National Liftshare Day 2009

The nationwide event was started by successful social enterprise website, liftshare.com, in order to raise awareness of the financial and environmental benefits from sharing the space in our vehicles day to day.

National Liftshare Day 2009. The nationwide event was started by successful social enterprise website, liftshare.com, in order to raise awareness of the financial and environmental benefits from sharing the space in our vehicles day to day.

However, as we continue through the worst economic recession in years, it was no surprise that this year’s event was more focused on the monetary savings that can be made. On an individual level, it is easy to understand how petrol costs are instantly halved when shared between two individuals instead of just one – and go down even more when a third and fourth person are added into the equation.

But research published by the Department of Transport highlights the massive savings that can be made at a business level by companies who pay for travel – highlighting that a company with 2,000 staff could save as much as £200,000 a year by implementing a car share scheme for staff.

Still, the positive environmental aspects of car-sharing should not be ignored. Statistics published by thegreencarwebsite.co.uk state that the (pre-National Liftshare Day) number of people already registered at liftshare.com is 336,414 – and that this will equate to 35,725 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions not being pumped into the atmosphere.

This is good news for motorists with a green conscience. The research follows findings by the same website that highlights the price difference between standard diesel and petrol vehicles compared to cleaner electronic and hybrid cars. It seems that despite the introduction of the “Scrappage Scheme”, the greenest cars on the market remain too costly for the average driver in the current economic climate.

Despite other reports that petrol prices are on the increase once more, National Liftshare Day falls at a time when motorists are striving to cutback in nearly every area they can. To cite yet another company with their eye on the auto industry, Post Office® have recently published research that shows trends amongst drivers who are cutting back on their car insurance moving their cover from comprehensive to minimum third party policies.

Sources:

www.liftshare.com – the website for the largest car-share network in the UK.

www.thegreencarwebsite.com – the website for the latest green news in the motoring industry.

www.postoffice.co.uk – the online home of Post Office®, offering car insurance, travel insurance, life insurance and home insurance.