Carpooling in Germany

Before coming to Germany, a friend of mine had informed me about carpools in Germany. He told me that it’s very safe and is an effective mode of transport. I simply rubbished this idea of carpooling then. All that came to my mind was “travelling with unknown people, god knows how they will be – very scary”. Well, yes, no other reaction can be expected from a person who has’t really travelled alone anywhere before.  

I had no clue then, that most of my travel in Germany was going to be through carpools.

I remember spending 45 Euros for a single trip by the ICE to Frankfurt from Cologne. Paying this amount almost killed me as I found this single journey ticket really expensive.  If one books a train ticket well in advance, train tickets are cheap. But if one buys them on the spot – they are freaking expensive!! So what’s the lesson learnt here – plan your trips well in advance. But my trips being totally unplanned, advance planning was just not an option for me. 

That’s when I once again stumbled upon the idea of carpooling. I spoke to a lot of friends, asked for reviews, whether it’s safe, etc etc. After a lot of contemplation, discussions  and hesitation, I decided – let’s go for it. I shall carpool! If I never try I shall never know.  So with the help of this website, www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de, I had my first carpool from Cologne to Stuttgart. And it was one of the most enjoyable one. In fact, every car pool of mine was an experience in itself – I could write a blog on each one of it.

Over cautious that I was, I always left details about my carpool with a friend of mine (thinking just in case required). This never really happened. All my carpools were very safe. Yes, I won't deny that I feared but actually there is nothing to be scared of. I was really proud of myself to have carpooled in Germany! No wonder I am blogging about it.

So why carpool?

Well I think these are some of the advantages

• They are really cost effective
• You get to use the German Autobahns (the German highways) which are simply superb. One gets to see the natural beauty of Germany with lots of greenery around.
• You get to meet new people
• You are also saving fuel; doing your bit for the environment
• You can get to travel in fancy cars

Any disadvantages??

Answer to this is may be. No carpool is going to be the same. It would all depend on the company. One might just tend to meet really weird people with weird demands. For example, the owner of the car might not like people in the car talking or eating food on the seat or may be he/she is a bad driver, heavy smoker etc. However, if one is dissatisfied with the carpool, one always has an option to discontinue with it and report abuse on the website.

There could be bad traffic jams also. And the scenery around doesn't really help much after a point when stuck in traffic for hours. Yes, there could be traffic jams in Germany also - I experienced some really horrible ones.

How to carpool?

The process of booking a carpool is really easy. Most of my carpools were through this website – http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/. ( a lot of similar websites are also available) On this website, people mention their date, time of travel and how many seats are available in their car. So people who are searching for a carpool can contact them if it matches their requirements. On the other hand, people who want to carpool (but don’t have their cars) can also register and put up their requirements. All you have to do is get in touch with the concerned person and book your seat in the car before it gets full.

So happy carpooling in Germany!!! Trust me on this, if I can do it, anybody can!!