Net fuels car pooling drive in city

CHENNAI: We���ve heard about carpooling and know why it doesn���t work beyond small circles. If trust andreliability are the key factors, this new internet-fuelled network could welldrive the trend and reduce the carbon footprint.ShareADrive.in,which may soon see many clones, works this way: You drive from Besant Nagar toPerungudi for work. You register with the network to share the vacant seats ofyour car ��� and earn. The website will match you with others travellingalong that route, who will pay you Rs 3 a km for dropping them on your way towork.���If there is a way for people to know that the person canbe trusted and that he/she will be paid for it, several would be willing tooffer a lift. ShareADrive.in will link non-vehicle owners and those withtwo-wheelers and four-wheelers on the same route. Everyone saves money andbrings down carbon emissions,��� says Hariharan Ganesan, CEO of thestart-up.Ganesan says members are added only after a backgroundcheck with office colleagues and neighbours. On registering, non-vehicle userslooking for a ride to their destination agree to pay the person who gives them alift Re 1 a km for two-wheelers and Rs 3 a km forfour-wheelers.Software engineer Navaneethan C, a registered member,says he is open to giving two people a ride in his car while commuting from RAPuram to Perungudi. ���It���s a good initiative as it saves fuel, putslesser vehicles on the road and reduces pollution. Maybe a time will come when Ican leave my vehicle at home and hitch a ride with somebody else driving thatway,��� he says.M Narayanan, a senior executive at TCS, says,���It���s a simple and easy way to do your part for the environment andsociety. I may have to sacrifice the luxury of listening to music, reading orspeaking on the phone with someone on my way to work, but it���s a smallprice to pay for the benefits.���