BlaBlaCar He is about to celebrate the 15th anniversary of his arrival in Spain. Its main business, widely recognized by consumers, shared cars for long distance travel. The digital platform brings together drivers who have empty seats in their vehicles and passengers who want to make the same journey and share the costs. It is a ride-sharing service with 8 million users in the Spanish market and this will be the mainstay of its activity.
The company also fully expanded into Spain a few years ago. bus transportation, It operates international routes with France and Portugal with its own buses (national domestic connections are not liberalized and operate under a concession regime) and markets tickets from other companies for domestic routes (there is already an agreement between Madrid and Portugal to sell Jiménez Dorado group trips). Ávila and is negotiating with other companies to improve third-party distribution and increase its bus route offering).
BlaBlacar is currently actively exploring the Spanish market to launch other completely new services to complement its multimodal transport offering. The group’s plans are coming true Buy train tickets on your digital platform and also start a launch New car sharing service for short and regular trips For those who want public assistance to drivers (to go to work or to the study center), let it be profitable for them. For both alternatives, it contacted other companies and Administrations and started to put them into action.
BlaBlaCar now works together Renfe, Iryo and Ouigo Three companies offering high-speed train services in the Spanish market will adapt and integrate their respective technological platforms in order to include railway companies’ tickets into their own applications and present them to their users, according to information received from sources. the company from the Prensa Ibérica group to El Periódico de España. Currently this involves work between technical teams across all companies; this is a preliminary technological development step to later negotiate the commercial aspects of alliances.
BlaBlaCar’s aim is to offer its users a more comprehensive offer. showing them different alternatives for their journey and combining various modes of transport. Currently, when a BlaBlaCar user searches for transportation for a specific trip, the app can show carpooling and bus options. The goal is to add train tickets to these alternatives on the same BlaBlaCar platform soon, although the company avoids giving a deadline.
Also very short trips
The company has so far focused its operations in Spain on shared vehicles for long-distance journeys (users’ average journey is around 300 kilometres). But the group also plans to launch a service for short, regular trips. Promote carpooling on your way to work or class, replicating the model already implemented in France with the BlaBlaCar Daily service.
The main goal of both drivers and passengers is to save money by sharing travel expenses. Here’s what BlaBlaCar offers to drivers who offer their vehicles: the cost for each kilometer traveled is 0.045 euros Car sharing is profitable for car owners (although there are margins to lower or increase this price) and normal travel distances are long. A commission of approximately 20% is added to the amount collected from drivers, including administrative costs and VAT charged by BlaBlacar.
On short trips (20 or 30 kilometers), it is more difficult for drivers to find it attractive to offer empty seats because the revenue will be too low and will not compensate for the difficulties of carpooling every day. Because of this BlaBlaCar wants these drivers to receive public assistance Encouraging the use of shared cars, as is already the case in France, where regional governments pay drivers to share a car or simply offer empty spaces even if they are not occupied.
Public driver assistance
BlaBlaCar began making the request in meetings with representatives of various governments of Spanish autonomous communities, seeking direct incentives for drivers willing to share a car for short-distance trips to Spain. Have fewer private cars on the roads and in cities.
expected Sustainable Mobility Act With the state on the verge of approval due to early voting, the state should create a basis for communities to approve their own regulations on this issue, and BlaBlaCar hopes to include measures to encourage ridesharing as a precaution. sustainability and efficiency.
“Being able to launch BlaBlaCar Daily in Spain depends on the incentives the driver receives for sharing their car. Whether the service works or not depends on the autonomous communities, and we are already talking to them about this. “We need a model that will encourage drivers to share their empty seats on short journeys,” the company states and emphasizes the willingness of regional governments to examine this initiative.