I have a couple of long trips coming up… Basel Switzerland – Brighton then a loop up through the UK before returning to the Black Forest, Germany and home….

BlaBlaCar looks like a good idea for offering a lift and getting a bit of cash for it… Anyone with any experiences, good and bad? Is it worth it or just a potential load world of hassle…. ?

Lifts with psycho’s, chainsaw murderers, non-stop ear bleeding talkers or in general, just nice folk?

Very popular in France. Never used myself but know lots of people who travel with it all the time.

I use it as a traveller as does junior. I’ve never offered lifts though. “nice folk” so far.

Genuine question but…

Money + passenger => carrying for hire and reward? = insurance issue?

Rider just helps towards costs, no profit so no hire or reward.

When you travel with BlaBlaCar as a driver, passengers contribute towards your running costs. No profits are made which is why BlaBlaCar drivers’ insurance policies are not affected.

I think that there is no transaction on the day, I think BBC transfers money after the lift.
I can’t see it being in any way profitable but might just help a bit with fuel…

Same principle in the NHS. Volunteer drivers drive people to and from hospital (could be 100’s of miles. All they get is fuel/running costs. Doesn’t effect insurance. Whether it’s right or wrong…,

When you travel with BlaBlaCar as a driver, passengers contribute towards your running costs. No profits are made which is why BlaBlaCar drivers’ insurance policies are not affected.

I’d want that in writing from my insurers.

Insurance in France is very different, it’s the car that’s insured not the driver. As an example I insured a car for my son in his name but I’m the subscriptor. He then did the Mongol rally with it with himself and a couple of mates driving, one had only just passed her test- just normal insurance, the insurance company knew. Various people of various nationalities drove it and when he got to Russian he lent it to some people he’d met who drove it back while he flew. In countries not covered by the green card, a couple of ‘stans, they had to buy insurance at the border before they could enter the country.

Passengers are always covered but personal injury cover for the driver costs more, so it’s only if you drive that you might not be covered for injuries to yourself. Ask before you start sharing the driving

One of Blablacars commercial partners is AXA.

You’ll often find some bizarre things covered by your car insurance, skiiing for example.

Insurance in France is very different, it’s the car that’s insured not the driver

The OP is in Switzerland not France though? And do private hire drivers in CH or FR or DE or any other countries he will pass through not pay more for insurance or need special licenses like in the UK? I’m not saying it is Private Hire and going to go wrong, but scotroutes question is legitimate.

It’s a little like someone posting on here that they are going from Leeds to the Strathpuffer and does anyone want a lift in return for some petrol money. Except they are even more total strangers and might be saying “I’m not going to the puffer but if I could grab a lift to Glasgow for a music gig that weeekend it would be great”.

I get the idea, I’d be particularly concerned about crossing borders with total strangers aboard but perhaps I have read too much daily mail. It would seem to be quite a good way of anonymously moving drugs etc round the country too – although I’ve not looked at how it works so perhaps it is not as anonymous as it sounds.

Although this might reassure scotroutes: https://www.abi.org.uk/products-and-issues/choosing-the-right-insurance/motor-insurance/car-sharing-and-insurance/

Well if you’re that scared of “total strangers” just don’t get involved. When younger I hitch hiked around Europe alone and with girlfriends for years. I still hitch hike and pick up hitch hikers. You meet some great people. I drove junior to the Alps a couple of weeks back, we picked up a guy who is a saisonnier driving the night bus in Val d’Isere during the Winter then runs a guest house in Portugual in the summer, I could almost hear the cogs turning in junior’s head as the ideas were mulled over.

The Blablacar thing has feedback so you aren’t going in as blind as I used to hitch-hiking, and drivers really want good feedback. Driving standards are above average IME. Hitch-hiking I used to get a lot of propositions from gay men which didn’t bother me except for two who got insistent, one dropped me of at the side of the autoroute between Grenoble and Chambery kms from anywhere. However when the propositions were from delightful ladies… I doubt you’ll get any of that with Blabla.

As per poly (stealth edit!) May just be me but not sure I’d want to cross uk border or any vaguely hard frontier with somebody in my car when I had no idea who they were or what they were carrying.

Pity, I had a couple of free crossings between the UK and France when people had tickets for up to four passengers.

As for other borders in Europe I haven’t been stopped at a border for years, customs patrols are now anywhere and everywhere, the douane certainly haven’t stopped me within 50km of a border and they are most frequently seen on autoroutes between major towns.

Conversely I’ve been stopped regularly driving into UK, Ireland and the one time I drove Switzerland by either customs police or SB, so maybe I’m more risk averse to having a stranger in the car at frontiers.

So what’s the worst that could happen?

You get stopped and the police find drugs or whatever in the baggage of your passenger, they do drugs test on all the people in the car and you come out negative but the passenger tests positive. Even if they test negative it’s usually pretty obvious what belongs to whom and if it isn’t then forensics can pinpoint the culprits. And all this is a chance in how many? Far les than a drugged up idiot driving the other way overtaking and hitting you head on. Thousands killed on the roads each year and you’re worried about being wrongly accused of drug running when my Google foo brings up one case – the driver was very quickly innocenté:

https://www.lemonde.fr/m-perso/article/2016/04/09/a-qui-appartient-ce-sac-de-coke-les-aleas-du-covoiturage_4899259_4497916.html

As per poly (stealth edit!) May just be me but not sure I’d want to cross uk border or any vaguely hard frontier with somebody in my car when I had no idea who they were or what they were carrying.

Where’s your sense of adventure 😀
In any case the drugs would be on the passenger or their luggage. You’d be strangers with a trail back to blablacar. Getting pulled would be an inconvenience but you wouldn’t be going to jail. Probably 😉

Registered on it, never had anyone ask for a lift despite having a commute down the m4 which you’d think would be busy.

Fairly off the mark with how to run a drugs trafficking investigation, the power of forensic analysis, the natural suspicion of law enforcement staff and the general sneakiness of crims up there (I just asked for a lift, that bags not mine, Oh my god, coke, heroin, grot I’d never do that and my finger prints won’t be on it the driver must have decided to use me as cover!!!) ;). But each to their own, just saying I wouldn’t fancy it.

Fairly off the mark with how to run a drugs trafficking investigation, the power of forensic analysis, the natural suspicion of law enforcement staff and the general sneakiness of crims up there (I just asked for a lift, that bags not mine, Oh my god, coke, heroin, grot I’d never do that and my finger prints won’t be on it the driver must have decided to use me as cover!!!) ;). But each to their own, just saying I wouldn’t fancy it.

How often do you get pulled over and searched for illegal drugs and bongo mags that it happening with a stranger in the car is a genuine concern?

If it was, ask them to get out and walk through the ferry terminal and meet them on the other side?

I’m in Germany, nearest city is Basel, 30 mins away….

I did give a lift to a guy in Calais who was at a service station and trying to get to Glasgow (I lived in Edinburgh at the time)… He had a good run… I asked if he had a passport for the UK border and said he was on his own if there were issues but nothing went wrong….

As I mentioned I’ve been stopped driving fairly regularly hence I wouldn’t be keen on it, ymmv