Sharing the driving, sharing costs, free parking and door-to-door transport to and from work have made Masterton women Marquerite and Brenda committed carpooling commuters.

A ‘Let’s Carpool’ banner at the bottom of the Rimutakas, on the Featherston side, spurred Marquerite to log on to the carpooling website, run by Greater Wellington Regional Council. “I was keen to see if registering would help me find somebody to share the daily commute with instead of being the only person in the car every day.

“Within a day the administrator of the website had modified my search field to help me find a ‘match’. I received an email alerting me to a potential carpooling match, I emailed her and we quickly worked out that we were driving the same route (from Masterton to Lower Hutt) at the same time.

“Brenda and I carpool every day and alternate the driving. It works perfectly and even on the occasions when we’ve left Masterton a little later than normal we usually both manage to arrive at work on time.

“Brenda works at Hutt Hospital and has to pay for parking so on days that it is her turn to drive I continue the trip in her car to my work which has oodles of free parking. That’s another saving for her, which is great.”