Carpooling is currently the need of the hour across the globe. A French based company named BlaBlaCar has ventured into carpooling services that indeed takes pride in introducing itself as world's largest long-distance ride-sharing community. The company has been backed up by US and European venture capital firms including companies like Accel Partners and Index Ventures. The new service shall allow customers to share the fare among co-travelers out on city to city travel.
Nicolas Brusson co-founder and chief operating officer of Bla-BlaCar has stated that India shall indeed be one of the biggest market for the company to do business in. The service would initially be started in Delhi-Gurgaon locality today. Speaking more on the service, Brusson added, “India has a lot to gain from community ride sharing. Smart, sustainable and social, it is win-win for both car-owners and co-travelers. Initially, we’ll not charge anything from users. This will remain be a free service until we reach a scale and educate people about our service.” He further added, “India, with its young, highly connected population, and multiple major urban hubs separated by long distances, has great potential for ride sharing. Chronically overcrowded transport infrastructure forces travelers to book their train or bus tickets weeks in advance, while the high price of fuel makes long-distance car travel often unaffordable. BlaBlaCar will make last-minute city-to-city travel both available and affordable. Car-owners will be able to offer seats to co-travelers, so they can travel together and share fuel costs.”
Commenting on the idea, Raghav Gupta, India country manager said, “We are people-powered network and community based. The riders takes an informed decision on who to travel with, and both sides have the option to call off a ride if they do not like the fellow traveler. To use the app, you need a Facebook profile, and a phone number which is the first step of authentication. We already had detailed discussions with the regulatory authorities and lawmakers. Our model is robust and different.”
