About one hour before pickup, you’ll receive your chauffeur’s name, phone number, vehicle details (make, model, and license plate), and a link to the Message Center via email and SMS.
If you need this information earlier or have trouble connecting, please reach out to our Customer Care team via live chat.
Chatting with your chauffeur
The Message Center allows you to send and receive messages with your chauffeur without downloading an additional app or share your phone number.
Ways to access the Message Center
You can open your chat with your chauffeur through any of these options:
“On the way” message: When your chauffeur starts driving to your pickup location, you’ll receive an email or SMS notification with a link to the Message Center.
New message notification: If your chauffeur sends the first message, you’ll get a notification with a direct link to reply.
From the app: If you have the app installed, tap Chat with chauffeur from the ride details screen.
Additional features
The Message Center includes a few extra tools to make coordination easier. Access these by tapping the "+" icon next to the text field:
Location Sharing
Send your live location so your chauffeur can find you more easily.
Image Sharing
Share a photo if you’d like to show your surroundings or help your chauffeur identify your pickup spot.
You can take a picture with your phone camera, or select one from your image library
Online status & Read receipts
You’ll see if your chauffeur is currently active in chat and when they have read your latest message.
If you experience any issues while messaging or cannot reach your chauffeur, the Customer Care number will be visible as a fallback option.
Privacy Features - Phone Masking
To protect your privacy, we use a phone masking service for our guests booking in Germany, the United Kingdom, Paris, New York and Los Angeles. This feature allows you and your chauffeur to contact each other by phone without sharing your real phone numbers.
How it works
Whenever you call your chauffeur (or your chauffeur calls you), phone masking assigns you a temporary number and connects the call securely. This ensures your personal number remains private while still allowing seamless communication.
This phone masking is active from 60 minutes prior to pick-up, all the way up until you board the vehicle. Afterwards, any calls to these masked numbers will be directed to Blacklane Customer Care.
Things to keep in mind
To reach your chauffeur, please call from the phone number associated with your booking. Calls from other numbers will be directed to Blacklane Customer Care.
Phone masking works for calls and texts, but not for any other messaging services (e.g. Whatsapp)