The BlaBlaCar carpooling service has named Ukraine among top three countries in terms of the service development pace: in January-June 2019, the Ukrainian community of BlaBlaCar passed the five billion mark, the press service of the service has reported. According to the company’s information, the service community in the world reached 75 million users in 22 countries (3.4 million on average per country).
The company said that over the past two years, activity on the BlaBlaCar platform in Ukraine has grown by more than 150%, and daily dozens of thousands of people make trips.
“At peak times (Christmas, Easter holidays), over one million free places are published on the platform. Of these, 80% are trips across Ukraine, 20% are international (Poland, Germany, Czech Republic and other countries),” the company’s press service reported, noting that the service was the second among the platforms in Ukraine, where you can book a trip from a city to a city.
According to the company, the rapid growth of the platform was influenced by the increase in passenger traffic in million-plus cities (Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Lviv).
“Monthly service records more than 45,000 unique places of departure and arrival throughout Ukraine, which connect more than 90% of the country’s settlements. This is especially important for small towns and villages where there is no direct bus or train connection and which are far from major transportation hubs and highways,” BlaBlaCar said.
According to Zero Empty Seats, a global study into the environmental impact of carpooling, in 2018, carpooling saved more than 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 a year, including 245,000 tonnes in Ukraine.
The company plans to continue improving the product in Ukraine, and focusing on creating a marketplace for long-distance road trips.
“Combining the proposals of fellow travelers and bus routes on one platform will allow BlaBlaCar to become a global marketplace for making long-distance trips,” the company said.
