[caption id="attachment_411" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="carpool lane (flickr credit: Richard Drdul)"]
[/caption]1. First of all, take "Baby steps" and "try before you buy". Rather than committing to carpool full-time right away, test-drive the idea of carpooling. With some of the friends from my office, we started with carpooling a couple days a week. This meant that 3/5 of the days were business as usual, but 2/5 were trying out carpooling. Even if you only end up carpooling a couple days a week, you realize many of the carpooling benefits which might include; saving money, less stressful driving, carpool lanes, less wear and tear on your vehicle. Pick a duration for your carpool trial and re-evaluate at the end of that time. Say; "Well, I'm just not sure how I will feel about not having my own space on the commute, but I'd like to give this a try to see how well I do with this. For the next month, lets carpool on Mondays and Tuesdays, and evaluate at the end of the month." Did you notice how the language was around your own experience, and not around the other person's driving or conversational skills? This way you can easily say "No" without anyone feeling judged.
2. Pick good people, set yourself up for success. Try carpooling with people you know. Sharing a common office environment and of course knowing the people increases the safety of the situation. You might find it harder (and probably should) to drive off with a stranger in their car. Sharing an office also improves the chances that you share common working hours and will have very little conflict regarding when the carpool arrives and leaves. Choose people you are comfortable with, people you can get along with who you won't mind having in your commuting space. Good people make all the difference in the world.
3. Schedule driving days in advance. Unless it is Christmas, nobody likes surprises. If the people in your carpool are forewarned about which day they are driving, they can; have gas in the car, have the car clean, and not promise the car to their wife that day. Having members of the carpool drive on certain days, (I always drive on Mondays) gives a rhythm and predictability to the carpool routine that reduces stress. Naturally you will want to keep things fair so on some days there will be variation in who drives. (Wednesdays could be Greg, Jen or Mo) That variation should be predictable too, so break out your favourite spreadsheet tool and build a schedule (to keep at your desk, on the visor of your car, and on the back of your door at home) so everyone can avoid being "surprised" when it is their day to drive.
4. Clearly agree on how the carpool will work. Will it be like a carpool bus-route, where the driver goes to several houses to collect people in the morning and drop them off at night, which requires only one vehicle to be in motion on a given day. This is the most car efficient, but depending on driving direction and distances, may not be the most time efficient. Will your carpool meet centrally so everyone is responsible for getting "down the hill" to the rendezvous point? This could mean adding a couple minutes of buffer to everyone's schedule prior to rendezvous so they don't keep anyone waiting. Will your carpool meet at the house closest to destination with cars left on the street or in a driveway? It means a lot less hassle for the person with the handy house, but uses more cars and may mean those furthest away may be commuting many more minutes a day just to make the carpool work.
5. Be flexible. Life happens. Communicate early! Lots of warning lets people plan. Remember they are counting on you, so if something comes up lead time is really valuable. Chances are you are carpooling because of the benefits you will receive or because you recognize the opportunity to make a positive impact through how you commute. Keep this in mind when your carpool has complications. Refuse to be "high-maintenance" Did someone miss a day because of medical appointments? Relax, adapt, next time you might be the one requiring grace. The need to keep a running total of how EVEN everyone is may be a sign that your carpool is headed for trouble. That being said, it must be fair and feel fair.
6. Drive well. You just found some people that were willing to trust you with their lives on the morning commute. Honour that trust by keeping everyone safe. In fact strive to raise the safety of your driving to match the safest person in your carpool. Nobody should be scared in the carpool, and if someone expresses their fear, say "Thank you" and take it as a compliment that they felt you would be open enough to receive constructive criticism. Drive "Silky smooth". Richard in our carpool coined that term and we look forward to a "Silky Smooth" commute every time Richard drives. This helps everyone feel comfortable, saves fuel and helps those prone to motion sickness to not feel seasick after the commute.
7. Bulk up your carpool for resilience. If you have a 2 person carpool and 1 of the 2 people can't make it, the carpool is dead for that day. If you have a 3 person carpool and one person can't make it, the carpool lives on. 3 and 4 person carpools are very resilient and able to continue on even if one person is sick for a week and another person has random work schedule changes... You carpool when you can, and your carpool extends benefits to whoever can carpool on a given day. Some days our carpool saves $10 in gas, other days it saves as much as $30 in gas.
8. Enjoy yourselves. It's about community and it's much more than a business transaction. If you are social with carpool, after a short while you will find yourself looking forward to the time you can spend with friends on the ride home. Some of the tools to improve your carpool's enjoyability include; agreed upon audio books, baking or coffee in the morning, carefully selected music, the odd DVD movie (back seat only), and the normal exuberant conversation that comes after a long day at work. You'll have inside jokes and your own secret carpool language in no time... Well OK maybe just some inside jokes.
Carpooling is about achieving something together that you could not on your own. With the 8 suggestions above you will greatly increase the chances that you can start carpooling successfully. Then you get to enjoy the benefits that brings.
I hope that helps! Leave your suggestions in the comments below so others can benefit from your experiences.
Greg.
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