Traficar

Company description

Traficar is the biggest carsharing company in Poland with a fleet of more than 5000 cars, both passenger and delivery vehicles, available in one click in the application, which is already used by more than a million users. Traficar has been present on the market since 2016 and comes from Express Car Rental, a company with almost 30 years of experience in motorization belonging to the Polish capital group Holding1. The cars offered by the Traficar service are available in 28 cities like Warsaw, Tricity, Poznań, Wrocław, Łódź, Śląsk, Szczecin, Rzeszów, Lublin and many more.

Project description

The project for Traficar implied close cooperation for the implementation and development of an application for renting cars for the company’s clients and employees.

Moreover, the project also included implementing Artificial Intelligence as well as the Kubernetes solution to ensure an efficient and reliable system.

Project goals

A higher efficiency and reliability of the entire system

Cooperation in creating a solution for Traficar's employees and clients

An easy and simple handling of all processes thanks to their digitalization

Mobile application

The Traficar mobile application is a solution for maintenance-free vehicle rental. The registration process is entirely free, and for security purposes, solutions such as two-step verification (2FA) have been implemented.

After logging in, clients can see the locations of nearby cars on a map, from where they can quickly make reservations. Users can easily navigate the application, thanks to the intuitive dashboard, and its functionalities like filters, radar, or paid extension of the reservation – for even faster use of the service.

Since Traficar is available in 28 cities in Poland it was necessary to find a solution to manage parking zones in the application. This was solved with the introduction of color markings for different parking zones: red (no parking zones), yellow (parking zone for delivering cars paying an additional fee), and green (parking zones).

Customers have access to a fleet of more than 4,000 vehicles, including passenger, delivery, combustion, and electric vehicles.

Web panel

In the administration panel, employees can manage both app users and their fleet. Functionalities include, amongst others, adding, deleting, and editing all key activities that enable efficient management of key processes.

The administration panel allows you to assist customers while they rent a vehicle and allows you to manually unlock cars. Moreover, you can manage discounts and offers for your customers. Financial settlements for journeys like payment collection, invoice issuing, verification of card statuses, and top-up of portfolios, without using payment cards are carried out using the panel.

Application for the service technicians

Company technicians have access to a special app, where they can check which vehicles need maintenance like cleaning, refueling, or repairs. With this solution, Traficar can ensure the highest availability of its vehicles.

Parking in paid urban zones

The automatic module responsible for the parking of the vehicle in paid urban zones allows users to park wherever they want without worrying about paying extra fees for the parking spot. The system remotely starts and ends parking of all cars located in paid parking zones within the Traficar zone.

Traficar Business

Traficar Business is also available in Traficar, where companies can benefit from dedicated benefits for their employees or sign a framework agreement, thanks to which they can manage the Traficar fleet and plan business trips. Settlement is carried out by means of a collective invoice.

Challenges

The realization of the `Safe Driving` module, which had for objective of improving users’ driving habits as well as educating them on safe driving practices. This module required taking into account many driving factors, like the technique or the speed. The `Safe Driving` system not only allows for the rewarding of users for their excellent driving skills but also warns and even prevents them from driving if their driving habits threaten the safety of themselves or other road users.

To refresh the interface of the application. The new UX/UI has been designed from the ground up with an emphasis on aesthetics, functionality, and intuitiveness. The result of those changes was the modern and clear display of the application. Our developing team undertook this challenge and implemented several technical improvements that significantly improved the efficiency and speed of the application. Thanks to the optimization and new solutions, users can now enjoy Traficar’s services without any delay.

With close cooperation with the Traficar team, The Traficar Ogarniam program was implemented, to improve the availability of vehicles. As part of the program, users are rewarded for their active involvement in vehicle servicing. Operations like cleaning, refueling or repositioning of vehicles will allow the user to benefit from rewards that they can use on their next trips.

Artificial Intelligence in the application

Together with Traficar, we were looking for a solution to improve the fleet’s availability. One of the solutions was the Hot Spot functionality to encourage customers to leave their cars in special zones designated by artificial intelligence. Based on the provided data, AI can predict in which zones cars are more likely to be booked, as well as also where they are the least likely. The application then encourages users to leave the vehicles in `hot` zones, in exchange for a discount on the next trips.

Kubernetes for Traficar

Kubernetes is a software where you can manage your services. A solution like this is often used in projects where the application relies on a microservice architecture.

Microservices are an advanced and elastic model of system architecture, that ensures a smooth and reliable process operation even during rush hours. Instead of being based on one huge system, microservices are composed of multiple smaller systems with automated components, which makes the whole system more independent and reliable.

The main benefit of using microservices is the ability to replicate and scale them independently. If any problems were to occur during rush hours, it is easy to implement new services, without changing the whole infrastructure. This elasticity allows to act fast if the system is heavily loaded, to ensure optimal functioning.

Moreover, microservices let you work independently on various elements of the system at the same time. Implementing or developing new functionalities is easier and more efficient.

The independence of microservices is a key factor for the security and stability of the system. If you implement any changes to one of the components, it will not affect negatively the other ones, which reduces the risks of failures and errors throughout the whole system. It is also possible to test the new functionalities on a chosen group of users. Implementing these elements in the Traficar system allowed them to have a more reliable and efficient system.

Results

Mobile application for Traficar – where customers can rent cars.

Administration panel – where you can manage all business operations
Application for service technicians – so they can easily ensure comfortable traveling conditions for the customers

Automated parking solution in the paid urban areas so that the customers do not have to pay extra fees for parking in the city
Constant maintenance of the IT infrastructure
Modification of the system and of the application so they match the company’s growth strategy
A dynamic way to add new functionalities in the mobile application