Three tips for creating your own car-sharing group

Car sharing is one of the most popular new schemes to help urbanites cut down on their driving. Individuals will choose to be in a car sharing group for various reasons. Car sharing is not accessible in every city across the nation yet, though. Starting your own car-sharing program could be a legitimate alternative – but you will find definitely a few things to keep in mind.

Article Resource: Three tips for creating your own car-sharing group By Personal Money Store

1 – Who will own the vehicle?

The first thing that needs to be decided is who will ultimately be responsible for the automobile. Unless you start a company or LLC that will own the car, somebody will have to be ultimately responsible for the money, maintenance and management of the automobile. There needs to be a basic contract that is signed by any person sharing the vehicle.

2 – Insurance

As a part of the car-sharing group, the head person should make sure the insurance will cover the car, no matter who is driving it. If the car could be shared more than 30 to 40 percent of the driving time, it is important to check with the laws of your state. If you don't share with your insurance company that the car is regularly used by others, that could end up not getting you your money. The other option is to ask all members of the car-sharing network to get their own “non-owner policy” or “broad form” policy – both of which cover the driver and not necessarily the car.

3 – Costs of the car-sharing

Figuring out the costs of car-sharing is one of probably the most difficult things for a car-sharing group. The monthly payments, if the car is not paid for, should be kept separate from the operating costs of the car. You are able to split the monthly payment as a monthly fee of sharing the car. Also take into consideration operating costs. You can add all the fuel, insurance, and maintenance fees together. Divide the total by either people or the number of miles you expect to drive the car. To cover all operating costs, set a "per mile" rate for the car. 50 cents a mile is what the US government uses. Depending on the cost of fuel and insurance, an average per-mile sharing rate should be someplace from 50 cents to $1 per mile.

It can be worth it to figure out what will officially be the costs of sharing. Until ZipCar, Hertz Go, or some other kind of car-sharing network makes it to your city, it can be a great way to lower your cost and reduce your environmental impact.