I contacted BlaBla for their comments regarding passenger safety and this is their reply:-
Hello,
Thank you for contacting us.
Trust is one of the pillars of the BlaBlaCar network's car sharing community, and we place particular emphasis upon building and comforting it.
You may have noticed already that some trips mention the “ratings” of people who already travelled with the member who published the trip offer. This allows you to access the feedback of previous car sharers who met this person and travelled with them. Furthermore, photos and preferences also help you choosing your trip, so that you can use as much information as we can provide before you choose.
If this is your first car share and you feel an apprehension, we advise you choose a person that is used to our website, with one or several positive ratings. Otherwise, do not hesitate to phone them, possibly twice, in order to have a chat with them and ask them all the questions you need to know the answers of before the trip : exact meeting point, time, trip's conditions, scheduled arrival, drop-off point, model of the car, experience with the website, the kind of music that's on, if the driver is looking to take any breaks, etc...
Here are a couple more elements about all the things we do regarding trust and reliability, which are key parts of car sharing :
http://www.blablacar.com/trust-safety-insuranceWe also suggest you read the stories of our community members via this link :
http://www.blablacar.com/blog/member-storiesWe are convinced that the next message you will send us will be about how well your trip went, and that we will publish it online as one of many other stories !
We remain at your disposal.
Best regards and happy car sharing !
Agata from BlaBlaCar Member Relations