With more than 11,000 visitors per day, the French website www.ecovoiturage.pro spreads the word about carpooling among its BNP Paribas employees.  Currently there are 1,283 members and 1,088 routes. The first impressions are promising.

Here are some of the stories:

Philippe MATHIEU, of the International Operations Department:

 ”I’ve been doing  carpooling for about two months now, and I want to stress that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. The first benefit that springs to mind is financial, because if you share your car regularly you share the expenses.”

“Then, I’d say I’m a car-sharer out of a sense of good citizenship and, lastly – well, the journey is more pleasant when you have someone sitting beside you. When you’re stuck in a traffic-jam, at least you have someone to talk to.”

“ As for the disadvantages, I’d say the timetables, because sometimes you have to adjust to other people’s timetables, and, lastly, I’d say another possible drawback is that you sometimes have to make a detour to go and collect your passenger and sometimes a detour can lead you into a traffic-jam and, well, that can be a bit frustrating.”

Sylvain DUMONT, BNP Paribas Assurance:
“The methods of transport available to me were the train (two trains actually), plus using my own car for a short trip, or else the motorway. So I looked into what it would cost me using my car and it came to a motorway toll of about 150 euros a month plus the fuel costs which came to about the same amount, meaning a total of about 300 euros.”

“ I decided to see whether there were any other people on the car-sharing website who did the same kind of journey, either as a passenger or driver, so that we could share the costs. And then, there’s an ecological aspect to car-sharing too, in that sharing a car between two or even three people could help improve the environment.”

“Since I registered, I’ve regularly received – every two months or so – new people in places I pass through who’ve registered for journeys, so it keeps me informed about people I could share my car with, or who could take me in theirs. There are two or even three possible journeys I could register for. The main value of the website for me is that it lets other people benefit from my car, even if it means making a detour of a couple of kilometres or so.”