EasyCar revs up ride-sharing on a budget

Students travelling to Glastonbury on a budget will soon be able to hitch a ride with strangers as easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou jumps on the ride-sharing bandwagon.

His car rental business is launching easyCar Pool, matching drivers with hitchhikers looking for a spare seat from just £2 a head.

EasyCar already allows users to rent their cars out, but will now operate a model similar to airbnb, where users can rent out seats in their cars.

Chief executive Richard Laughton said it was similar to BlaBlaCar, although the French startup only operates a city to city carpooling service, meaning journeys to remote locations such as music festivals and events outside cities are not possible. It will generally be used for longer journeys than Uber, which also offers ride-sharing.

“We’ve seen a range of different user groups we think will be interesting in this: students are one big use – a lot of people travelling which necessarily having too many car owners – people going to festivals, sporting events,” Laughton said.

Laughton said it was something easyJet founder Sir Stelios was “very keen to see it get out there”.

“This is not something people are going to be doing to make a lot of money, it’s something they’ll do to share the cost,” Laughton added.