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Carpool travel option growing in popularity
http://www.ecns.cn/2016/02-01/197828.shtml
Feb 1st 2016, 10:21
Monday Feb 01, 2016
As demand and prices for plane, train and bus tickets soar ahead of the Spring Festival holiday, a growing number of people in Shanghai are considering carpooling as a way to get home for their annual break.
Jiao Feng, a migrant worker in suburban Songjiang District, told Shanghai Daily last night that he was hoping to get a cheap ride home to Jiangxi Province after posting an advertisement on classified website 58.com.
"Carpooling is not my first choice because of the safety concerns, but trying to get a long-distance ticket during Chunyun (the Chinese name for the annual travel period) is really hard," he said. "So I decided to give it a try."
Jiao is wise to be cautious. In an unregulated industry, neither passengers nor car owners can be sure who they might end up sitting next to.
The Oriental Morning Post recently reported the story of a Shanghai man surnamed Tian, who thought he'd secured a ride to Xi'an in northwest China, only to be dumped in the middle of the road halfway home.
"The driver told me I had to get out and said he'd arrange for someone else to pick me up," Tian was quoted as saying.
"I got to Xi'an in the end, but it took more time than expected and it was quite unsettling when I realized there was nothing I could do to stop what was happening to me."
Horror stories aside, several car owners told Shanghai Daily that they like the idea of pooling because it means they don't have to travel alone.
"For me, it's not about the money," said Peter Yuan, a native of Shiyan in central China's Wuhan Province who said he earns about 500,000 yuan (US$76,000) a year working as an IT engineer in Shanghai.
"I know how difficult it is to get a ticket home during Chunyun, so I thought I could help someone. Also, if I didn't offer a seat through the carpooling service it would just be empty," he said.
"I wish someone would have helped me like that in the days before I could afford my own car."
Despite it not being about the money, Yuan said the person who joined him and his family on their 13-hour trip to Shiyan did contribute 300 yuan to the cost of the 1,300 kilometer trip. The deal was arranged via an advertisement he placed on 58.com.
Another driver, surnamed Wang, said that by offering two seats in his car through classified website ganji.com, he was able to dramatically reduce the cost of his trip to Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.
"It usually costs me about 2,600 yuan on petrol and road tolls," he said. "But by taking two passengers this time, who each paid 800 yuan, the cost was basically split three ways."
A motorist surnamed Zhao said he would gladly waive all fuel charges if he could find someone who was prepared to share the driving with him.
"It takes about six hours from Shanghai to my hometown (Huainan in east China's Anhui Province)," he said. "If someone else shared the driving, I wouldn't charge them for the ride."
Most insurance policies in China cover anyone to drive a car as long as they have permission from the owner.
While the Ministry of Transport recently said it was in favor of "not for profit" carpooling to relieve the burden on public transport, it said people offering rides must ensure their vehicles are safe. It also advised both passengers and drivers to agree the details of the trip and share of the costs before setting off.
Several classified websites that accept carpooling advertisements go as far as to advise drivers and passengers to sign a written agreement.
Almost all of the people Shanghai Daily interviewed for this article, however, said they hadn't or probably wouldn't go to such lengths.
More than 2.9 billion trips are expected to be made via road, rail, air and water between Sunday and February 13.
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