The significant increase in fuel prices means that car sharing agencies are very popular.
If you have an image in your mind of a backpacker without a shower sticking his thumb out at the side of the road, you’re wrong. Thanks to the right apps and websites, you can now find nice and reliable passengers – and you can easily save half or more of your fuel costs.
We will show you which platforms give you the best chances.
BlaBlaCar is currently the most used platform for carpooling in Germany and is available in 22 countries. In total, over 100 million people use the service provider.
As a driver, you can advertise your planned trips including the return trip and determine the route including stops. Passengers can then book with you automatically if they wish and pay online in advance – this also gives you a guarantee that the people will appear at the meeting point.
The mutual reviews give you a quick feel for whether the drivers and passengers are reliable and friendly – the same applies vice versa for the driver and his driving style.
Special feature: With the booster technology, BlaBlaCar can also find passengers for partial journeys, which can be particularly worthwhile on long journeys. This also works if you have not specified certain intermediate stops.
On routes with several routes, however, the technology sometimes gets confused and, for example, suggests passengers for Nuremberg on the A9, although the route specified is the A93 via Regensburg.
In cooperation with the ADAC, ride2go GmbH operates several ride-sharing portals under different names. The best-known of these is fahrgemeinschaft.de, which also offers an app for Android and iOS. Around 1.5 million people use the platform every year.
If you want to book or advertise a ride, you need to register free of charge. You can then simply contact other users via e-mail and agree on further details such as the exact meeting point.
With the rising fuel prices, the number of daily searches has roughly tripled to over 50,000, says Sven Domroes from ride2go.
Special feature: The platform is completely free of charge, so there are no fees when booking shared trips. However, this also means that payment takes place in cash on site and there is a greater risk that passengers will not show up without cancellation.
In some cases, there are also trips that are offered for zero euros – this often means carpooling, where you can take turns on daily or weekly trips. This also saves 50 percent of fuel costs.
When carpooling, all kinds of people come together. In order for such a journey to be pleasant for everyone, there are a few things to consider. Here are some tips:
As a driver, you should, of course, be sure to drive safely without jostling, risky overtaking maneuvers or excessive speed. After all, you are not only responsible for your own well-being.
If you are a woman and want to offer or use a ride but feel unsafe with strangers in the car, BlaBlaCar has a special Ladies Only option. These journeys are not visible to male users who are not logged in.
But you can also include a corresponding note in the description of your ad on Fahrgemeinschaft.de and only answer inquiries from women.
As a general rule, try to get to know the person a little bit when communicating before the trip. A short phone call to make an appointment can also help to get a feel for the person you are talking to. You can also inform a person you trust about this before you travel together.
The original of this post “With ancient equipment – this is how you save a large part of your fuel costs when driving” comes from chip.de.
On our e-mobility portal EFAHRER.com you will find all e-vehicles available on the German market
You can also arrange a test drive for the car of your choice free of charge and thus start e-mobility in an uncomplicated manner.
