Carpooling Saves Money in the Fuel Crisis 

Employees up and down the country are feeling the pinch of the fuel crisis, leading to backing from the energy industry for wider use of carpooling. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has called for governments and businesses to encourage car sharing – urging UK employers to act as energy prices rise due to the conflict in Iran. 

The IEA, which counts the UK among its 32 member nations, this week outlined ten measures to reduce energy consumption worldwide in response to the ongoing conflict in the Gulf. Car sharing and efficient driving featured prominently. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol told the BBC the world faces “the greatest global energy security threat in history”. 

At Mobilityways, we’ve always known the value of carpooling. As our founder told the House of Commons Transport Select Committee in 2025, there would be 30% more cars on Britain’s roads today without carpooling.

We now have 700,000 people already on Liftshare.com and a platform that can scale within weeks. The IEA is telling the world to carpool. The UK can lead on this because we already have everything we need.

Meanwhile, increasing car occupancy from the current 1.55 passengers per journey to 1.8 would reduce fuel consumption by approximately 14%, saving around 4 billion litres annually.  

That is not a distant ambition: France already achieves 1.7 to 1.8 average occupancy through systematic carpooling support, and during the 1970s oil crisis, UK car traffic fell around 5% through largely informal arrangements with no digital tools at all. 

We know the financial rewards of carpooling too. Having worked with more than 700 organisations, the average person saves more than £1,000 a year just by sharing a journey to work. 

Every empty seat on the commute is wasted fuel. Large employers need to consider how they can support their teams with the rising fuel costs. With a carpool community your employees save money, you reduce your Scope 3 emissions, and you are doing something real in response to a genuine energy challenge. We are ready to help any organisation get started."

Large employers should consider how they can support their teams to carpool to save money in the fuel crisis. With a carpool community not only do your employees save money, you reduce your Scope 3 emissions, and you are doing something real in response to a genuine energy challenge.  

The IEA is telling the world to carpool, and the UK can lead on this because we already have everything we need. There are 700,000 people signed up and ready to share on Liftshare.com – which is completely free and available to use country-wide.