Can I be sure of insurance coverage as a rideshare passenger?

8/14/2015 1:26:08 PM

In Germany and Austria the drivers insurance will always(1) cover you, no matter if the driver is making profit from the ride or not. I guess this will be similar in other EU countries, though the amount of cover might differ.

In case the driver is violating his insurance terms e.g. by doing for profit rides, the insurance will then try to get their money back from the driver or the owner of the car.

References (in German):

(1) Exception: vis major, e.g. the accident was caused by lightning struck, storm etc.

8/14/2015 11:49:25 AM

I can comment a bit on the other side of the equation, namely what drivers see when offering a ride on the website. But before that note that Rome2rio’s estimate apparently only covers the price of petrol whereas Blablacar’s computations are based on a total costs estimate including depreciation, maintenance, insurance, etc. That’s a huge difference.

Concretely, drivers on Blablacar see a recommended price for a given itinerary and can adjust it up or down (within limits). It’s also impossible to offer more than 5 seats. These restrictions were put in place to make sure nobody makes a huge profit while keeping a simple per-passenger price (I understand you could originally offer more than 5 seats, e.g. if you had a van).

But there is some wiggle room and if you put everything to the max, you get a warning about exceeding the costs and being potentially on the hook for taxes and any damages you cause and breaking the law on personal transportation services but can still go through. (The theory presented in the FAQ is that you can ask for more money if you have a high-end car or are willing to make a detour to pick up or drop a passenger.)

Then, from the passenger side, I think rides are color-coded depending on price, green is close or below the recommended price, yellow is above and red is close to the maximum authorized price. So if you are concerned about this as a passenger, it’s perfectly possible to avoid the more expensive rides. You can also see how many other seats are offered for a given ride and take this into account.

I also vaguely recall reading somewhere that the recommended price was based on three paying passengers per car but I could not confirm that again (the warning pops up when you switch from 4 to 5).

Now, regarding the specific example that prompted your question, when I try to offer a ride between Amsterdam and Hannover, €24 is default price I get through the (French-language) driver’s interface (€17 if avoiding the motorway). But I see (much) cheaper rides being offered by other drivers.

I guess the exact rules and calculations differ from country to country as these things are typically heavily regulated by the local tax office but I only used blablacar.fr (I know a few earlier initiatives in Germany and Blablacar now covers several European markets but it’s originally a French company).

Researching this a bit more, I see that Blablacar rides posted on one website show up on the others (e.g. a France-based user can offer a ride from Amsterdam to Hannover and it will show up on the Polish website). But the recommended prices apparently differ a lot so that, if I am interpreting this correctly, a ride offered by a Polish driver can be marked as “expensive” and still be lower than one offered by a German driver (and vice-versa if you look at this through the Polish website). On a route with lots of international traffic, this makes for very confusing color codes.

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

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Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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