Over 1m users sign up to ‘online hitchhiking’

A new generation of hitchhikers is using the internet to benefit from cheap road trips as Europe’s largest lift sharing portal expands to cater specifically for British travellers. Rideshare.co.uk is a new website that allows anyone looking to share a journey to search for lifts across Britain and Europe for free and without the need to register.

Lift sharing is where a driver offers a lifts to passengers, generally in return for a contribution towards petrol.

A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) said: “ Lift sharing is little more than pre-arranged hitchhiking, but it is a simple way of reducing travel costs as well as the pollution and congestions associated with motoring.“

How online travel sharing work?

Lift sharing is not a new idea, but where previously drivers and passengers had to rely on message boards, the internet has enabled it to be far more sophisticated.

The travel share website offer users the option to travel only with users who have proved their identity and the opportunity for women to travel only with other women.

Rideshare.co.uk is part of a network of European travel share websites with a total of over 1.3 million registered users, who between them arrange between 10,000 and 30,000 shared journeys every day.

How much does travel sharing cost?

It costs nothing to use the rideshare website, travellers simply divide the cost of fuel for the trip between themselves. For example, a trip from London to Edinburgh (400 miles) will cost approximately £60 in petrol. If 2 passengers are taken, each paying £20, it saves the driver £80 on a return trip.