Vacation periods is the perfect time for traveling, sightseeing and all kinds of a touring. It is also a very good time for renovations and removals. All these things might be pretty challenging if you don’t have access to a car or a van (in case of removal). Therefore, I am presenting “Car sharing in Poland” guide, which will give you an idea for quick, simple, and cheap possibilities for renting a car in the above mentioned situations.
- Rent a car in Poland per minutes
- Traficar Fleet
- Registration
- Locating and booking a car
- Using the car – Car sharing in Poland – Traficar
- I give the car back – localization
- Summary – do they speak English?
Car sharing in Poland? Traficar? Car for a minutes? What is it about?
The idea behind Traficar is pretty simple. You have one of the two tariffs available – renting a car for at least 24 hours, where the cost per km is smaller. And option number two, renting per minute, which costs 2.99 zł (initial payment) and 2.40 per each km driven. What is pretty important, in the case of renting a car per minute, you are obliged to pay for it in case when the car is parked as well. The parking fee is 0.01 zł per minute between 23:00 and 07:00 and 0.15 zł per minute between 07:00 and 23:00. It is not much, but still – worth mentioning if you need to reconsider renting a car in one of the mentioned tariffs. Below are the current prices from August 2021. In addition, this is a link to the tariffs from Traficar and a calculator which allows you as well to check the best estimate cost of renting such a vehicle.
Traficar Fleet
As we talk about available vehicle fleet, it is worth mentioning, that Traficar allows you to rent one of the 4 main categories.
- TrafiCar (Small city cars), Renault Clio, ZOE and Dacia Spring (electric engine). Click here for more details. Despite the fact, that it is in Polish, remember that you can still use “translate” option via browser itself.
- Compact cars, which I could not find on the map in Traficar. Most probably this offer is still under development, at the moment of writing this article (August 2021).
- TrafiCARGO (VAN), which consists of DACIA Dokker and RENAULT Kangoo. Cars are available with multiple engine variations: electric, diesel and gasoline. However, engine variation does not impact the renting price of such car. More details about sizing available here. I need to mention as well, that Renault Kangoo, allows you to transport the biggest packages from IKEA! And it is not only advertisement from Swedish furniture giant. I had a chance to test it on my own, so I can confirm it, on the bases of my own experience.
- TrafiCARGO (BUS) which means RENAULT Master with 13 cubic meters of a capacity. This is a serious bus with serious space for “big deals”. Such car will be the best in case of removal or big shopping in DIY/furniture shops.
Registration
The registration process is simple. However, there are few conditions to be fulfilled.
- Be at least 18 years of age – Traficar and most similar companies indicate the lower age limit of eighteen;
- You need have a valid category B driving license – all cars in Traficar are available for drivers with Driving license of category B. Here you have my article about Driving license in Poland.
- Smartphone is a must – renting and using a car requires the installation of a dedicated application. Traficar is currently available for Android, iOS and Huawei.
After downloading and installing the application, you will need to register an account. Other than the basic data such as an e-mail address or password, you should also:
- Provide personal data – based on a document confirming identity. Traficar will ask you to make a picture of valid Driving License to confirm your identity. To clarify, Traficar does not store these photos, they are deleted as soon as the data is verified. I also called their helpline to ask about Driving Licenses which are out of Poland. Traficar claims, that any Driving License from EU will be accepted and in case of any additional documentation required, they will reach you out via email;
- Assign payment card details to the account – it will be used to cover your car rental payments;
- Perform test payment for 0.01 zł, in order to confirm validity of your bank account and transfer possibilities.
After providing all the required information, the account verification process takes place. It runs very smoothly and should not take more than one hour. After completing the verification, the account is activated. From now on, you can use the cars freely with the app.
Locating and booking a car
Now it’s time to find the nearest car. You can use the map through the application (or a browser). App shows all available vehicles at a given moment. Thanks to geolocation, Traficar will automatically show you the closest vehicle (it is marked with the “T” symbol). After selecting a given car, all useful information is displayed, such as:
- exact location,
- side number of the car,
- the range of a car,
- type of an engine,
- approximate time of arrival and optimal route.
To reserve a specific vehicle, select the “Reserve” (Rezerwuj) or “Reserve for 24h” (Rezerwuj na 24h) option. Then the car becomes invisible to other users. From now on, you have 15 minutes to reach the reserved car. If for any reason you do not reach your destination within this time, your booking will be cancelled and the entire booking process must be restarted. It’s a mechanism that allows you to “unlock” the vehicle’s accessibility to other users – after all, it’s about sharing, right? After reaching the booked car, you still need to check the car’s side number and scan the QR code on windscreen of the car to open the door. Voila! You can use the vehicle.
Using the car – Car sharing in Poland – Traficar
After opening the car, you have 2 free minutes to prepare for driving. A vehicle cleanliness survey will appear in your application. The key or the card is in the glove box. If everything is fine with the vehicle, you are good to hit the road.
Remember, if you notice any irregularities or problem, contact the Traficar hotline.
If while using Traficar you have caused an accident or damaged your car, lost your car key or anything else happened to you, don’t panic! In such a situation, call the 24/7 Traficar hotline and inform the consultant about the situation. He will tell you what steps you need to take. Remember – don’t do anything on your own! You also don’t have to worry about insurance. You do not bear the cost of additional insurance. Full car insurance is included in the rates for using the Traficar service.
If you have had a car accident, where there is no need to call the police to the scene, please complete the damage forms. Standard damage forms to be filled in are in the trunk of the car, under the carpet. If you would like know more, how to behave yourself in case of a car accident in Poland or get a copy of “damage form” you can visit my article dedicated to “Car accident in Poland”.
I give the car back – localization
Have you reached your destination yet? When leaving the vehicle for subsequent users, leave the key in the glove compartment. Also, remember to keep things tidy. After all, one of the sharing economy’s greatest values is mutual trust and respect. To complete the service in the application, press “End rental“. Most importantly, remember the obvious – you must leave the car in the city where the car sharing provider operates. Which means:
- Kraków
- Poznań
- Śląsk (Silesia agglomeration)
- Tricity (Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot)
- Warszawa
- Wrocław
Summary of car sharing in Poland – Traficar
So, summarizing. Is it worth it? I can for example buy plane ticket to Gdańsk from Kraków for a weekend and rent there a car for minutes to do the sightseeing. I can also drive my regular car on a daily base and rent a van, when I am doing big shopping in DYI store. As I am thinking about it, I can’t really find any disadvantage with such a solution.
- Using your smartphone, you have access to the entire fleet of cars available throughout the city.
- In case of problems, you have access to a 24-hour helpline where consultants will help solve any problem.
- An application and helpline are available in English. If you want to change the app language, you just need to go to left top corner menu, tap your name and change language available from the bottom of the list.
- Each car is insured, so you don’t pay any extra fees.
- You do not have to pay for parking in the municipal zone!
- You also have no time limit for car rentals, so you can use them at any time of the day or night.
The company from Kraków, brought the term “car rental in Poland” on another level. What do you think about it? Have you already had some experiences with anything like this? Share it with me via the comment box below!
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Special thanks to Eamon Gosney, who has helped with proofreading of this article.
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