Carpooling, a method for cheap travel

Many people are looking for a solution to reduce travel costs while maintaining comfort. Although carpooling is widely known in the United States, it is still in its infancy in Poland. We cannot get everywhere by public transport, trains are not the cheapest, and we often do not trust hitchhiking. The solution to the problem of expensive travel may be carpooling.

A handful of history
The whole idea of ​​shared travel was initiated in the United States. The reason was the oil crisis that took place in the 1970s. Americans were looking for a way to minimize travel costs while maintaining travel comfort. Another wave of interest in shared travel came with the deepening climate change and the increase in carbon dioxide emissions.

In Poland, on the other hand, the beginning of the “fashion” for carpooling can be considered the times of the Polish People’s Republic and the famous “give a lift to your neighbor” campaign, which encouraged people to share travel, because at that time only a few could afford to own a car.

Mutual benefits
Looking around the street, you can see that in most cases the driver travels without passengers, and yet petrol prices are not the cheapest. So why not travel with someone? Carpooling involves bringing together people via the Internet who travel the same route.

In other words, you lend a place in a car to people who are going in the same direction to minimise the cost of the journey. This applies to both everyday routes, e.g. to work, and also one-off journeys, e.g. for a holiday abroad. You save not only on fuel, but also on toll motorway tolls.

Arranged journeys often involve people who are complete strangers to each other. For this purpose, online platforms have been created, thanks to which users can offer journeys in their cars or look for drivers to travel to a given place together.

Of course, the date and time of the journey are set, as well as information about the possible transport of animals or the possibility of taking larger luggage.

How does BlaBlaCar do it?
Offers of shared travel can be found on Internet portals dealing with carpooling. One of the most popular is BlaBlaCar.pl – a service operating since 2012, which brings together over 800,000 drivers. In the case of this portal, large online campaigns were not necessary – one could say that the promotion of the service on the Internet was based mainly on recommendations of its users, whose number is constantly growing.

The strength of BlaBlaCar lies in its simplicity – all you need to do is enter the name of the town you want to leave from, the destination of your trip, and then select the date.

BlaBlaCar has also created promotional videos explaining how shared travel works and encouraging you to use the service. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aFR5ka8vxw

Additional conveniences include the ability to review opinions about a given driver and information about what car they drive. In order to make travel even more convenient, the service has provided information about the “BlaBla status” – i.e. to what extent a given person is a “talker”. The “Bla” level is reserved for those who prefer to travel in silence, while “BlaBlaBla” – as you can easily guess – is the domain of talkative people who like to diversify their journey with conversations.

The portal also gives you the opportunity to earn points, which can then translate into your credibility. A “new” user receives the title of “novice”. The next stages, which are acquired during active use, are: adept, experienced, expert and ambassador.

In this way, you can find a passenger/driver with whom the journey will be comfortable. Additionally, users also have the opportunity to recommend other users.

In addition to the obvious financial benefits, there are more benefits resulting from the use of carpooling. It will benefit not only our pocket, but also the environment and people living in the city center – shared rides reduce environmental pollution, reduce traffic jams and traffic noise.