about flexible carpooling

ride credit system

Click on the headings below to read more about flexible carpooling.

A central idea of flexible carpooling is that for every ride you give to a member, you are entitled to take a ride yourself.

Some members drive some days and ride other days and keep 'in balance'.

Some members always want to drive, some always want to ride, and others are happy to do both.

In order to let people do what they want, flexible carpooling issues an 'alternative currency' of 'ride credits' that transfer from the rider to the driver. A ride credit is the way of tracking the ride that is 'owed' to the driver.

A member who always wants to drive doesn't need the ride credit. A member who always wants to ride needs to acquire ride credits. So flexible carpooling makes a market where riders and drivers buy and sell credits that they need or don't need.

The market for ride credits is operated on-line, though transactions can also be carried out in person and recorded on-line later.

In order to 'trade' online, each member is required to maintain a financial account with enough money in it to make the trades the member needs.

The price is set in an open market the same way that prices are set for shares in the stock market. Buyers offer to buy at a price, sellers offer to sell at a price. When the prices meet, ride credits change hands. They get transferred from one member's account to the other, and the money transfers the other way.

When a member joins the system, they receive five ride credits for each of the routes they normally travel.

It is possible to have ride credits bought and sold automatically 'at market' so that members who don't like trading don't have to get involved in it.

Prices will be similar to bus fares for similar journeys, but the members on the route are responsible for setting the final value each time they trade. It is only necessary to trade once a week.