Chauffeur portal Blacklane officially launches in the UK for upmarket rides in 8 cities

Blacklane, a portal for booking chauffeur-driven cars, has officially launched in the UK today, after sucessfully completing a beta test of the service.

First introduced eight months ago, the service allows users to book high-end transport for trips across town (or anywhere else) or to book a driver and car by the hour. It’s currently available for rides in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Unlike, say, Hailo or other traditional taxi apps, Blacklane isn’t going after the lower-end of the value chain. Instead, it focuses on high quality vehicles and high value trips. However, similarly to those services, journeys can be booked through mobile apps, a Web portal or via the phone.

Since the German startup launched in beta, it added roughly one city per day – going from 30 cities to around 130 cities in 45 countries.

While there are similarities with services like Uber – the service seems to be priced somewhere between an Uber Lux and and Uber Exec car in London, for example – it doesn’t manage a fleet of drivers in the same way. Rather, for the UK launch, it has partnered with more than 180 chauffeur providers.

➤ Blacklane

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