Getting a free rental car is great, isn’t it? However you’ll often have to pay for all or part of the fuel used to relocate the car, and on long journeys you may spend over $100… The smartest way to keep costs down is to share the trip with friendly passengers and split the fuel bill. A trip from Christchurch to Auckland could end up costing you only $25 if you take a free rental car and share the cost of fuel with fellow travellers. Carpooling is not very popular in New Zealand yet, however it is huge in Europe, and it can only grow here too…

Chariot is a brand new app that matches users, drivers and passengers, along the same route. Fares are calculated based on trip distance, mileage rate and fare zone. Trip distance is measured by Google Maps. The contribution is cashless, via the secure app. Users agree to a cost-sharing agreement upfront using the app.

“Our mission is to reduce the number of empty seats in cars, cut traffic congestion and carbon emissions by offering a platform for social ride sharing,” said Chariot’s CEO, Thomas Kiefer.

The app has literally just launched a few weeks ago so it can be a bit buggy and the number of rides offered is small for now, but this can only improve and grow in the near future.

CarpoolWorld is another good tool for New Zealand travellers with some long distance trips. You can find for instance drivers or passengers willing to go from  Auckland to Queenstown, Christchurch to Wellington, etc. The website doesn’t look very sharp but the system works well.

Let’s Car Pool is a New Zealand government run website that allows those interested in carpooling to register and upload any trips they are taking, but this is mostly inter-city, in Auckland or Wellington for instance.

Let us know about your experience if you use any of these services with one of our free rental cars!