APCOA FLOW makes life easier! Intelligent parking

APCOA FLOW is a free app available for iOS and Android smartphones. APCOA FLOW makes parking easy: You can pay for parking in the app without downloading a ticket in more than 900 locations in Poland. You can extend parking from any location at any time. Payment will be taken from the payment card assigned to your account. In addition, you can see all our car parks nearby in the app.

You can register directly on the free APCOA FLOW app.

All you need is an active email address and a payment card, Blik or bank account. Register with your email address, your vehicle registration number and your payment card details (Mastercard, VISA), choosing Blik or Fast Transfer.

Registration with APCOA FLOW is free of charge. You only incur costs when you manually activate paid parking in parking meters or drive up to the barrier in barrier car parks. The parking fee charged is in accordance with the car park tariff; you do not incur any additional costs when using APCOA FLOW.

You can park with APCOA FLOW in more than 1,300 car parks in Poland. You can see our locations on a map in the APCOA FLOW app and on our websitewww.apcoa.pl. The description of each car park includes the tariff, the number of available parking spaces, the opening hours of the car park and photos of the car park.

The APCOA FLOW app allows parking in several European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy). To park in a country, you need to:

1. if you want to park in country A, you must select country A when you first start the app. Selecting country A will display the regulations and rules of country A which you must accept. Only country A will have your data and will see your parking sessions. This restriction is due to data protection laws in the European Union. Carry out a full registration.

2. Similarly, if you want to park in country B, you will need to uninstall the app and reinstall it to select country B on its first launch (on Android, instead of uninstalling the app, you can also go to System Settings->Applications->Apcoa Flow->Default Memory->Clear Memory, Clear Data). Accept country B regulations and complete registration. Important! You must use a different email account to the one in country A.

Important note, when selecting a country you choose the country in which you want to park your vehicle! You do not select the language of the application! The language of the app depends on the one you have set on your phone. For example, if your phone is set to Polish, the application will be in Polish. If your phone is set to another language, the application will be in English.

In parking facilities, start the application, select the correct parking facility (the green icon indicates that parking can be paid for by APCOA FLOW), read the applicable tariff specified in the parking details (optional), mark the parking time by moving the green dot, click START, select the registration number of the parking vehicle and finally accept the amount to be paid.

In car parks with free parking time, the time will be marked immediately. In most car parks, a free parking session is available every 4 hours. This restriction is due to overly clever users who have triggered free parking sessions one after the other taking up spaces for other users (e.g. customers of Lidl, Netto, Biedronka, Aldi, OBI, etc.) all day long. Unfortunately, due to overly 'clever' users, this restriction also affects the honest ones.

In the case of paid parking, the marked time will be charged according to the applicable tariff from the added means of payment (Mastercard, VISA). If Blik or Quick Transfer is selected as the payment method, the charge must be accepted manually.

Early termination of parking will not result in a refund of the unused amount.

At parking meter car parks, you can extend your parking easily and from anywhere using APCOA FLOW. The fee for extended parking will be charged in advance according to the tariff in force at the car park from the added means of payment.

Early termination of parking will not result in a refund of the unused amount.

APCOA FLOW is a free app available for iOS and Android smartphones. APCOA FLOW makes parking easy: You can pay for parking in the app without downloading a ticket at more than 900 locations in Poland. You can extend parking from any location at any time. Payment will be taken from the payment card assigned to your account. In addition, you can see all our car parks nearby in the app.

APCOA FLOW is a free app available for iOS and Android smartphones. APCOA FLOW makes parking easy: You can pay for parking in the app without downloading a ticket at more than 900 locations in Poland. You can extend parking from any location at any time. Payment will be taken from the payment card assigned to your account. In addition, you can see all our car parks nearby in the app.

There is no obligation to display the APCOA FLOW parking payment information behind the vehicle's windscreen or to mark the vehicle with the APCOA FLOW logo.

The controller, based on the registration number of the parked vehicle, will verify the payment of parking by Flow in its controller application.

You can store up to 5 registration numbers in APCOA FLOW.

When parking in parking meters, you can change the registration number you want to pay for before starting the parking session. By default, the most recently used registration number is used.

In the case of barrier parking, the system automatically reads the registration number of the vehicle and will only open the entry barrier if a read registration number assigned to some account in APCOA FLOW is found. A parking session will be opened for this account and this registration number. If you do not want the system to start barrier parking sessions on its own, set the vehicle as inactive (you will still be able to start parking sessions for this number in barrier car parks).

If you use a car, e.g. from a rental company, remember to either set this number as inactive straight away or remember to delete it from your account as soon as it is returned to the rental company. Otherwise, the next rental customer who uses this vehicle may debit your account with their parking with this vehicle.

In APCOA FLOW, in addition to the default Private Profile, you can also set up a Business Profile, enter your company details and the confirmations you receive after each parking will be invoices.

To add a Business Profile with company details, in the application:

1. click Menu->Payments and Profiles.

2) Click on Select a profile/billing account or select an existing Business Profile.

3. enter your Company Email (you will receive email confirmations for transactions made on your Business Profile) and complete the rest of the company details (by clicking 'Add more details').

Once you have two profiles (Personal and Business), you can decide which of them is to be the default one when starting subsequent parking sessions (this is particularly important in the case of parking in barrier car parks, where the session will start automatically using the default profile and you will no longer be able to change it later for that session).

You can, for example, assign a company card (or the same card as for the Private Profile) to the Business Profile.

When defining the parking time for a new session or purchasing a subscription, you can change the Profile to which the transaction is to be assigned.

By selecting the default profile you decide which means of payment will be used to pay for your parking session and which email address you will receive the confirmation/invoice for your parking session.

You can change the default profile at any time Menu->Payments and profiles->Profile ....->Set as default.

Once you have two profiles (Personal and Business), you can decide which profile is to be the default when starting subsequent parking sessions (this is particularly important when parking in barrier parking where the session will start automatically using the default profile and you will no longer be able to change this profile later for that session).

In APCOA FLOW you can have several payment methods added (payment cards, Blik). You will be charged with the method that is assigned to the Profile.

To each profile (Private and Business) you can assign a different or the same payment card, or Blik or Fast Transfer.

By adding the card, you make a payment for 1zł authorising APCOA FLOW to charge future parking fees. The amount charged will be automatically refunded. This first payment transaction may require authorisation in the banking application of the bank that issued the card.Pay attention to the messages appearing on your phone at the time of this authorisation (each bank has different rules for authorising transactions so there is no single method we can describe here).

APCOA FLOW will charge the payment method (card) assigned to the Default Profile (Private or Business). By selecting the default profile, you decide which means of payment will be used to pay for your parking session and which email address you will receive a confirmation/invoice for your parking session.

You can change the default profile at any time Menu->Payments and profiles->Profile ....->Set as default.

By having two profiles (Personal and Business), you can decide which profile is to be the default when starting subsequent parking sessions (this is particularly important when parking in barrier parking where the session will automatically start using the default profile and you will no longer be able to change this profile later for that session).

When defining a parking time for a parking meter, you can always change the card to be charged by clicking on the card icon (containing either the last four digits of the card number or the name of the profile to be paid).

After each transaction (single parking or purchase of a subscription), you will receive a confirmation of the transaction to the email assigned to the Profile you are using (Private or Business).

Such confirmation will contain details of the transaction (time and date of its commencement and completion, name of the car park, the fee charged broken down into its components, the profile which was used for the transaction and the last 4 digits of the payment card which was charged).

In case of using the Business Profile, the attached PDF document will also contain the company details (company name, address, Tax Identification Number) which you provided when defining the Business Profile.

Unfortunately, it is not possible during or after a parking session to change the Profile which was used for a given transaction.

Paying in advance for parking in a parking meter or barrier car park does not guarantee the availability of a space.

APCOA FLOW handles parking in both parking meter and barrier car parks.

From now on in barrier car parks, you don't even have to open the window in your car. The automatic Number Plate Recognition System will recognise your vehicle and open the entrance barrier. At the exit, the camera will also read your number plate, open the exit barrier and automatically charge the parking fee from the card assigned to the default Profile according to the car park price list.

If it is not possible to read (e.g. a dirty or snowy number plate), you can scan the QR code on the entry or exit barrier to start or end your parking session accordingly. You can use any QR code scanner available on your smartphone or use the scanner built into APCOA FLOW (there is a QR code scanner icon halfway up on the main screen on the right).

If, for some reason, a vehicle has left the barrier car park (e.g. the exit barrier was raised) and the parking session is still running in the app, this means that due to a technical failure (temporary lack of internet, temporary server or barrier system failure, power failure, etc.) the system has not detected the vehicle leaving the car park. In this case, please inform us as soon as possible that you have left the car park so that we can close the parking session in question. Please go to APCOA FLOW Menu->Help->Send message and provide the time of departure and the name of the car park where the session did not end. We will then close the session according to your declaration and inform you by replying to your request.

If a Parking Summons has been issued to a parking meter for unpaid parking and according to you the parking was paid for in the APCOA FLOW app, please report this to us so that we can check what has happened and if indeed the parking is correctly paid for so that we can cancel the issued Summons.

If such a Summons has already been issued, do not run after the Controller, seek him out or persuade him to cancel the Summons. Once a Summons has been issued, it is no longer possible for the controller to cancel it, there is simply no technical possibility to do so!

The most common reasons for issuing a Summons despite paid parking in APCOA FLOW:

- the summons was issued for a breach of the parking regulations (e.g. for parking outside the designated parking spaces), which can be seen on the summons in the space specifying the reason for its issuance

- the customer has paid for parking in APCOA FLOW for e.g. 2 hours, but for some reason finished parking after 5 minutes. In this case, if the controller checks the vehicle in question 10 minutes after the start of the parking, the controller's system will show him that the parking has not been paid for.

- the customer has several vehicles and has paid for parking vehicle A while parking vehicle B

- the controller, while entering the registration number of the vehicle being checked into the controller's application, enters the number with an error (e.g. instead of zero he enters the letter O or vice versa) and, as a result, the controller's system does not show him the correctly paid parking in APCOA FLOW

- when entering the registration number of his vehicle into APCOA FLOW, the customer made a mistake/letter error

If the summons is issued for violation of the parking rules - we will not help.

However, if the summons was issued for other reasons, please write to us in one of the following ways, each time briefly describing the situation:

1. directly fromAPCOA FLOW, using Menu->Help->Send Message stating in the message:

• Call Number and vehicle registration number

2. by sendingan emailto flow@apcoa.pl stating:

• Summons number and vehicle registration number

• Customer number (visible in the Menu at the top under your name)

• The e-mail address to which the APCOA FLOW account is set up (only if different from the one from which the e-mail is sent)

At selected car parks, you can purchase a subscription that is active immediately after purchase or at a later date.

We currently provide subscriptions for 12 hours, 24 hours, 3 days, 7 days, 14 days and 30 days.

You can set up automatic renewal of your subscription so that you do not have to worry about renewing it.

You can also change the registration numbers assigned to a subscription.

Need a subscription that is not included in the app? Contact us and we will create one for you!

If you have purchased a subscription for a parking meter, you will not receive any information during the subscription period. You will only receive a reminder a few days before the subscription expires.

If the subscription you have purchased is for barrier parking, each time you enter APCOA FLOW, a parking session will start and continue until your vehicle leaves. Only when you leave will the app check whether to charge you for this parking (if you have a subscription, the app will not charge you) and only close the parking session.

It is necessary to start the parking session each time you leave because, for example, if your vehicle is still in the car park and the subscription has already expired, then when you actually leave the car park you will be charged from the time the subscription expired until you leave (i.e. there will be no charge for the time the subscription was valid even if it was only valid for part of the parking time).

If you have more cars and want to buy more subscriptions, look for the question below which describes this case in detail.

If you are unable to read it (e.g. a dirty or snowy number plate), you can scan the QR code on the entry or exit post to start or end your parking session accordingly. You can use any QR code scanner available on your smartphone or use the scanner built into APCOA FLOW (there is a QR code scanner icon halfway up on the main screen on the right).

If, for some reason, a vehicle has left the barrier car park (e.g. the exit barrier was raised) and the parking session is still running in the app, this means that due to a technical failure (temporary lack of internet, temporary server or barrier system failure, power failure, etc.) the system has not detected the vehicle leaving the car park. In this case, please inform us as soon as possible that you have left the car park so that we can close the parking session in question. Please go to APCOA FLOW Menu->Help->Send message and provide the time of departure and the name of the car park where the session did not end. We will then close the session according to your declaration and inform you by replying to your request.

The app allows you to pay for parking in 9 countries in Europe: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Sweden and Italy. Together in more than 4,000 car parks. Only in Poland are there car parks with free parking time.

In order to start parking, it is required to complete a registration requiring an email, add at least one vehicle and indicate the default payment method (Blik/Transfer/Payment Card).

Indeed, for customers using only free parking, adding a payment method does not make sense, however, in that case there would be no possibility to extend parking for the time already required to pay.

However, if there are no extensions for paid parking time, there will also be no fee charged.

The fastest method of payment is by debit card, but if you are concerned about giving out your debit card details, many banks allow you to create a virtual debit card on which you decide for yourself what the funds are. Add such a card, even with a zero balance, and you will feel secure while at the same time enabling you to park in car parks with free parking time.

If the parking session is not restarted and the vehicle continues to park, you may receive a surcharge notice this way.

Start the APCOA FLOW application, search for a car park, e.g. Poznań Dolna Wilda II, and click on BUY SUBSCRIPTION.

Buy a subscription (e.g. for 14 or 30 days), select purchase from now or a start date in the future. You can also select automatic renewal of your subscription.

In the Business Profile, you have the option of adding your company details (name, VAT ID, address), which will appear on the confirmation for each transaction, i.e. each confirmation will be an invoice.

In order to add a Business Profile with company data, it is necessary in the application:

1. click Menu->Methods of payment and profiles.

2) Click Select Profile/Billing Account or select an existing Business Profile.

3. enter your Company Email (you will receive email confirmations for transactions made using your Business Profile) and complete the rest of the company details (by clicking 'Add more details').

Once you have two profiles (Personal and Business), you can decide which one you want to use as the default profile when starting subsequent parking sessions. If the default profile is the Business profile, then new transactions (including subscription purchases) will be carried out from this profile.

In barrier car parks, in some cases (e.g. dirty number plate, snowy number plate, poor visibility due to rain/fog/darkness, approaching the entrance at an angle) the camera is unable to read the number plate correctly. In such cases, launch the APCOA FLOW app, click on the QR code scanner icon (on the main screen on the right side of the screen) and scan the QR code placed on the barrier parking entrance or exit post respectively. The parking session will then end and the barrier will open.

It is not possible to opt out of receiving confirmations of transactions made at APCOA FLOW. Confirmations of transactions made, in particular those charged to a payment card, must be sent as they serve, among other things, to report complaints and for your control of the payment card funds charged.

APCOA FLOW in barrier car parks allows automatic opening of the barriers and automatic collection of the charge according to the price list.

Each car park supporting automatic toll collection is marked with the APCOA FLOW logo on the entrance barrier, exit barrier and inside the car park.

The current list of barrier car parks with automatic toll collection is available in Menu->Driver barrier car parks.

This is also where you can disable automatic charging by Flow at selected barrier car parks, e.g. if you have a subscription purchased outside the APCOA FLOW app.

In order not to be charged for parking in a specific barrier car park, go to Menu->Barrier car parks and disable automatic charging by Flow in this car park.

You can also disable the automatic start of barrier parking sessions for your vehicle by setting a specific registration number as inactive: Menu->My Vehicles->Abc Vehicle->Set as inactive

If you do not want to be charged for parking in a particular barrier car park, you need to go to Menu->Barrier car parks and disable Flow's automatic charging for that car park.

You can also disable the automatic start of barrier parking sessions for your vehicle by setting a specific registration number as inactive: Menu->My Vehicles->Abc Vehicle->Set as inactive.

If there is no parking icon in APCOA FLOW where the car park with APCOA FLOW app ads is located, this means that the car park has not yet been added to the app.

If this is the case, to expedite the addition of the car park, please send an email to flow[at]apcoa.co.uk stating the address and city of the missing car park. We will then add it as a matter of urgency.

If the app has charged a fee and should allow the customer to park for free, one of the following cases may have occurred:

1. the customer has already used up free parking time in that car park and is trying to restart a parking session in the same car park and the grace period for free parking time again has not yet elapsed (usually 4 hours from the start of the first free session to the start of the next free session).

2. the customer has already used up the free parking time in car park A and tries to start a free parking session in car park B. The problem only affects car parks that have the same free time (e.g. 60 minutes). We are planning to change the system so that the codes for the free discounted time do not overlap, but this will still take a while.

3. the system had a connectivity problem with the servers at the time the free parking session was launched and the free parking time was not allocated for this reason.

In any of the above cases, please contact us (either by sending an email to flow[at]apcoa.co.uk or directly from the application Menu->Support->Send message) so that we can refund the wrongly charged fee (in the case of point 1, this type of refund is available only once).

We are happy to help with any problems with APCOA FLOW, but in order to do so we need to know exactly what is happening specifically.

No parking in the app? Can't set a parking time? Can't click the START button? Registration number selection screen doesn't appear? Payment doesn't go through?

Ideally, in addition to a brief description, we would receive screenshots documenting the problem occurring. And by far the best would be a video of the action taken showing the problem.

If you want to buy several subscriptions for parking lots/parkingmeters only, you can buy them all on one account in APCOA FLOW. Assign a different vehicle to each subscription.

However, if you want to buy several subscriptions forbarrier car parksyou will need to purchase each subscription to a different email address (different account in APCOA FLOW).

This is because APCOA FLOW is structured in such a way that one account in APCOA FLOW can only have one parking session active at a time. And in barrier car parks, each entry starts such a parking session. This means that if you purchase two subscriptions on the same account in APCOA FLOW and the first vehicle has already entered the barrier parking (a parking session starts for it), the system will not allow the second vehicle in even though you have a subscription for it.

Therefore, if the subscriptions are for barrier parking, each subscription must be purchased for a different account in APCOA FLOW (different email address).

If you have registered via AppleID, Facebook or Google, we do not hold your password in our systems and therefore the password reset/reminder function does not work.

If you have registered via one of these channels, you must also log in via one of these channels each time.

If, for example, you registered via AppleID, you will need to click on the AppleID icon when logging in.

There is a problem with short number plates (e.g. KR 9, P0 22, etc.).

The problem with a short number plate is that a camera reading a long number plate may, due to e.g. snow-covered plate, poor lighting, dirty plate, read only a fragment of the plate (e.g. the camera reads KR 98723, but due to dirt it reads only KR 9).

The system then analyses the number thus read out from the camera and checks whether such a vehicle is sometimes included in the list of vehicles added to APCOA FLOW. If it is, it starts a parking session for this registration number (account in APCOA FLOW), even though such a vehicle has not actually entered the car park (because vehicle KR 98723 has entered). This can cause a parking session to start incorrectly for a vehicle with a short registration number.

To ensure that this situation does not occur, two options are available:

1.Set the vehicle as inactive (Menu->My vehicles->Set inactive) then the vehicle will not be charged for parking in barrier car parks

2.Go to Menu->Barrier car parks and disable automatic charging by Flow in those car parks where the customer does not wish to park.

If the barrier does not open when you enter the barrier car park, this could be due to the following reasons:

1. Your number plate could not be read correctly (possibly due to dirt or snow in winter)

2. Your last parking session was not fully completed

3. Your vehicle's number plate is not set as 'active' in the app

4. You have deactivated Flow in the barrier parking in question (in Menu->Barrier parking)

First check the status of your last parking process in the app and pay the outstanding amounts.Also make sure that your number plate has an "active" status.If not, press the intercom button and our customer service centre will assist you.

If the barrier does not open when you leave, this may be due to the following reasons:

1. Your number plate could not be read correctly (probably due to dirt or snow in winter)

2. Your parking process has not started correctly

Please press the intercom button and our customer service centre will help you.

In any case, please check your number plate for cleanliness.

This is a common occurrence, for example within a family, when several drivers are operating the same vehicle.

It is a good idea for each driving member of the family to have their own account set up in APCOA FLOW as this is needed to start a parking session at the parking meters.

Each of these accounts will need to have a credit card added, but it can also be the same credit card - the system places no restrictions here.

If the same registration number is added to several different accounts, a warning appears in the app that another account has the same registration number assigned.

This is for a simple reason: barrier parking is charged automatically, so APCOA FLOW needs to know which specific account to charge for barrier parking.

Hence, only one of the accounts can have that vehicle 'Active' and the others 'Inactive'. Then, if any family member parks in the barrier car park, the parking session will only appear on the account where the vehicle is "Active". And it does not matter here whether the owner of the "Active" or "Inactive" vehicle is behind the wheel at the time.

In the event of problems reading the number plate at the entrance (e.g. a snowy plate), the user can manually start a parking session by reading the QR code on the entrance post. The system then does not take into account whether the vehicle assigned to the account is active or inactive but only starts the parking session for that account. So each family member will always be able to start a parking session manually as well (by reading the QR code).

Reading the QR code at the exit is a bit different in this case. The exit barrier after reading the QR code will only be raised if a parking session exists for that account.

So if a user has scanned the QR code at the entrance, then a parking session has started for their account, so they can end it by reading the QR code at the exit.

If, on the other hand, a user with an "Inactive" registration number has entered the car park by reading the registration number (i.e. a parking session has started for an account with an "Active" registration number) then the "Inactive" user reading the QR code at the exit will not complete the session because no such session exists on their account.

For the above reasons, it is best if the vehicle number is "Active" on the account that uses the vehicle most frequently.

To change the number plate in an active subscription, you must first add the new plate to your account (if it is not already added) in the "My Vehicles" tab, using the green plus icon in the top right corner of the screen. Then, go to the 'My subscriptions' tab and in the active subscription, next to the current number plates, click the green edit icon to change the number plate to one of those assigned to your account.

From April 2025, in order to use barrier car parks, you will need to connect your payment card to your FLOW account and set it as your default payment method.

Existing BLIK and bank transfer payments will no longer be supported in barrier car parks - the barrier will not open automatically.

What do you need to do?

Log in to your APCOA FLOW account.

Add a payment card under "Payments and profiles" -> "Payment methods" -> "Add new payment method" and set it as your default payment method.

Enjoy faster and more hassle-free parking entry.

The change does not apply to:

- parking in parking meters (e.g. Lidl) (all payment methods are still available here),

- purchase of subscriptions at all car parks (all payment methods are still available here),

- customers with an active subscription in barrier parking (in which case the system ignores the type of default payment method).

Important disclaimer:

If a payment card is not added to the APCOA FLOW account by the end of February and set as the default payment method, it will not be possible to enter the barrier car park with the automatic opening of the barrier and the start of the parking session in the APCOA FLOW app (except for vehicles with an active subscription for the selected registration number).

This change will allow parking fees to be charged automatically, reducing entry and exit times and eliminating the need for additional payment operations.

If your question about APCOA FLOW has not been answered above, please email us at: flow[at]apcoa.co.uk or send us a message directly from APCOA FLOW Menu->Help->Send Message.

We will try our best to solve your problem as quickly and efficiently as possible.