My other posts on carpooling shared many of the benefits of carpooling, and I continue to enjoy those benefits. Apart from the social benefits and the greater environmental responsibility, there are also some very real cost benefits. If you have the slightest financial inclination you know that expenses (like purchasing fuel) come after tax, and that for every $1.00 you avoid spending, its around $1.40* you don't have to earn. *OK, I live in British Columbia, Canada, where where we have a sales tax of 12%, an income tax and other federal deductions that eat 27% of each pay-cheque. So if you managed to save $1000, its like getting a $1,400. So that is my mindset and you'll have to forgive me if I jump to the "earnings saved" now and then. I want to raise my family's quality of life without having to work longer hours to earn more money. And since my commitment to Jesus precludes bank robbery as a reasonable means of acquiring "extra" money, I'm stuck with the ethical stuff like carpooling. Financial benefits to carpooling... Today I'd like to start tackling those so that I can let you in on the secret that many (but not all) carpools already know.
So lets start a list of the dollar savings a carpool creates. If I miss some feel free to add yours in the comments;
- Fuel costs
- Regular maintenance costs
- Wear and tear (unexpected repair costs)
- Exposure to accidents and damaged
- Vehicle replacement
- Insurance?
Fuel costs
OK, so the fuel costs are a no-brainer right? Of course if only one car is rolling down the highway towards work with 1,2 or 3 carpool vehicles parked, you are saving serious dollars on fuel costs. So my carpool avoids driving 60,000 KM per year, and with fuel sitting at around $1.00/Liter, and 10L/100KM being reasonably average, we avoid spending $6,000 on fuel each year (and avoids the need for us to earn $8,400.)
Regular maintenance costs
Oil changes every 5000KM are a good way to help your car's engine last as long as the rest of the car.
At 100,000km you probably need to change a timing belt, you should replace brakes before they disappear completely, air filters and other parts deserve replacement. At 60,000km/year, we displace the need for 12 oil changes. The "interwebs" suggest that $35 is an average price for a dealer to change oil, so for our carpool, we save ourselves $420 a year
Wear and tear
we have to replace tires, things go "crack" or "rattle". I needed to replace my tires for$600 at 100,000km, so $6/1000km seems like the price for tires. At 60,000km/year, our carpool saves $360 a year on tires.
Exposure to accidents and damage
We get stones in the windshield, people put dents in the car doors. The point is that leaving your car in the garage is the safest place for you. Every time that car gets on the road you've got roadside salt and sand abrading the paint, random objects placed in your lane, manholes strategically placed to ensure your suspension gets its daily workout.
Vehicle Replacement
OK, this is the big one. (I think?) In Canada, the average purchase price for a light car is about $27,500. Normal folk drive their cars about 25,000 KM/year and replace the car when it is 10 years old. This lets us infer that the cost of a vehicle is about $27,500 per 250,000KM or $0.11 per km. (Honestly somebody help me out with these numbers) given our carpool's 60,000km/year, we save $6,600 per year on vehicle replacement.
Insurance & Parking?
OK, my insurance company has a rule that I can insure the car for pleasure use and still drive it to work 5 days a week. Now, if there were zero disruptions in carpool, I'd drive to work 5 times. life happens, and I'll always be hitting 6-8 days a month, so this one doesn't work for me. BUT maybe your insurance company allows you a discount based on the percentage of the time you don't drive. Its worth asking about. They totally save money by avoiding risk. They like it when you leave your car in the garage too!
Parking. We currently pay for parking 4 times, but perhaps you have a better parking situation where sharing a parking pass among vehicles is acceptable (given that you'll only use one parking space).
So lets see what we have in savings given the numbers I could crunch above.
Vehicle replacement $6,600
Tires $360
Oil $420
Fuel $6,000
--------------------
Total $13,380
So there are 4 of us splitting the take on the carpool for a tidy savings of $3,345
Together as a carpool we all enjoyed a standard of living that otherwise would have required us to earn an extra $18,732
So yes. Our carpool saves $1000s every year. You can too.
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