What is "Blah-blah-kar"?

You can travel in different ways: by plane, train or bus. And also on your own car - this is the very method of movement that unties your hands. Well, if your car is not, and the tickets are expensive? Then you can come to the aid of modern search engines and applications, such as BlaBlaCar. What is "Blah-blah-kar"? This is an online platform that allows drivers to save on gasoline, and passengers - to find the most beneficial options for traveling on the chosen route. There are a lot of such services, but "Blah-blah-kar" is the largest of them. Its activity officially covers 22 countries of the world. It unites about 40 million consumers.

History

What is "Blah-blah-kar" and how did this service come about? The idea first occurred to Frederick Mazzella, the Frenchman. When he only registered it (in 2004), it was called Covoiturage.fr (that is, traveling together by car). The idea was that such a website helped drivers and passengers who wanted to share the cost of a trip over medium and long distances, find each other. This works as follows. Drivers publish their routes, and passengers choose them, and after the trip they divide the cost equally. On average, the range of such a journey is about three hundred and fifty kilometers. Frederic Mazzella heads the firm "Komuto", which is the owner of the service.

How the name appeared

In 2009, the site launched the Spanish version. It was called Comuto.es, like the company itself. But what is "Blah-blah-kar" and how did this name come about? The matter is that since 2011 the start-up has started to operate in the Great Britain. And when it was advertised, they decided to name the system of search for fellow travelers in this way - from the English words "blah blah", that is, chatter, and "car" - the car. The site in the English version looked like BlaBlaCar.com. And the following year began to be called a system that was opened at the international level.

Activities in different countries

In 2012, Europe already knew well what "Blah-blah-kar" is. The success of the online system began to develop by leaps and bounds. Venues appeared in Italy, Portugal, Poland, the Benelux countries. And in 2013, when the activities of the start-up also covered Germany, the number of states in which it operated increased to ten. Then it was decided to standardize all the sites, because they all had different names. The most popular name was "Blah-blah-kar." The number of passengers and the number of passengers increased. From April 29, 2013, even the basic French service was renamed into English. In 2014, the service is launched in Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, in 2015 - in India and Mexico. The last European countries that joined the project were the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The services

This service has made a very popular way of traveling, like "ridesharing." He created a whole category of travelers, for whom they came up with an appropriate name - "blah-blah-companions." These are people who are ready to go in a foreign car to save time and money on trips. After all, for example, on a trip from Moscow to St. Petersburg, you can spend only about five hundred rubles, if you're lucky. Now this is not only a site, but also an application that can be downloaded for iPhone or Android. If you need "blah-blah-companions", you should register, write about what route you are interested in, and find the right price. In the interface there are many different options - whether the driver likes music, smokes, what kind of car he has, whether you can carry a lot of luggage, take a dog or a cat ... The reviews describe previous trips, as well as the reputation of both drivers and passengers. Currently, the service has about fifty awards from various organizations and publications, including from the newspaper "Figaro" for the best place for work, entertainment and adventure.

"Blah-blah-trips": reviews and tips

Of course, in each country the startup acts differently. Russian users are no exception. Many people say that there is a certain risk - entrust themselves and their property to a stranger. They are reasonably answerable, why do not we do the same when we take a train or a minibus? Experienced users advise to look more closely at the brand of the car - if it is already used or small, you may be uncomfortable. Also it is worth paying attention to how many passengers will be behind. If there are three people sitting there, then your comfort will depend on their size. "Blah-blah-trip" is always a lottery, but the choice is yours. After all, in the end, this service is not a taxi. It just makes your trip cheaper, but the driver goes where he needs first of all, and carries you on the transport that he has. Be sure to look at the rating of a fellow traveler or driver, as well as pay attention to the assessments of previous users. So you will have an idea of who and in what society you are going to go. But in general, those who had the opportunity to try this service, speak of it as a convenient, profitable and often giving positive and pleasant emotions.