Lots of us would value a little extra cash in our pockets, and the answer may be sitting on your drive.
There are a number of ways in which sharing your car or home EV charger could help you save or even make a little extra money this winter.
Lift sharing
Most people have given or received a lift at some point. Regularly lift sharing could reduce the cost of your commute to work or the supermarket, as you could split the cost with your lift-sharing buddy. You could use a free app, such as Kinto Join or a Facebook group, to find people who are travelling your way, or you could use a Whatsapp group to arrange lifts with people you already know.
Just bear in mind, as a lift- share driver you should only cover your costs (45p/mile) for tax reasons, rather than charge money for profit.
Car sharing
According to the RAC Foundation, car ownership costs on average £4000 per year, and meanwhile the average privately-owned car is only in use 4% of the time, being parked the rest of the time. It makes financial sense for other people to be able to share your car while you’re not using it. You could do this informally with someone you already know and arrange to share the running costs of the car, or you could register to share your car on an app such as HiyaCar, where app users pay a small fee to hire your car for an agreed length of time.
Click here for our top tips for car sharing.
Share your home EV charger
If you have a domestic EV charger, you could make a small profit by renting it out to other EV drivers. CoCharger is an app which matches hosts to people in need of somewhere to charge their EV. Hosts set the price they would like to charge in order to make a small profit after the cost of the electricity.
If you’re an EV owner who doesn’t have a home charger or considering switching to an EV, sharing someone else’s charger could help you save the cost of having one installed at home and may be cheaper than using some public chargers.
Join a car club
If you only need to use a car or van occasionally, you might benefit from joining a community car club. Car clubs allow short-term vehicle rental, normally by the hour, to members of the club. Members can be residents, businesses or visitors. Fees can costs around £90 per year in some cases (much less than the annual cost of owning a private vehicle), but in some cases there are discounts for local residents, for example at Buxton Car Club members can join for just £10 per year.
Click here to read a local car club case study.
Save money and reduce your carbon footprint
Sharing your travel and transport resources can add up financially, as well as making you feel more connected to your community. What are your top tips for reducing your spend and your carbon footprint? Let us know on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn or email travel@
