


Try A Car Pool To Cut Down Your Transportation Costs Are your commutes getting longer? Is the congestion getting worse where you live? Your transportation costs creeping higher? Consider joining a car pool to cut down your transportation costs. According to the 2000 Census, our average commute is 25.5 miles. AAA maintains data on the cost of commuting. For people that drive 15,000 or more miles a year, AAA estimates that they spend anywhere from 6.0 to 8.9 cents per mile on their commute. Using those numbers, you could figure that your commute is costing you about $20 a week. Once you add parking, you could easily be spending $100 on transportation each month. Your commute time might even get shorter since you get to use the HOV lanes. Plus, think, when you’re not doing the driving, it will be like being chauffeured to work. You can catch up on your reading, take a snooze, or do a little bit of work, even. Here are some tips to get you started with a car or van pool: * If you want to ease into carpooling, try to do it with a family member or friend first. * You don’t have to carpool everyday. Try a once a week arrangement at first to see how you like it. * Figure out what you’ll need to do if you have to work late because of an emergency at work. * If you’re going to be driving, make sure you have enough car insurance to cover your extra passengers should anything happen to them in an accident. * If you have a longer commute, look into getting involved with a van pool. Often times your local government will subsidize this by letting you drive a county van back and forth from work. You’ll usually need to get a group of eight to 13 people together to qualify for such a program. Everybody will have to pay a fare that the driver is then responsible for paying to the county/state while you van pool. A bonus is that the van driver is often allowed a monthly allotment of miles that they can drive the van around for personal use! Here are some rules that you’ll car pool team will need to agree on: * Where will you meet? There are often public parking places where you are encouraged to park you car and car-pool. They might be called “Park and Ride.” Contact your local government to find out more. You might agree to meet at somebody’s house if they live close enough. * How long will you wait for somebody if they are running late? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? * What music or radio stations will you listen to? If you can’t agree, perhaps you might agree that everybody brings headphones except for the driver. * Is smoking allowed or not? * Will you be making any stops on the way in or way out? Drive-thrus for food or cash should be considered as well. * Is this carpool going to be sharing costs or taking turns? For example if you’re riding with somebody else are you going to pay them money or will everybody in the group take a turn with carpooling?
No item elements found in rss feed.