Car pooling information

Sharing a car journey with friends or family could help the nation’s drivers stay safe on the roads, according to new research from safe driver champion, Privilege Insurance and more than one in twenty British motorists currently have a car pool arrangement in place for their drive to work.

Drivers have told us that if more information was available on car sharing and more ‘car pool’ lanes were introduced, they would be more likely to share their commute with a colleague or friend and so we’ve teemed up with the national car sharing charity, Carplus (link to http://www.carplus.org.uk/index.html), to provide more information on how you can get involved.

Car sharing is also known as liftsharing or ridesharing (but not to be confused with car clubs – a form of local short-term hire) and is when two or more people share a car and travel together.  One of the people travelling is usually the owner of the vehicle and the other(s) usually make a contribution towards fuel costs.  It allows people to benefit from the convenience of the car, while alleviating the associated problems of congestion and pollution.

What are the issues to be aware of?
Security should always be a key part of any car share arrangement: identity checks need to be in place to ensure that driver and passengers are certain that they are both genuine ridesharers. The major car share companies take security very seriously, and provide guidelines to members, although they cannot accept any liability for any problems which may arise.

Law: from a legal point of view, the driver is not permitted to make a profit from providing a lift; however, the contribution from passengers can include an appropriate amount towards depreciation and wear and tear. Such costs must be decided in advance, and the driver is not permitted to act as a taxi, picking up strangers along the route

UK CAR SHARING SCHEMES
We’ve provided information about just some of the car sharing schemes in the UK – if yours is missed off, please let us know and we’ll add it as soon as we can. 

Name and contact details  
Catcharide
E contact@catcharide.co.uk
W www.catcharide.co.uk
A driver passenger matching site based in Sussex. With catcharide each passenger pays their driver up to 10p per mile.
 
Drive2day
E partner@drive2day.de
W www.drive2day.com

Provide a Europe wide, cost free rideshare service for both businesses and individuals.
 
Freewheelers
E  freewheelers@freewheelers.co.uk
W www.freewheelers.co.uk

Freewheelers is a rideshare website aiming to reduce pollution by reducing car usage and it also saves you money. Share lifts to and from work, festivals and sports events.
 
LetsGotoWork
E mail@letsgotowork.org.uk
W www.letsgotowork.org.uk

This site allows you to register for free during the introductory period. A special facility is available to allow you to estimate how much ridesharing will save you.
 
Liftshare.com
E  ali@liftshare.com
W www.liftshare.com

Liftshare.com specialise in providing a free journey matching services for individuals, groups and communities on both the internet and intranets. 70,000 members have so far signed up to the scheme. Also operates www.studentcarshare.com, www.school-run.org& others.
 
Mylifts.com
E  gmg@mylifts.com
W www.mylifts.com

MyLifts.com is a new type of online car sharing application that allows you to search for sharers using cutting edge technology, maps and personal profiling for free.
 
NationalCarShare
E  enquiries@nationalcarshare.co.uk
W www.nationalcarshare.co.uk

A comprehensive journey-matching site, which has a variety of safety provisions available.
 
ShareAcar
E info@shareacar.com
W www.shareacar.com

Shareacar.com has already attracted over 60,000 users. It is a national rideshare scheme, which prioritises the safety of its users by checking the identity of each individual in order to ensure that lifts are as safe as possible.
 
Shareajourney.com Ltd
E  paul@shareajourney.com
W www.shareajourney.com

A confidential service for individuals and organisations. Journeys can be logged to a specified location, from the most comprehensive GB place name gazetteer in use.