Discover the benefits of carpooling and ridesharing for more sustainable mobility. Learn how you can save costs and actively contribute to climate protection by traveling together. Find carpool partners for your commute or occasional long-distance trips. Join us and experience a more environmentally friendly form of mobility!
Facts and figures
Private motorized transport (cars and motorcycles) accounts for the largest share of transport-related emissions in Germany, at around 80 %. Work-related mobility accounts for 50 % of this. The daily commuting distance in Germany is about 440 million km, which is roughly equivalent to a trip to the sun, back to earth and back to the sun again.
What is a carpool?
A carpool is a group of people who travel to work or another route more or less regularly together in a car. In contrast to it a carpooling serves rather a unique to irregular and spontaneously agreed upon journey. The difference therefore lies in the organization as well as in the spontaneity.
The advantages
Carpooling reduces individual travel costs as well as CO2 emissions per capita. Two cars with one person each consume almost twice as much fuel for the same distance as a car with two people. There is less traffic on the roads and less need for parking at the workplace. In addition, one is not tied to the public transport system and can arrange departure times individually. Especially for longer or more time-consuming commutes, it's also relaxing to be able to take turns and not have to drive yourself every day.
The disadvantages
From a legal point of view, joining a carpool creates a civil law partnership, i.e. a GbR. This means that rights and obligations are associated with a ride. Drivers must inform their passengers in good time of delays or cancellations so that they can find an alternative. Otherwise, passengers can also claim damages.
In case of damage & tax declaration
All damages to passengers, including family members, are covered, for example, by the motor vehicle liability insurance. It is also recommended that passengers sign a liability limitation declaration in order to exclude further liability of the driver/owner towards passengers.
In the case of carpools, each passenger can claim the travel costs in their tax return via the commuter allowance. The costs of an accident on the journey between home and work can also be deducted from the tax, provided that they are not covered by insurance.
Finding carpools & rideshares
If you are looking for a carpool for work, it is best to talk to your colleagues or look on the bulletin board for suitable notices. Sometimes the employer can also make an offer (e.g., a carpooling portal on the intranet). In addition, there are numerous portals/apps on the Internet - with and without registration and with different payment systems - through which carpools can be founded or found, such as BlaBlaCar or fahrgemeinschaft.de.
BlaBlaCar is the world's leading travel network for carpooling and long-distance buses with over 90 million members, enabling rides in 22 countries. According to the company, this saves 1.6 million tons of CO2 per year. However, an agency fee must be paid for each ride.
Fahrgemeinschaft.de is a free ride-sharing network in cooperation with ADAC and is the leader in the daily commuter carpooling segment. However, the service can also be used for occasional long-distance carpooling.
At https://mitfahrverband.org/projekte/mitfahrportale/ you will find an overview of carpooling services in German-speaking countries.
Are you already traveling together? Ride with others for a better climate now!
