AOTC CARPOOL EXPENSE SHARING POLICY

(Adopted November, 2004)

The current AOTC Carpool Expense Sharing policy has long been a source of confusion for members. The AOTC Board of Directors believes that carpool expenses should be handled in a reasonable and consistent manner.  The policy should also be clearly understood by both drivers and riders before starting any trip.  For this reason, the Board recently reviewed the policy and has now established a new policy that is easy to interpret and apply and is reasonable for both drivers and riders.

Background

·      In the same sense that our activity leaders are volunteers, not professional activity leaders, a carpool driver is also a volunteer who should expect some rider contribution to defray gas expenses, but is not running a transportation business expecting full expense recovery on every trip.

·      The policy should establish standard expense sharing payments. The policy should be stated in terms of a maximum payment for each rider, which is based on the distance to the activity location but does not change based on the number of riders in the car.  In that way, every rider knows in advance exactly what their cost will be and a rider assigned to a partially filled car is not penalized.

·      The maximum payments should be fixed amounts, rounded to reasonable dollar values, for each of our regular activity destination areas such as Sedona and Flagstaff. This eliminates the uncertainty and delay of figuring out exact mileage for each trip and also simplifies the cash transactions.

·      The basic rate for calculating the rider maximum payment will be $.10 per mile for the vehicle, spread over three riders.  With this plan, a driver going to Flagstaff with three riders would receive $ 10.00 from each rider, for a total of $ 30.00 for the vehicle. On the other hand, a driver with two riders would still receive $ 10.00 from each driver for a total of $ 20.00.  Drivers, that cannot afford to drive with the lower payment, can opt to not drive unless their car is full.

Statement of Policy

·      All those who participate in scheduled AOTC outings and who carpool to activity destinations are expected to contribute to their carpool driver’s gas expenses.

·      Fixed contribution amounts for each rider are established for each of our regular activity destinations.  The amounts are calculated based on $ .08 per round trip mile for each vehicle.  Below is a table showing the approximate roundtrip mileage and the maximum rider cost for frequent destinations:

 

Approximate Roundtrip Mileage and Maximum Rider Cost for Frequent Destinations

 

                                                                  Approximate Roundtrip             Maximum

                          Destinations                    Mileage from Phoenix            Rider Cost     

 

                        Flagstaff                                             300                                $   10.00

                        Globe                                                  200                                $   6.67

                        Grand Canyon                                    450                                $ 15.00

                        Payson                                               200                                $   7.00

                        Prescott                                              200                                $  7.00

                        Sedona                                               250                                $   8.50

                        Superstition Wilderness                       50                                $   2.00

                        Tucson                                               225                                 $  7.50