Carsharing costs calculation

Amtmann

See here. Something like this was well overdue.

subway

Fairly sure this has been available in my workplace since 2009.

Amtmann

I've just offered three intercity lifts on it. I'm very eager to reduce my petrol costs. *Sits back to see if anyone bites*

TheBody

Guess it's a good idea. Wish public transport wasn't so expensive though.....I live in Mullingar and could easily get the train to work in Maynooth. The thing is, it's cheaper by car never mind the flexibility that a car brings. I can't help but wonder how more are out there are like me....who would take the train if it was even a little cheaper. Clearly getting people onto public transport would be a better job.

The Scientician

This is a good idea, especially since they'll be bringing in more motorway tolls soon.

jj92

I just signed up for carsharing.ie as I drive across the country a lot. The thing is, I'm wondering what are the correct costs to share. The website only mentions fuel, tolls and parking. These are not the only costs of a journey. I drive a cheapish diesel car and have worked out the costs per km before. Taking insurance (600pa), tax (580pa), repairs, maintenance and depreciation into account. It's about 19 cent/km when I drive 48000 km (30,000 miles) a year. This is a low enough cost per km as I have a fairly efficient cheap car. Allowing for just fuel, the cost per km is only 10c/km.

Should one only expect to

1. share all costs as above
2. share only fuel/toll/parking costs
3. not expect anything as pleasent company is enough

Cookie_Monster

Insurance, tax and depreciation are fixed costs and do not change with mileage as such. These cannot be included in the calculation and should not be charged.

Repairs should not be an issue either. Maintenance is part fixed, part flexible with mileage and could be included.

mgmt

OP Your're not serious!!!

jj92

I'm looking to see what people think. I've only asked for fuel/toll costs on my ad.

@cookiemonster I don't see why fixed costs should not be part of the calculation, saying they shouldn't doesn't make it so. Is it an issue with insurance, a moral issue etc?

Cookie_Monster

jj92 wrote: »

@cookiemonster I don't see why fixed costs should not be part of the calculation, saying they shouldn't doesn't make it so. Is it an issue with insurance, a moral issue etc?

because you would incur these costs regardless of the trip or carrying anybody else. therefore the should not be included in the cost of "the service" you are providing. It's a basic accounting and cost management principle.

Could be an issue with insurance as you policy will state you cannot carry persons/goods for reward...

-Chris-

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Insurance, tax and depreciation are fixed costs and do not change with mileage as such. These cannot be included in the calculation and should not be charged.

Repairs should not be an issue either. Maintenance is part fixed, part flexible with mileage and could be included.

Depending on the vehicle, depreciation will definitely increase with an increase in mileage.

Dermo

jj92 wrote: »

I'm looking to see what people think. I've only asked for fuel/toll costs on my ad.

@cookiemonster I don't see why fixed costs should not be part of the calculation, saying they shouldn't doesn't make it so. Is it an issue with insurance, a moral issue etc?

unless you are willing to let the people who carshare to legally be a part owner of the car then they have no reason to pay fixed costs.

Cookie_Monster

-Chris- wrote: »

Depending on the vehicle, depreciation will definitely increase with an increase in mileage.

no, not really. Recoverable amount at the end will vary with mileage but depreciation is recorded simply by a reducing % or a flat amount per year.

No business I've ever come across takes mileage into account when working out depn.

generally something simple (since it only an imaginary figure anyway) like 10% per year straight line of 20% reducing balance etc

you can depreciate an asset to zero and still sell it for far more than that, it's just another account trick really, spreading the cost out over a number of years rather than all at once on disposal/sale.

jj92

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

because you would incur these costs regardless of the trip or carrying anybody else. therefore the should not be included in the cost of "the service" you are providing. It's a basic accounting and cost management principle.

Could be an issue with insurance as you policy will state you cannot carry persons/goods for reward...

Makes sense I suppose that fixed costs shouldn't be shared then if it would affect the insurance.

-Chris-

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

no, not really. Recoverable amount at the end will vary with mileage but depreciation is recorded simply by a reducing % or a flat amount per year.

No business I've ever come across takes mileage into account when working out depn.

generally something simple (since it only an imaginary figure anyway) like 10% per year straight line of 20% reducing balance etc

you can depreciate an asset to zero and still sell it for far more than that, it's just another account trick really, spreading the cost out over a number of years rather than all at once on disposal/sale.

But is this not a scheme were private people give each other lifts and ask the person they're giving a lift to to cover part of the costs?

For a private punter to put an extra 5,000kms per year on their car because of additional mileage they cover due to collecting/meeting the other parties, and not be compensated for the reduced second hand value of their car, seems unfair.

Del2005

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Could be an issue with insurance as you policy will state you cannot carry persons/goods for reward...

AFAIK that was changed a few years back to allow for car sharers to pay, but as always you need to verify with your own insurance company to be 100% safe.

-Chris- wrote: »

But is this not a scheme were private people give each other lifts and ask the person they're giving a lift to to cover part of the costs?

For a private punter to put an extra 5,000kms per year on their car because of additional mileage they cover due to collecting/meeting the other parties, and not be compensated for the reduced second hand value of their car, seems unfair.

If you are driving out of your way to meet someone for a car share then they should pay extra for the fuel used. But expecting them to contribute to deprecation due to extra mileage is a bit much, since you'd be doing most of the journey anyway the 5 or 10 extra kms to meet them won't make that much of a difference to a 200km journey.

schemingbohemia

-Chris- wrote: »

But is this not a scheme were private people give each other lifts and ask the person they're giving a lift to to cover part of the costs?

For a private punter to put an extra 5,000kms per year on their car because of additional mileage they cover due to collecting/meeting the other parties, and not be compensated for the reduced second hand value of their car, seems unfair.

The point of the scheme is to get people going in the same direction to share cars rather than have 2 or 3 cars with 1 person in each going the same direction, it's not designed for going very far out of your way to pick people up thereby suffering additional costs, though obviously a bit out of the way is to be expected. But including depreciation, insurance cost etc is crazy as Cookie Monster says these are sunk costs.

wexford12

I must of read into this car share /car pool wrong but it was my understanding that you lets say split the travel between maybe 3 people you drive one week then the next person drives the next week and so on.So you only drive your car once every 3 weeks if 3 are traveling.If you charge your insurance and Tax man would want to know

Amtmann

I'm just going to charge for petrol costs and a contribution towards tolls. I'll consider stopping off at major towns along the route for anyone who wants a lift, but I'm not going to go on a merry dance to find them.

I have emailed Carsharing.ie about the following usability issues:

1) When you create a journey, you should have the option to include the road route number that you intend to take to prevent people from having to ask "do you go by such-and-such a place?"
2) There should also be a 'via' option on the Add New Trip page. For example, if I am heading from Cork to Dublin, I might be stopping off at Kildare or Abbeyleix or Portlaoise. So the website should give me the choice to enter these towns so that they turn up whenever someone searches for journeys associated with those towns. Presently all that would show up are Cork and Dublin.

Victor

This is here for the lulz, I'm not offering an opinion on anyone's post.

quietsailor

Tremelo wrote: »

See here. Something like this was well overdue.

Disclaimer: I have no financial link with this company, I was merely selected to trial the original iphone app as they were using UCC students as guinea pigs

From what I remember the Kinsale office is the head office

There is another website/company called Avego who have a carsharing system set up. They use an app on the iphone that lets the driver broadcast their trip and people looking for a lift see this driver and request a lift.

>> You initially drive a route and map it out on something like google maps; the passenger sees this and thus knows the route you take; there is no fuzziness over "do you drive down this road" etc etc, maybe you could ask the driver to deviate, I don't know this for sure
>> Both driver and passenger are rated from previous carsharing opportunities; you'll know if they are a sleazebag or polite before you get in.
>> No money changes hands; Avego debits the passengers phone a/c (something like €0.10 per km) and credits the drivers phone a/c

Here's a youtube video about it, its explains things from around 1.35 onwards Avego youtube

I dropped out of the testing as I was only driving from Douglas (Cork suburb) to UCC so I wasn't driving enough to make a proper test.

Amtmann

So, one month on, how is carsharing working out for people? It seems that most people have never heard of it.