New chauffeur service seeks to challenge Uber, Lyft on city tours

Blacklane aims to serve a limited part of the free ride market for business customers. It uses premium or luxury chauffeured vehicles and offers services such as baggage handling, opening doors for passengers and other amenities.

The hitchhiking industry was hit hard by the pandemic when the roadblocks stopped mass transportation. Uber and Lyft said in February that tour bookings dropped by half in the fourth quarter compared to the previous year.

The industry has adapted. Uber’s food delivery service helped him overcome difficulties in his main offer. Blacklane’s new city center service is part of a similar effort, using existing drivers who previously served only at airports to offer the same chauffeur service for travel in the cities where they operate.

While Uber and Lyft dominate the broader market, the much smaller Blacklane initially sought to carve out a niche with an app that offered driver trips to and from airports, which at last count was available in 300 cities worldwide.

This deal was stopped when the virus prevented most air travel. Then, in December, Blacklane started an intercity service in the United States to attract business travelers who fear taking crowded trains and short-haul flights. Travelers can book a Blacklane driver for a trip from New York to Boston for $ 399, about half the cost of an Uber or Lyft trip on the same route.

With the new service to the city center, Blacklane hopes to attract the same security-conscious business public. It combines a traditional luxury limousine service with the convenience of a booking application.

“Because we depend on travel and airports, we were at the forefront of the pandemic,” said Wohltorf, who co-founded the company in 2011, saying the revival of international travel was still far in the future. “But the cities are back; they are mobile. There is a good recovery of mobility in the city center. “

Wohltorf and his investors were aiming for a potential initial public offering next year, but they postponed the plan until 2023, at the very least, he said.

“The longer we wait, the more valuable we become and the more impact we will have. There is no reason for unrest, ”he said.

Last month, Blacklane acquired a majority stake in Havn, the all-electric driver service launched by Jaguar Land Rover in 2019, to help Blacklane transition to a fully electric fleet.

Write to William Boston at [email protected]

Corrections and amplifications
Uber and Lyft said in February that tour bookings fell by half in the fourth quarter compared to the previous year. An earlier version of this article incorrectly implied that the statements were made in January. (Corrected on February 28, 2021.)