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Scaynes Hill Village
A Car share scheme for the village is being launched by the Sustainability Group, but it won't be quite the same as the web based TV series ‘Carpool’ presented by comedian Robert Llewellyn of Red Dwarf fame! In each episode he interviews a well know Television personality (eg Jonathan Ross or Ruby Wax) while giving them a lift in an eco-friendly car, such as a Toyota Prius. The Scaynes Hill version will be a lot less glamorous but possibly rather more useful!
Car share in Scaynes Hill
30 September Posted by Graeme de Lande Long
Car sharing is when several people travel together by car and share the cost of the trip. This may be a school run, to the shops or a regular commute. The majority of cars travelling on the roads today have single occupants. In the rush hour this can be higher than 80% of vehicles. Car sharing aims to make better use of these empty seats, allowing people to benefit from the convenience of a car while helping to reduce the associated problems of congestion, parking problems and pollution as well as reducing your carbon footprint so it's good for the environment. For drivers, car sharing helps offset high vehicle costs (the average car costs its owner around £6,000 per year!). Car sharing can also be about meeting interesting people and making new friends or acquaintances. It opens up a world of sharing, friendliness and collaboration. With so many thriving car sharing schemes around the country the time has come for Scaynes Hill to join in too.
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Section 1(4) of the 1981 Public Passenger Vehicles Act defines the rules that govern car sharing as follows: "the total of any charges should be agreed in advance and must not exceed the running costs (including wear and tear and depreciation) of the vehicle for the trip". To offset their running costs, drivers should not receive total payment in excess of HM Revenue & Customs Approved Mileage Payment Allowance (currently 45p/mile), so no profit is made. When drivers do no more than cover running costs, and do not drive over 10,000 miles per annum, they make no taxable profits. For example using a car that does 30 mpg the cost of petrol alone is about 21p/mile and when you take into consideration other costs (eg maintenance, insurance, depreciation etc) you can probably double that.
All ABI motor insurers have agreed that if your passengers contribute towards your running costs your insurance cover will not be affected, as long as rides are given in a vehicle seating eight passengers or less (Source: ABI website, 2008). Providing you are not making a profit (any payment covers petrol/running costs) and the vehicle does not carry more than the maximum number of passengers, it is unlikely that your motor insurance will be affected, but if you have any doubts you should contact your insurers.
Be creative in your thinking about sharing. If you find you are already driving a similar journey as someone else perhaps rather than money changing hands you could take it in turns to drive. Even if the journey isn't exactly what you want it's still worth contacting the other person as most people are prepared to be a little bit flexible in timing and maybe would be happy to go a bit out of their way to accommodate you.
Not everyone in the village has internet access or the aptitude for using the website so spare a thought for neighbours or friends who may be in this position and if you think that they could benefit from such a journey share, then perhaps you could offer to contact the website on their behalf.
The legal stuff
The Car share in Scaynes Hill will be based on the website. The ‘Car share’ web-page under the 'Community' page lists journeys people are either offering or requesting as car share journeys. To get on this list just send an e-mail to the website at scayneshill@webplus.net or use the Contact Us page of the website. Normally each person will give their name and contact details (as well as the journey) so that others can then contact them to make their own arrangements. If anyone is uncomfortable giving their name or contact details on the website then they can request that this is not shown. In this case anyone interested in contacting
that person will have to do so by e-mailing the website at scayenshill@webplus.net. Their message will then be forwarded by e-mail and subsequent correspondence would be via the website e-mail address unless the parties agree otherwise, when contact details would be exchanged.
A poster used to promote car sharing as a way to ration petrol during World War II
Click here to go to the Car Share webpage.