Case studies - Government - Devon County Council

With more mileage of roads than any other county in the UK, and several congestion hotspots, many businesses in Devon encountered problems with traffic, shortage of parking and lack of public transport links. At the same time, some rural businesses were struggling to recruit, while the lack of suitable bus routes meant many rurally-based people were finding it hard to find jobs.

Devon County Council recognised a need for a car-share system that was easy to use and free for the public to join - as well as being accessible by telephone for those without internet access. Three companies were invited to present their schemes to the Council, Torbay and Plymouth unitary authorities, and local business leaders, and liftshare was chosen to set up Carshare Devon.

“The overwhelming conclusion was that liftshare offered the most cost-effective facility, which blended simplicity with widespread accessibility for the general public as well as with participating organisations,”

says Lesley Smith, car-share manager for CarshareDevon.com.

“We've always been really pleased with our decision to choose liftshare. We were impressed with the level of support and guidance we had from them when we were first set up. And they also worked to get the set-up to fit in with the time slot that we had chosen. Since then, we have been able to use the Monitoring Pages to see which of the ways of marketing the scheme work best, and act on that knowledge to increase registrations.”

Six years on, Carshare Devon is thriving, with over 7,000 members.

“We've recently heard about four people commuting from rural north Cornwall to jobs in Devon, who estimate they each save around £3,000 a year. One of them said 'I never thought it was going to be possible to find anyone else travelling the same journey at the same time, and then suddenly there were four. I didn't know any of them before, but I felt secure in the liftshare system.' I think liftshare does instil confidence.

Since we launched, liftshare has been fantastic. They're always there at the end of the phone if we have any queries. And they're also very willing to take any feedback from us. So if we think 'could we possibly do this?', they're always really willing to listen to our suggestions, which is really important to us. ”