How to Start a Carpool with Friends

You can save money on gas and transportation costs by carpooling to places like work and school. Learn How to Start a Carpool with Friends with these tips.

Carpooling used to be something people did to not only save money, but to make things easier when it came to getting to one place as a group. Many people still do carpool in larger cities simply because traffic is cut down and parking is easier with just one vehicle. There are even van-pools for people who live on the outskirts of town to get into town. If you want to save money on gas and transportation, carpooling is one big way to do it. Here are some tips on How to Start a Carpool with Friends.

How to Start a Carpool with Friends

First, try to establish a good destination. For most people, this is an office building or area of businesses or even a college or school. Pick a place that people go to daily that makes sense for you, too, such as your work.

Next, make flyers or send out emails. If you happen to know people in your work or school that also live close to you, it’s easy to create a car pool with just a few emails. if you don’t, why not do it the old fashioned way and make flyers with your name, email and phone number as well as the area you will be traveling from and when you would like to get a carpool started. This way, people can contact you directly and you can put together your carpool. Make sure to ask each person who calls how many can be seated in their car and any days they would like to do it.

Hold a get-together for all interested. It can be as simple as meeting for 20 minutes at a coffee shop. This can help get everyone on the same page and allow for all those participating to briefly meet each other so they are familiar to one another. Make sure to provide copies of the schedule. Plan on doing the carpool yourself a couple days a week until things get going smoothly.

Think outside the box for carpooling. Carpools don’t need to be simply for adults. IF you have a group of moms or other parents who live in your neighborhood who would like to pick kids up from school or after school activities in groups and drop off, this can be an excellent way for you all to save time and gas as well.

Make sure you have a backup plan. Even in the smoothest running carpools, things can and will come up. Make sure you have a backup driver for each day should someone get sick, plan a vacation or have a family emergency. Make it clear to call you as soon as possible should something come up so you can let others know.

Use technology to help you organize a good carpool. There are a few good apps out there to help you organize an efficient carpool. Mashable has a list of 6 Free Apps to Organize a carpool.