a guest entry by Even Pearce
As a race we have fully embraced the concept of one person per car. It offers us many things: a method of getting from A to B; privacy to make calls; a chance to sing along to radio without embarrassment and thinking time to name but a few. However, the downside of this is that there are more cars per person on the roads than there needs to be. This impacts on the environment and our bank balances in many ways.
Be popular with the boss
It might sound odd to suggest that car sharing will make you popular with the boss but there are lots of benefits for a company whose employees are car sharing. If staff are traveling to work together in groups of 3 or 4 it should improve time keeping as each employee is then also responsible for the arrival of the others. It could even reduce unnecessary sick leave, as employees would probably feel guilty for letting their co-sharers down. It should boast morale, as employees will have more time for bonding than a working day normally allows. It will also mean that the company needs to provide fewer parking spaces/permits which could save them a considerable amount of money – now if you’ve suggested this scheme to your company, surely that gives you a great bargaining chip when it’s time for your annual appraisal!
Improve your social life
Whether you own a car or not you can register with a car sharing website and get matched up with one or more people with whom you can share a journey. At worst, you’ll be saving on your travel costs but at best you could find yourself with a whole new set of like-minded friends. If you don’t currently have a car but would prefer to be in control of your car sharing, rather than relying on someone else, there are several guaranteed car finance options available to you meaning that before long you could have your own set of wheels and then take advantage of other ways to make money from your car.
Get a better car
Even if car sharing is not for you in the ways mentioned above, you could still share your car by letting someone else use it when you are not. So if you only use your car for the weekly commute, that will mean that it just sits on your drive at weekends when it could be busy earning you money! If you’ve been looking into car finance while flicking through car magazines to find your dream car you could ease the burden of the repayments by hiring out your car when you are not using it. Some websites let you log days/times when your car is available, so the nice lady down the road who needs to visit her Great Aunt on Sunday can do so and you get paid for the privilege.
Get paid to drive as normal
Yes really! So if you don’t mind driving around with a slogan across your bonnet (and doors and boot!) you could qualify to earn up to a monthly fee by registering with a car advertising site. It would certainly be a talking point among friends and neighbours and if you were then also to combine it with car sharing or hiring your car out, you could earn/save even more money.
Get paid to do deliveries
Think about how often you have things delivered to your door, now bear in mind that someone gets paid for each and every delivery; and there’s no reason that someone couldn’t be you. There are lots of delivery jobs out there from ad hoc distribution of telephone directories to more regularly contracts offered by companies like Yodel, meaning that you have lots of options that can fit around your existing work life.
Save up for a holiday by being helpful
If a contractual delivery job is too ‘official’ for you, potentially tying you to commitments and removing your freedom for spontaneous days out, you could start small by offering to collect/deliver items for friends and family; earning a token payment each time. Start small by mentioning to people you know who don’t have a car that you would be happy to pick up/deliver items for them for a bit of petrol money. Next time someone mentions that they’d love a bookcase from Ikea but just can’t get there – why not volunteer? Once you get the hang of it you can put a poster on the notice board at work or pop leaflets through the doors of your neighbours. Your local care home might be happy to put a poster up for you too. Once you start you’ll probably find that you can be as busy as you want to be, simply by word of mouth.
