Round-up: UK car-sharing websites

Maybe the title of this blog is a little misleading - the main thing about online uk car-pooling is that there really isn’t that much of it out there (though that’s not to say that there aren’t plenty of Google results for ‘uk car sharing’ just that most of them are not so useful) but let’s forget that minor detail and press on regardless…

Aside from the fairly underdeveloped advice sites, there are also a few quite reasonably-functioning options out there for anyone interested in organising some car sharing (and who isn’t? current stats from the DVLA show road congestion falling steadily in the past year in what is a rare recession bonus - so why not contribute to keeping this good thing going…)

First things first - whatever info you’re after regarding specific journeys etc, you will need to register to become a member of any of the sites listed (almost always for free). This is actually a very positive feature as it ensures that all your journey data is fully protected and only accessible by other members of the lift-sharing online group.

Probably the most well-developed site out there currently is nationalcarshare.co.uk The site is free to use (and register) and offers users a wealth of options for specifying exactly what kind of arrangement they’re after (participating as driver or passenger, a regular car-share or a one-off etc). In short: its pretty easy to narrow the search to find exactly what you’re after. There’s plenty of sensible advice on personal security as well so the site looks like its got a viable all round service on offer.

Liftshare.com and mylifts.com are two other decent options, though the latter is probably the more instantly accessible and intuitive to use. Aside from that there are a fair few other options, but not too many which can boast significant user numbers to make them attractive options.

In any case it seems likely that eventually a dominant site will emerge and centralise online car-sharing for the UK (why is there no govt site for this?). A social network dedicated specifically to car-sharing will inevitably improve dramatically in its usefullness the more users it attracts (the key component of any SN, of course). Car-sharing ones are not exempt from this principle - and indeed I personally hope that one of the current players reaches that magic tipping point soon, if only so that we can one day boast to have made totally extinct that ugly thing that is an M6 12-mile bank holiday traffic jam…

Dejan Levi

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