For those looking to save a bit of money with their daily commute, there are a number of ride sharing possibilities. The idea is that when you have empty seats in your car, there will be people intending to go the same direction as you who can fill them up, and can offset the price of your fuel and potentially even bring in a profit by paying a minimal amount for those seats.
For the rider, this comes with a number of benefits. First and foremost is the cost - it is usually cheaper to pay for a journey through a ride sharing app than to pay for public transport or to buy a car for that matter. It also has the added benefit of social interaction, the possibility of making new connections, offsetting their carbon footprint by travelling effectively in a green way as the car would already be on the road anyway, and potentially door to door services.
The driver also benefits from this transaction. As well as receiving money for the seats in their car which would normally be empty, they also receive the social interaction and the possibility of making connections and they offset their carbon footprint to a certain degree. The benefit of the money makes the overall cost of travelling in the car cheaper, and if done on a daily basis can be incredibly effective.
This can be done for people who commute to work, although creating a car pool amongst people who live close to you who also work in your office might be a more effective and trustworthy method. It can also be used by people who travel home for the weekend, or for people who travel anywhere from anywhere. The apps effectively let you upload your intended travel trajectory, allowing passengers to search for trips that they intend to make and to find matches for that trip.
Users can not only take one passenger, but can fill up every empty seat in their car providing they have enough space for everybody another luggage.
One example of these apps is HitchPlanet which is a Vancouver based company in Canada. Users are obliged to create a profile with information about themselves and a profile photo, and this records all the journeys that the user makes and allows both the people who have driven them or have ridden with them to leave reviews and feedback for future connections. The driver advertises the journey and the intended price and the users can send a request for the seat, which, once accepted by the driver, creates an automatic transaction from the riders account to the drivers so that no physical money changes hands. Upon completion of a journey, both the driver and the passenger are prompted to leave reviews of the other person.
There are a multitude of different apps on the market that all differ slightly. Some focus more on the daily commutes to and from work, and others like to home in on the environmental factors. Some even let you chose your ride based on factors like common interests and preferred choice of music.
For those looking to save a bit of money and to make a few new friends, this is a fantastic opportunity to turn your car journeys into something a little bit more.