Introduction to Car Sharing

Benefits |  Insurance |  Personal Safety |  Liability | Application Form

Car share is when two or more people travel together rather than driving alone.  This is a completely free scheme to help reduce the traffic on our roads by encouraging you to share some of your journeys.

Participants can:

• always be the driver;
• always be the passenger;
• or take turns.        

Any journey can be shared:

• to and from work;
• during work time;
• for visits to hospital;
• for school;
• for shopping;
• to any destination in one direction or return;
• on a regular basis or occasionally.        

and it is designed to make car sharing possible for:

• 9 to 5 workers (Flexi hours included);
• shift workers;
• workers with irregular work patterns;
• the unemployed;
• retired people.       

The benefits of Car Share

For the individual:

Less stress
Driving in busy traffic every day, can be stressful, car share and the stress can be reduced.

Helping the Environment
Look around - how many cars do you see occupied by only 1 person?!
By using our car share scheme you are being part of the solution and not just part of the problem!

Reduced costs
The cost of driving your own car is considerably more than the cost of the petrol you use.  Although you must not make a profit, sharing your journey means that you can share the cost. 

According to recent figures from the AA the true cost of driving an average 1000cc car doing 43 miles to the gallon when taking into account petrol costs, depreciation, excise duty, insurance, repairs, parking, interest on any loans and replacement parts is about 31p a mile and for 2000cc car this figure rises to 59p a mile!  

For organisations

• Eases the demand on limited parking spaces
• Reduces the costs of providing employee car parking spaces
• Reduces the environmental damage caused by staff getting to and from work
• Active support of car sharing makes a positive environmental statement about your organisation        

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Insurance

Most car insurance policies will cover the carriage of passengers as long as its not for hire or reward.  But if you are in any doubt whether an arrangement is covered by the terms of a private car insurance, the policyholder should make an inquiry to their motor insurers. 

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Personal Safety

Personal security is clearly a very important issue with regard to car sharing especially in view of the potential for strangers sharing a car together.  These simple guidelines should be followed. 

1. Once you join the scheme a letter will be sent informing you of any matches, with contact numbers.  It is then up to you, the individual, to make contact and arrange the share.
2. Always meet in a public place.
3. You should always give someone else the time schedule of pick ups and destinations.
4. Passengers should ask the driver for the make, model and colour of their car as well as the registration number.  Do not get into the car if these do not correspond with what was originally given.        

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Liability

In order to provide the service we request certain personal information from you which we will use only for this purpose. 

You are responsible for the accuracy and truthfulness of such information, which will be made available to other participants in the scheme. 

We do not verify details provided by participants and cannot accept liability for the acts, defaults or character of participants. 

Any misconduct or misuse of the information will result in the offender's name being immediately removed from the database.