BlaBlaCar, a ride-sharing service based out of Europe, has entered India making the country its 14th market across the globe.
The city-to-city ride-sharing service lets users search for trusted car owners in the same city by filling up the desired departure and arrival times along with other details. Also, car owners who are travelling to different cities can offer post their ride-sharing details online for both one-time and recurring trips, along with the price per co-traveller.
Interested co-travellers can contact the car owners to book their seats and confirm their contribution in the fuel cost for the journey. Co-travellers can see car owner details like their age, reasons for travelling, car model used for the journey and the recommended luggage size depending on the car. Besides calling, both parties can get in touch with each other via the in-app messaging service. If you are wondering how the payment is made, it is by cash - co-travellers are asked to bring exact change so they can give the car owner the agreed contribution on the journey.
Both co-travellers and car owners can leave ratings for each other to help with future transactions. BlaBlaCar also has Android and iOS apps to let car owners connect with co-travellers and vice versa. The apps feature the same 'ride offering' and 'finding a ride' services for car owners and co-travellers.
While BlaBlaCar offers co-travellers the option to check the car owner's details, it still might be a concern for some users in the country, with all app-based taxi and transport services now under the scanner. Last month witnessed an incident where one of the Uber taxi service drivers allegedly raped a female customer. The government also issued a set of rules for the company and other taxi services in India. The guidelines include installation of GPS, panic button and providing a database driver details to the police.
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