Having a family car to transport people from place to place is a very convenient and sensible option. Imagine transporting bags of grocery using public transportation or fetching 3 kids from different schools across town, a car would be essential to do these things efficiently. Some families have only one car while some families have as many cars as there are driving adults in the house. However, the more cars in the family, the higher the household’s car expenditure, which includes fuel costs, insurance costs, and maintenance costs. Thus, it is but logical that multiple drivers for one car or less cars will translate to lower expenditures.

Lower insurance costs

Multiple drivers and less cars means lower insurance costs because insurance companies provide lower premium rates if a car is driven by multiple drivers. Multiple drivers for one car can obtain a discount in terms of insurance premiums. However, there are certain conditions to obtain the discount. The drivers need not be related to each other by marriage or by blood; they only have to be living under one roof. This requires that the drivers must be registered in the same residence. Furthermore and more importantly, the car must be jointly owned by the drivers.

Lower initial costs

Purchasing a car can be a big hit in the annual finances of a family. The cost of a car depends on its age, the make, and the mileage. Older cars and secondhand cars are cheaper than brand new ones. However, the risk of it breaking down is higher in older cars and secondhand cars than new ones. Also, new ones still have manufacturer’s warranty for a certain period of time from purchase, protecting the buyer from repair costs in the first few years. The more people sharing in the initial purchase, the lower the costs suffered by the individual drivers.

Lower Maintenance costs

If you are a household with three drivers, all of whom are driving their own cars, the household will be suffering three times the amount of car maintenance costs. This includes oil changes, car tune ups, and other necessary repairs from the regular use of the vehicles. However, if these three drivers are sharing one car, the car will have more mileage and more wear and tear but this also means the household will be shouldering maintenance costs for one car versus three cars.

Lower fuel costs

Less cars in a household means lower fuel costs to add to the expenditures. True, you have more people to drive the car around, more time spent on the road. However, by devising a route that passes by all the points needed to drop off a person or a driver, then the fuel costs are lessened instead of multiple cars all starting at one point and driving at generally the same direction but with different destinations. More drivers sharing the same car also mean that more people are sharing on that car’s fuel costs. This means less fuel costs for each person on a regular basis.

 

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