Maximise Carpool Engagement: Best Practice Guide for Large Employers

10 Strategies For Lasting Impact

Behaviour change can be challenging – you are asking humans to do something different. It’s essential to understand the “why” behind the status quo. Mobilityways client travel surveys have repeatedly shown the main motivation behind driving alone to be convenience.

When supporting your team to start lift sharing it is vital that your policies make carpooling attractive enough to encourage, motivate and incentivise behaviour change. The advantages need to be a fair exchange for commuters foregoing some of the flexibility of continuing to drive alone. Then it is essential that these benefits are effectively, widely and repeatedly communicated.

We have split the ten strategies between policy and communication strategies, and using both in tandem will most likely see the best results:

What is carpooling?

What are the differences between carpooling, carsharing, ride-sharing and being part of a car club?

Carpooling

Carpooling (also known as carsharing / liftsharing) is simply people giving a colleague a lift to work. It happens at almost every workplace in the world! It’s usually pre-arranged, and the sharers may split the cost of fuel, or take it in turns driving.

Liftshare For Work

For larger workforces it becomes impossible for employees to know all their colleagues personally – a structured journey matching platform, such as Liftshare For Work, facilitates matching of journeys.

Ridesharing

In contrast to carpooling, ridesharing refers to an on-demand service such as booking a taxi or an Uber, which usually involves a fee, so the driver makes a profit. A taxi or Uber driver will need to be licensed, whereas when carpooling no license or specialist insurance is usually required as the driver is not making a profit.

Car Clubs

Car clubs are like a traditional hire car company but on-demand, so you can rent a vehicle out when you need it. The cars will be parked in specific locations, usually car club bays, and can often be hired at an hourly rate or with a membership fee. Sometimes employers have their own employee car clubs with an allocation of on-demand vehicles.