What would you do with an extra £1600 to spend each year?
When you are next in that time-wasting, CO2 emission causing peak-time queue, look around and count the number of cars with just a single occupant. It will almost certainly be the large majority, given that the current figure for car-share is around 6% of commuters in Hampshire. However, £1600 per annum is the likely saving you could make simply car-sharing one of your five commute journeys each week. The figure is based on the average 17 mile commute and includes not just the cost of the fuel but 20% of the typical annual running costs for an average vehicle. So can we persuade you to find out how much you might personally save?
Give Car Sharing a Try!
We fully realise it may only be practical to car share once or twice per week because of your personal commitments or perhaps due to uncertainty or flexibility in your work-place finish time (though adopting a 'guaranteed ride-home' scheme is normal way of overcoming concerns that a car sharer may be stuck at work - see below). However, many people, with just a little bit of forward planning effort (that tends to reduce stress levels anyway) will find that they are able to car share at least once or twice each week. So why not find out NOW what your daily commute to work is costing you in real terms and more importantly how much you could be saving and click the link below to the
Car Share Day Further Information
- National Business Travel Network - The NBTN was established by the Department for Transport and has produced a really useful Travel Planning Guide that includes some excellent ideasrelated to car sharing, including how to overcome obstacles to car sharing like ensuring a guaranteed ride-home scheme is part of the package. Click on The NBTN Essential Guide to Travel Planning to download your copy (Car Sharing is covered in Chapter 7 Pages 24ff)
- http://www.hantscarshare.com - sign-up to this established innovative cost and pollution saving alternative to using your own car. The scheme currently has over 185,000 members registered within the national liftshare network and on average they each save £962 per year. The scheme is completely FREE of charge, data is held confidentially and you choose whether you want to drive or be driven and who with (e.g. male or female.
- SME group (or neighbourhood) Based Scheme or 'Travel Club'- even for the more isolated rural business park or industrial estate sites there are likely to be easily identifiable journey patterns and times. Simply record these in post-code form and you may well see that car sharing or a wider business travel club perhaps including shuttle bus type transport is a viable option for you too. So talk to the other businesses in your area, on your estate and talk to your colleagues, neighbours or talk to your boss and before you know it, you could be on your way to establishing a car share scheme too.
Finally, although you will need to agree arrangements with your local HMRC contact, the following advisory from NBTN contains some useful guidance on the tax and benefit implications of travel plans NBTN TAX Advisory
