Cost of Driving:

Everyone who has a car probably gets into their car and drives to their destination, let it be a store that is only five minute drive or to visit a friend in a town a few kilometres away with out thinking about the real cost of making that trip.

The main reason why I am doing this post is because I have a car, no job, and live in a town that is approximately forty kilometres and one hundred kilometres away from two larger Deaf communities. It is not that I am upset about being in the middle of no where. It just makes me wonder how much it actually costs to get there every time my friends want me to visit, especially London.

Looked around for some rough idea on how much it costs to drive, according to the Annual AAA Study, the average is USD52.2 cents (or CAD58.9) per mile converted to kilometres... CAD36.6 per kilometre (hopefully I did my math correctly, if someone wants to verify that I did my math correctly, feel free to do so).

Getting that information made me re-think how I should ask people to pay for car-pooling with me. Say three people join my car making it a total, should I ask for 36.6 cents / 4 = 9.2 cents from each person times the number of kilometeres driven? I have talked to some people and got mixed results. It seems like half of them think I should charge based only on the gas, the other half agree that I should take in not only the cost of gas, but wear and general costs associated with owning a car.

I believe asking to be paid by the kilometre is the most logical method because before we make the trip, we will have a good idea of how much it will cost per person by using Google Maps or other web-based map service and it is true that gas is not the only expenses associated with driving.

CAA and AAA has pdf documents that you could use to get a better idea on how much it really costs you to drive your car. Have to keep in mind, some of you may opt to do your maintenance and oil change yourself, making the cost of driving your car much lower than those who opt to have those services done by mechanics. I am using the average to keep things simple.

• CAA - Cost of Driving.pdf
• AAA - Your Driving Costs.pdf

Another website that provides cost of driving for almost all the latest cars is Edmunds. But it is limited to US Postal Codes.

Also found a blog that had a post about the true cost of car ownership. There were some errors as pointed by some of the comments such as not including the cost of depreciation.

So the next time someone asks me for a ride, keep in mind I may ask to be paid by the kilometre. AND if someone asks me to visit them, keep in mind that I will be considering the cost of driving over to visit you.

Guess I am on the correct path towards becoming a Jew. :)

Should I ask for payment per kilometre?
	Yes
	No