Do you cringe every time your car pulls up at the gas pump? Do you find yourself cutting back on necessities just to ensure you have enough money to fill up each week? Do you stare at commuters in the carpool lane with green eyed envy as they fly past each morning? It’s not an exaggeration to say that the recent years have brought a sharp increase in gas prices. Don’t shrug your shoulders and resign yourself to having no other choice- do something about it!

One of the best ways to beat high gas prices is to start carpooling. Start by contacting your human resources department. Depending on your company’s size, they may already organize commuter carpool participants or even offer financial incentives to form a carpool. If not, ask for a list of employees that live in your general area so you can approach them on your own. Some companies will not give out personal information willingly, so consider posting an ad in a common area, such as a break or lunch room.

Once you have gathered a group of interested parties, discuss the basics- how often each person will drive, what time will the carpool begin and end, late policy, rules regarding smoking, eating, and stereo usage, etc. If each person takes their turn driving, then you won’t have to worry about payment policy. However, if some people prefer to only ride, you’ll need to establish how much each person will contribute to the weekly gas bill (check out Edmund.com’s TCO calculator). You should also think about a backup plan- if the driver has to leave work early due to sickness or family emergency, or has to work late, how everyone will get home from work. Provide a contact sheet with all rider information in one convenient place, including email addresses and cell phone numbers, as well as the driver rotation, pick-up times, and locations.

If your company is not very large, or there are not enough interested parties, there are other ways to get involved with a carpool. Slugging, or casual carpooling, is a great alternative for people that do not want the long term commitment or scheduled pickup and drop-off times. Simply determine where the closest pickup site is to your home, and stand in a line to share a ride with a driver who needs additional occupancy to meet the express lane minimum requirements.

There are more benefits to carpooling than just saving money- although that alone may be enough to win you over. Carpoolers have access to HOV (High-Occupancy Vehicle) express lanes, they contribute to smog reduction and therefore the fight against global warming, have significantly less stress in their morning commute, and have extra time on their drive to and form work that can be spent reading, talking, or listening to music (if they are not driving.)

Posted in Home Budget

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