Car Share Scheme Available To Staff At University Of Surrey

The University of Surrey has introduced an on-site car sharing programme for its staff that aims to boost the number of people involved in the environmentally friendly initiative.

Car sharing has numerous benefits, such reducing traffic congestion, lowering pollution, decreasing fuel bills and allowing individuals a short break from driving, the University explains on its website. Apart from the benefits listed above, car sharing also enables people to meet and travel together, and also helps solve the issue of a lack of parking spaces and the high demand for more. Car sharing can save 20 kilograms of carbon for a trip of 100 miles to a driver of an average car.

Eligible candidates for the car-share programme are University members of staff. They will be able to use one of the two cars provided by a rental company for trips of no longer than four hours. Those willing to try the scheme can book a vehicle through the University's intranet.

Commenting on the initiative, University of Surrey's category manager Abigail James told FleetNews that university staff typically use their own vehicles for business trips, and later claim back reimbursement for the miles traveled; this is a much more expensive option than using a car under the car sharing programme.

This is not the first time the University of Surrey has adopted a green policy; it joined the surreycarshare.com scheme, which enables people to find and share transport options that match their needs, back in 2005.