FAQ

I'm driving a fixed journey and would like to take a passenger. How do I offer the lift?: In order to offer a lift on our site, first you will need to register with us. If you click on the "Register" link in the navigation bar, you will be taken to the registration page. Once you have registered successfully you can enter your offer through the "New Journey" option in the navigation bar.

What are the rules for petrol contributions? How much do the passengers contribute?: In principle the contribution amount is something to be negotiated. As the driver you should determine the amount of the contributions, and make your passenger/s aware of the amount before the journey starts. To work out the amounts you can use the one of the following methods:

Variable contributions depending on the number of passengers: The cost contributions depend on how many passengers there are. carpooling.co.uk recommends that a fair price for the contributions can be worked out by: Fuel costs + 10 percent / the number of people in the car. Please use our Cost Calculator to help.

Fixed price: A fixed cost is based on the expected number of passengers. These costs are generally a bit higher, as the driver alone takes the risk that some passengers won't show up. In general contributions are between 7 and 9 pounds per 100 miles when only one passenger is expected.

Please note that the contributions the driver receives are not allowed to involve an element of profit, as this can affect their insurance, and is against our terms of service.

If you are not interested in a contribution from the passenger and are just looking for some company on your journey, you can always write this in your offer, and you will generally be quite popular.

I have offered a lift. How will interested passengers contact me?: Passengers contact you directly, but the means by which they do so will depend on which contact details you have supplied. It can be by telephone, email, or even through the carpooling.co.uk mailbox.

I don't want to show all my different contact details in my offer. I only want to receive emails from interested passengers.: When you enter a new offer, you can decide exactly which contact details you would like to show in the offer.

How can I specify a meeting point?: If you have already entered an offer, you can go to "My Account: My Lifts" through the navigation bar, to specify a meeting point. There is a preset list of meeting points that you can choose from, although you can also suggest other meeting points that should be added, through the "suggest general meeting point" tab. You can also specify your own meeting point through our Google Maps™ interface. With the Google Maps™ interface you can specify exactly where you want a meeting point to be, for either the start or end of a journey, or even stopping points for picking up passengers.

My offer is already fully booked with all the places taken. What should I do?: If your offer is fully booked, you need to deactivate the offer. To do this go to "My Account: My Lifts" in the navigation bar. Find the offer that is fully booked and click on the green tick ("active") icon on the far right of the table. The symbol with turn red and your offer will become inactive, and will not appear in searches any more. You should then not be contacted by interested passengers any more.

It keeps happening that the passenger either cancels at short notice, or doesn't turn up. What can I do?: It is always a risk that passengers may have to cancel at short notice, but should this become a regular problem, please read our tips in the Guidelines section.

I can also take passengers for shorter sections of my journey. How do I add possible stopping points along my route?: When entering an offer you can enter stopping points at the same time as the start and end points of the journey. In the field for "Via" enter any stopping points that you can make in the order that they would happen. By using the small green plus icon, you can add up to 5 stopping points to a journey.

For example: You are offering a lift from London to Edinburgh, via Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Leeds. You journey will then also appear in searches for Leicester to Leeds, and Nottingham to Edinburgh, etc. as well as the full journey length.

Stopping points can increase the interest in your journeys. Please use the "General Meeting Points" (under My Account: Meeting Points) if you don't know a town or city, and are looking for a stopping point near the motorway for example.

I have offered a lift, but I can't find my offer when I click on the "Search for Lifts" option in the menu! Why?: New offers/ requests and changes to offers/ requests, are not instantly made live in the search. It can take 5-10 minutes for the search results to be refreshed.
Please also note that only journeys within the next 4 weeks are shown in the A-Z city list.

I am offering a lift on an international journey. What should I be aware of?: If you are traveling out of or in to the UK, get you passengers to show you a valid passport (or EU Travel Card), before you start the journey. If the passenger doesn't have a valid passport to show, you should not take them with you!

For passengers that come from outside of the EU, you should also ask to see a valid residence permit before you set off! If the passenger can not provide valid travel documents, you should not take this person. For passengers from non-EU countries, you should ask to see a valid residence permit before departing. We also recommend the following: 1-Get a copy of valid residence permit holder. 2-Use our online booking system. This can serve as proof that you have inserted a lift on carpooling.co.uk, through which passengers have contacted you. 3-Also ask your passengers to carry a print out of their booking.4-Carry a print out of your journey details as proof of advertising it.

Please also be aware that driving laws change across Europe, for an overview of major changes between countries please refer to the AA Compulsory Equipment Overview (PDF), and for general travel advice to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

My departure or destination is not in the drop-down list. What can I do?: If you can't find you departure or destination in the list, please use the closest town or city that is in the list. Then in the "Comments" field state where the journey actually starts or finishes.

How many people can I take in my car?: You can take as many people as the car is certified to carry.

Please let the passengers know in advance though if you will have 3 people on the back seat for example. For anyone who is going to drive a long journey in a small car, we recommend that you don't have more than 3 passengers.

One of my passengers forgot something in my car. Unfortunately I don't have their contact details any more. What can I do?: If this happens, please send us an email with as many details as possible (name of the passenger, where they are from, etc.) through our Customer Service page. Alternatively you can add an entry to our guestbook's "Lost & Found" section.

My question isn't answered here. What can I do?: If you have a question that isn't answered here, please look through the other FAQs to see if it is there. If you still don't find an answer, please contact us through our Customer Service page to ask the question.

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