The platform expects more than 4.5 million travelers this summer. If the drivers are delighted, the opinions remain mixed on the side of the passengers.
After two years of pandemic, BlaBlaCar is restarting on the hats. On Twitter, the group specified on July 1 to expect more than 4.5 million travelers this summer. Faced with this enthusiasm, some drivers are getting into carpooling, like Laurent-Emile.
This Belgian tested BlaBlaCar as a passenger during his holidays on the Côte d’Azur and as soon as he returned to Brussels, he offered his services as a driver. “I just moved to the Belgian capital and I felt a bit guilty about having a car in town, so I thought I’d pass it on to other people“, he mentions au Figaro. Laurent-Emile recognizes this, “rising fuel prices also played a rolein his registration.
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For his first trip, 150 kilometers from Brussels, he drives two young girls to their internship. He then registers on BlaBlaCar Daily for his home-to-work journey. Within a week, he met a person who lives next door to him and works in the same town. Laurent-Emile plans to renew the experience with her every Tuesday and Thursday. “For my daily journeys, my fuel costs are fully covered thanks to BlaBlaCar and the participation of my employer», explains the Belgian.
Service fee debate
Théo, 23, created a Facebook group two years ago called BlaBlaCar Monde, bringing together more than 1,700 members. He assures him,the number of requests to join the group has exploded over the past year“. Launched in 2004, BlaBlaCar now has 100 million users in 22 countries, including 20 million in France. On the Facebook group, many passengers share their itinerary every day, in the hope of finding a driver. Next August, Théo will drive between Les Herbiers (Vendée) to Paris, for a price of 32 euros. He hopes not to be alone in his car, mainly to meet new people. “I’m a real chatterbox“, highlighted au Figaro the young man.
On the passenger side, the enthusiasm is less marked. Coline, 23, has been using BlaBlaCar since 2017 to connect the city of her studies, Lille, to her family home in Le Havre. “By train, there is no direct route, you have to go through Rouen or Paris. I save an hour thanks to BlaBlaCar“, she says. If the journey is normally around 20 to 26 euros (compared to 40 euros by train), she has noticed strong increases since the beginning of the year. The student regrets thatsome drivers seek to take advantage of the increase in demand by posting trips at 50 euros“. To get attractive fares, she advises booking your journey at least “two weeks in advance».
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A specific subject animates BlaBlaCar passengers: the service charges levied by the platform. “On each of my trips, we discuss it with other users“says Coline. The student noticed an increase of 3 to 7 euros for the same trip, in the space of a few months. On its site, BlaBlaCar remains rather vague, writing that these fees allow “provide you with assistance 7 days a week“, of “create a safer platform by verifying our members” and of “provide you with the best experience throughout the trip“. They are calculatedfrom the price that the driver sets for his or her journey“. In order to avoid these costs, some users exchange their contacts to avoid going through the platform. Simply “withdraw a place on the application and pay the driver directly from hand to handConcludes Coline.