you. Here too Portovan arranges the contract of carriage between you (the sender) and the driver and concludes it as the driver's agent, in the driver's name; the exclusions and the value limit of section 5 apply.
• Time windows and arrival times are estimated delivery windows (guide values), not a fixed date. If Portovan gives a credit for a delay, it is voluntary goodwill without accepting a legal duty.
• Handover code: you get a 4-digit handover code that you pass on to the recipient. When the person at the destination states this code, it counts towards the driver as proof that they may receive the item, unless there are obvious signs of misuse.
• Tell the recipient that you give their name and phone number to Portovan; their privacy information is in the Privacy notice (section "Recipients of deliveries").

6. Ratings, chat and reports

• After a trip you and the driver can rate each other with 1 to 5 stars and a short comment. Ratings can technically only be given by customers and drivers whose assigned trip was paid through the platform. Comments are read only by Portovan. Be fair and do not include personal data of others.
• Chat: to protect against fraud, harassment and going around the platform, phone numbers, email addresses and external web links are blocked automatically in the chat: a message containing them is not sent.
• If something went wrong (damage, a lost item, behaviour, payment), use "Report a problem" in the app up to 14 days after the trip; after that, write to support. Portovan aims to answer within 24 hours.
• Damage: report damage at the drop-off if you can, and damage that cannot be seen from outside within 7 days. This is a recommendation to secure the evidence: if you report later, the items are presumed to have been delivered undamaged (Art. 30 CMR), but you do not lose your claim. The statutory limitation periods stay unaffected.

7. Liability

The transport is carried out by the driver concerned as an independent transport business in the driver's own name. For damage to your items during the transport (from loading into the vehicle until they are made available at the destination) the driver is liable under the statutory rules of carriage law (§ 439a UGB with the CMR) and holds carrier's liability insurance (Verkehrshaftungsversicherung) for it; for the limit of this liability see section 5. Please note: because you load and unload yourself, the driver is not liable for damage that you cause yourself while carrying or by stacking improperly (Art. 17 (4) (c) CMR). Portovan arranges the contract of carriage and concludes it as the driver's agent, in the driver's name: in case of damage Portovan records your report, passes it to the driver and gives you the driver's contact details, insurer and policy number so you can settle the claim directly. Portovan itself is not liable for transport damage caused by the driver; Portovan's liability for breaching its own duties as intermediary is excluded for slight negligence, except for personal injury. Your statutory rights as a consumer stay unaffected.

8. Your account and data

You can download all your data and delete your account in the app (Account). Trips and payments are kept, pseudonymised, for 7 years because Austrian tax law requires it. See the Privacy notice for details.

9. Changes and law

Portovan may change these terms for good reasons. A new version applies to you only once you accept it in the app; until then you cannot order a new trip. Austrian law applies. If you are a consumer, the mandatory consumer protection rules of the country where you live also apply. Contact: support (email address to be added).