Against a background of economic turmoil, employers and employees should look to car sharing to cut costs, say a leading industry body and a sustainable transport group.

They also say that it can dramatically boost your social life. The advice comes during Commute Smart Week, which is organised by Work Wise UK, a campaigning group for smarter working practices.

The week highlighted how smarter working and commuting practices, such as home working, flexible working and car sharing, can avoid the staggering financial, environmental and social cost of commuting.

The event's car sharing theme was backed by Liftshare.com, a website supporting high vehicle occupancy.

Phil Flaxton, chief executive, Work Wise UK, said: "Congestion is a massive drag on the British economy, and for commuters.  Yet there are 38 million empty car seats on the road every day. This is economic and environmental insanity.

"Just filling fraction of these seats will take many cars off the road, reducing congestion, emissions and travel costs."

By just raising car occupancy levels by two per cent, would cut national car mileage by around three billion miles, according to Liftshare.

The CBI estimates that road congestion alone costs the UK economy some �20
billion per year. 

 A figure that goes against all the principles of smart commuting: 38 million. That is the number of empty car seats on the UK's roads every day. Fill those seats, and about seven million cars would be taken off the roads - itself reducing congestion, improving road safety
and making the journey to work much more pleasant (and far less expensive).

And yet car occupancy levels have been gradually dropping, while at the same time
car usage is increasing every year, with the total volume of traffic in Britain increasing
by 14% since 1997. If we could raise car occupancy levels by just 2%, we would see a reduction of five billion kilometres of road travel. Just think what that would do to the congestion we fight our way through into work each day!

Fortunately, many motorists sitting in traffic jams are now looking around at all the
other single-occupancy vehicles trying to go the same way, and are beginning to
recognise the impact their driving habits are having on congestion, the environment
and their own wallets. This is particularly evident in the dramatic increase of people
signing up to the UK's largest car-sharing scheme.

Over 280,000 individuals have registered with liftshare.com - with 40,000 members
signing up this summer alone. It's free to join, and the benefits they experience can
be numerous. Reduction in congestion is self-evident: for every two people who start
sharing, another car is taken off the road. Members are currently taking 40,000 cars
off the road every day.

"Car-sharing really opens your eyes to the thousands of cars trundling up and down Britain's road with just one occupant," observes Preston-based member, Norman. "Day after day, they take up the same fifty feet of highway, probably tailing the same car as the day before. It's madness."

Cecelia Bromley-Martin, Liftshare's spokesperson, said: "Encouraging car sharing makes great business sense. Not only does it save money directly, it also helps provide a pleasant working environment and a more contented workforce, boosting productivity.

"Many great friendships, and even relationships, have been made through car share schemes."

One company that has benefited from car sharing is investment management company, Invesco. Currently, it has 207 of their 550-strong workforce car-sharing. It is a Liftshare scheme, administered and promoted by Nick Donaldson and Tracey Ellis.

Nick explains: "From a business point of view the car share scheme works really well for everyone. The company has better utilisation of space: for example, we were able to sell off part of the site previously used as an overflow car park.

"Staff turnover has also dropped since the scheme was implemented, as we found that people were much more willing to join and stay by having a car share scheme.

"Overall the figures show that we have reduced the number of cars coming onto site by roughly 12 per cent in a little under three years, and hugely increased the proportion of those journeys that are multiple-occupancy."

Company parking costs can be considerable. The Department for Transport said earlier this year that each car parking space cost business on average about �400 nationwide, �2,000 in outer London, rising to �6,000 in central London.

For more information visit www.liftshare.com