Blacklane

Blacklane

Type	Privately held company
Industry	Transport
Founded	September 2011 (2011-09) in Berlin, Germany
Founders	Jens Wohltorf, Frank Steuer
Headquarters	Berlin, Germany
Area served	Worldwide
Services	On-order professional driver and ground transportation service
Website	www.blacklane.com

Blacklane GmbH is a startup company based in Berlin which provides a chauffeur portal connecting travelers to professional chauffeurs via their mobile app, website, and hotline.^[1][2] The company offers a prebooking service at a fixed rate and doesn’t own its own fleet, but works with local chauffeur companies in each of its cities.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

History

2011-2012

The startup was founded in 2011 by university friends, Dr. Jens Wohltorf and Frank Steuer, in Berlin, Germany.^[1][6][7][8] Backed by the investors RI Digital Ventures, B-to-V Partners, 88 investments GmbH, and Car4you, the company officially launched in June 2012.^[7][9] From the beginning of September, they were operating in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, München and Stuttgart.^[10] By the end of the year, they had added Bremen, Leipzig, Dresden and Hannover.^[11][12]

2013-2014

In January 2013, it was reported that another investment round had successfully been closed with RI Digital Ventures, B-to-V Partners and Car4You taking part again, as well as Alternative Strategic Investments (Alstin), owned by German investor, Carsten Maschmeyer, taking part.^[13][14] By May 2013, the company was operating in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, France and the UK.^[15] In August 2013, Blacklane started a project called “Mission 100”, which saw 100 cities launched in as many days, ending on December 16 in Palma de Mallorca.^[16] This project took Blacklane’s coverage to 130 cities and 45 countries by the end of 2013.^[3] A day after the launch in Palma de Mallorca, it was announced that Daimler AG had invested around 10 million euros in the start up, valuing the company at just under 60 million euros.^[6]

2014 - present

In March, Blacklane officially launched in eight UK cities - London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow - after completing its year-long beta phase.^[4] Also announced in March was the testing of Blacklane’s Smart Class in Berlin.^[17] The “Mobilität im Wandel: Fortschritt oder Stillstand?” conference took place on September 17, 2014, in the Ritz-Carlton hotel, Berlin ^{[18][19][20][21][22]} 10,12. The conference was called by Jens Wohltorf, the CEO and Founder of Blacklane,^{[18][19][20][22][23][24][25][26][27]} in the hope of provoking an open dialogue and providing the opportunity to collaborate not through the media, but face-to-face with decision makers from government, business, the taxi industry and mobility startups.^{[18][19][21][22][23][24][25][26][28]} Most attention was paid to Uber Germany’s General Manager and spokesperson, Fabien Nestmann,^{[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][29]} with Uber being called “criminal”,^[18][20] and Mr. Nestmann being asked if he is in favor of “Schwarzarbeit”,^[21][22] by Michael Müller,^{[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][29]} the President of the German Taxi and Car Hire Association. The main argument for this was focused on opponents saying Uber was trying to get around Germany’s “Personenbeförderungsgesetz” which determines the rules of passenger transportation.^{[18][19][22][23][24][25][26][29]} Further attendees and speakers included Kai Wegner of the CDU/CSU political party,^{[18][19][20][22][24][25][28]} Alexander Mönch from MyTaxi,^{[18][21][22][28]} Sabine Toepfer Kataw, Secretary of State in the Senate Department of Justice and Consumer Protection,^{[18][19][22][23][24][25][28]} Robert Henrich, from moovel GmbH,^{[18][26][27][28]} Clemens Grün, from the Hamburg Taxi Union ^[19][27][29] and Sascha Schubert, from the Federal Union of German Startups.^[18][22][28]

In April, Blacklane expanded service to 36 more cities in North America.^[30] Quartz, a news publication from Atlantic Media, used this launch to discuss the company’s business model: “Blacklane, a Berlin-based taxi app operating in 186 cities across 50 countries, is betting on an alternative to price rationing: reverse Dutch auctions.”^[31] A traditional Dutch auction starts with a high price and consistently goes lower until the item is sold, but with reverse auctions, the price starts low and goes higher until it is sold. For Blacklane, when a ride is booked, an offer is sent out to drivers at a low price, and after a few minutes, if no one buys the ride, then the price goes up.^[32]

Regulatory opposition and outcomes

Taxi price misrepresentation 2013

In April 2013, Blacklane came under attack from taxi companies saying that they were misrepresenting their pricing.^[33] The accusation, which saw Blacklane taken to court in Berlin, was that Blacklane had unfairly and, to a great part, incorrectly presented taxi prices with a number of “hidden” additional costs. These additional costs included such things as 10% for potential delays due to traffic as well as a requirement to pay a 10% tip. This led to Blacklane’s own pre-tax prices, which are fixed, looking cheaper than the pre-tax price of a taxi.^[15] This was seen as slander and Blacklane was given the chance to take down all such comparisons or face either paying up to 250,000 euros in fines or having to cease operations for up to 6 months.

The Smart regulatory allowance 2014

Blacklane caused a stir again in 2014 upon rolling out their Smart Class. A German law states that all taxis and limousines must have 2 doors on the right side of the vehicle.^[34] A Smart car has only one door on the right, but also only one door on the left. Taxi companies threatened to take action, accusing Blacklane of breaking the law by using Smart cars. Blacklane revealed in interviews, that they had in fact requested and received special permission for the use of Smart cars before the launch as only one door on the right side sufficed when it came to the safety of a Smart car.^[35]

Awards

At the European Tech5 Awards in March, Blacklane was named the fastest growing tech startup in Germany.^[36] The company was an official contender for the title of Europe’s fastest growing tech startup at The Next Web Conference in April 2015 in Amsterdam, however the award went to Amsterdam-based Fairphone.^[37]

References