Sharing the cost of Car pooling

cavedave

What do you think is the fairest way to split a shared taxi or car being pooled?

Say three people live along a route



The journey for person 1 costs 10, 2 20 and 3 30. Then there are two ways i can see to split the shared cost.

The first is to split the cost evenly amongst everyone sharing the car while they share it. So the first person would pay 10/3=3.33. the second would pay this and the 10 extra divided between two people = 5, a total of 8.33. The third would pay this much and the last 10 by themselves.

So sharing scheme would cost 3.33, 8.33, 18.33 each.

The other way is to divide the savings proportionately amongst the sharers. So the total taken in would be 60. The cost is 30, so 30 is saved. the first person gets 10/60 of this back so they pay 5. The second gets 20/60 so they pay 10. And the third gets 30/60 of the savings back so they pay 15.

In the proportional scheme the three pay 5, 10 and 15.

I have written a calculator that uses the first of these schemes here, but if the proportional scheme makes more sense to people I would like to know that.

Which of these schemes makes more sense to you? Which seems fairer?

hfallada

It's about €12 from the start point to pin 2( i have taken a taxi to there one night) So I imagine about €4 for the first person to point 1. About €6/7 to the second point. The rest can be paid for the person living at the m50

cavedave

Thanks hfallada. I will put you in the divide each part by who is in the car preffering people.

Spook_ie

Unless you're not particularly friendly with each other why not just split it €10 each?

Grolschevik

Spook_ie wrote: »

Unless you're not particularly friendly with each other why not just split it €10 each?

Exactly. Would the journey that facilitates you all occur if you weren't all taking it? Would person 3 take the taxi if persons 2 and 1 weren't joining later (and vice versa)?

If a tenner each keeps everyone happy, I don't see the need to split it by distance. Only issue is if person 1 can get to the destination for less than a tenner (by taxi; it'd be about a €2 bus fare I think), which I'm guessing he can't.

cavedave

Spook_ie

Unless you're not particularly friendly with each other why not just split it €10 each?

Well if person1 can get home for a tenner without sharing he wont have any incentive to share if that is the same price. Sharing has to save her some money or she wont bother.

Grolschevik

If a tenner each keeps everyone happy, I don't see the need to split it by distance. Only issue is if person 1 can get to the destination for less than a tenner (by taxi; it'd be about a €2 bus fare I think), which I'm guessing he can't.

Well it might keep everyone happy. But Person1 would save 0. Person2 10 euro and Person3 20 euro which does not seem fair to me. But I am not the judge of what is fair, everyones opinion combined is.

mathepac

Apart from cost, if the travellers are all girls / women there is the safety aspect of having three in the car.

All make a note of driver & car details. First one out texts the other two to say "Home Safe" when she gets there. Same for passenger two and three. If there is a delay with the text from any one passenger, say 5/10 minutes, the other two can raise an alarm with taxi company, Guards, family as appropriate. I think €10 or 1/3 of total fare each is cheap. The first two give their share to the last one out, not to the driver. This is not an attack on taxi-drivers, it's about staying safe, which is priceless for the girls and their families.

Spook_ie

cavedave wrote: »

Well if person1 can get home for a tenner without sharing he wont have any incentive to share if that is the same price. Sharing has to save her some money or she wont bother.



Well it might keep everyone happy. But Person1 would save 0. Person2 10 euro and Person3 20 euro which does not seem fair to me. But I am not the judge of what is fair, everyones opinion combined is.

Hate to say this but as a taxi driver you wouldn't believe what gets said about people who try to over analyse the sharing out of a fare by the ones still in the cab but whatever works for you

oppenheimer1

the way a taxi fare should be split is the fare divided by the number of people in the taxi, less the amount that has already been paid at each stop.

So for this 10 20 30 journey first person would pay 3.33, second 11.67 and third should pay 18.33

Spook_ie

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

the way a taxi fare should be split is the fare divided by the number of people in the taxi, less the amount that has already been paid at each stop.

So for this 10 20 30 journey first person would pay 3.33, second 11.67 and third should pay 18.33

Well yes and no, the initial €4.10 charge includes the 1st kilometer then you'd need to account for the switch to tariff B when the meter reaches €18.70. Also no allowance is being made for the presumably heavier traffic incurred closer to the city center

Why not just offer the taxi driver €27 and split it €9 each every body is happy ( I'd not begrudge giving a 10% discount on a €30 fare )

This is assuming we're on daytime rates

cavedave

oppenheimer1

So for this 10 20 30 journey first person would pay 3.33, second 11.67 and third should pay 18.33

Well that would be overpaying. Which in the case of a taxi would be ok. But this calculator is to help people car pool and generally save money so it aims to just cover the costs and divide up the savings 'fairly'.

Spook_ie

Hate to say this but as a taxi driver you wouldn't believe what gets said about people who try to over analyse the sharing out of a fare by the ones still in the cab but whatever works for you

Which is one aim of this calculator. If there is an agreed quick way to split a bill no one has to do any calculation or analysis at the time. In a one off taxi journey between friends I don't think anyone would use something like this. To share the costs of a daily carpool to work or a longer journey they might though.

Spook_ie

Why not just offer the taxi driver €27 and split it €9 each every body is happy ( I'd not begrudge giving a 10% discount on a €30 fare )

This is assuming we're on daytime rates

In this scheme the first person makes no savings and the third makes big savings. This would work with friends but friends are already fine splitting things. I think for a splitting calculator to work for everyone it has to give everyone a better outcome than not sharing.

Spook_ie

cavedave wrote: »

Well that would be overpaying. Which in the case of a taxi would be ok. But this calculator is to help people car pool and generally save money so it aims to just cover the costs and divide up the savings 'fairly'.



Which is one aim of this calculator. If there is an agreed quick way to split a bill no one has to do any calculation or analysis at the time. In a one off taxi journey between friends I don't think anyone would use something like this. To share the costs of a daily carpool to work or a longer journey they might though.



In this scheme the first person makes no savings and the third makes big savings. This would work with friends but friends are already fine splitting things. I think for a splitting calculator to work for everyone it has to give everyone a better outcome than not sharing.

So basically you're looking for 3 strangers to car/taxi pool, would I be wrong inI assuming you're developing some kind of app for this?

_Kaiser_

Seems ridiculously over-complicated to me

Fare = €30 / 3 people = tenner each

If person 1/2 isn't seeing the "value" in a convenient warm/dry trip vs standing around (waiting) on buses or paying for a taxi on their own then my suggestion would be to do the latter and just get someone else involved that maybe lives closer to the other 2.

But that's me

cavedave

Spook_ie

So basically you're looking for 3 strangers to car/taxi pool, would I be wrong inI assuming you're developing some kind of app for this?

Yes I am developing an app. But I am not here to publicise it. I am trying to figure out if the calculation in the app is the right one.

In case anyone does want to play with it the app is here and the explanation is here.

I am trying to figure out if people think splitting the savings proportionately is the fair way or splitting based on who is in the car at each stage. But the other points people have made about what they think is important in this sort of problem have been really interesting so thanks to everyone for those.

Spook_ie

Personally I wouldn't share a taxi with any strangers unless there were extenuating circumstances. Yeah I know it's an oxymoron seeing as I do actually share a taxi with strangers most of the time but you know what I mean

Aard

Very interesting idea OP. I wonder if you could sell a customised version to large companies who might be interested in facilitating a carpool service for their employees?