Matt Grover and his wife moved up the coast to Ohau last year but were determined to keep their jobs in Wellington. They found themselves spending around $150 a week on transport into the city.

“At first we didn’t think twice about it and thought it was a necessary sacrifice to have the relaxing weekend lifestyle we wanted. We had seen news stories of happy carpoolers driving to work and often wondered if it would work. One quiet afternoon at work I thought I would do a bit of digging around and stumbled across www.letscarpool.govt.nz. After a few clicks I had managed to find the perfect match! A husband and Wife who worked just up the road from us, and had a free car park in the city too. Times and days of travel was spot on! Thinking it was too good to be true I called the matching commuter and made an arrangement to trial run the following week. We agreed to split the cost of petrol 4 ways and pay weekly by bank deposit.

Well, since then we haven’t looked back! We have become great friends with our carpoolers, mixing up the driving duties and throwing in an occasional dinner on the way home. Every second week we stop at Pak N Save in Paraparaumu and do a shop together too. When my wife and I look back we can't believe we spent horrendous amounts of money on travel when sharing the costs meant more money for food shopping and bills. We now save over $100 a week.

I would have to admit that the scariest thing is meeting complete strangers and then sharing 15 hours a week travelling with them to and from work. But to those of you in doubt, you really have nothing to lose but so much to gain, not only financially, but you might even make good friends.

Thank you Lets Carpool!"