Karshare Blog

Ian is a Software Tester living in Westbury Park who has been renting out his Ford C-Max with his partner Rachel as part of Karshare’s community car sharing scheme. He first used Karshare when it operated as Car and Away at Gatwick Airport. “It worked really well there and made me think about the fact that there’s always cars sitting around at airports – it makes way more sense to use those rather than a whole fleet of rental cars. Then I saw that Karshare had started operating in neighbourhoods during lockdown and got on board.”

Johnny de Mearns is an artist, yoga instructor and masseur from Bristol. Dad to 4 boys, he has recently swapped out his 23 year old Toyota Picnic for a brand new hybrid car and is now renting it out to his community via Karshare. “I first read about Karshare in an article and thought it was a totally brilliant idea, but I knew my 23 year old car, which was already on its way out, wouldn’t be eligible for sharing. After that car was hit by another vehicle and finally written off, there was an opportunity for change.”

Julian Burr is a 42 year old DJ from Hanham in Bristol. Married with four children, he owns a Vauxhall Vivaro van, which he has been renting out as part of Karshare’s community car sharing scheme. “I first heard about Karshare through a Facebook advert”, he told us. “In non-Covid times, I operate a DJ business and this has had to stop since the first lockdown in March. My van has been redundant since then and Karshare was a great opportunity to make some income from it, instead of it sitting idle.” Julian and his family have two other vehicles which they use to get around in Bristol, but the van “is not being used for anything right now.”

Lisa, 25 years old, lives with her boyfriend in Redland, Bristol and their sausage dog Florence. They moved in October 2019 from Oxford as they have family in the area and spent a lot of time here. With an Audi A1 on a finance plan and a walking commute to work Lisa decided to keep her car as she likes the independence it brings her, so they are a two-car household.