Car Sharing and Lift Rota

Who this is for

One week of shared journeys on a page. Each day takes the run, the driver, the pick-up time and who is in the car, with distance and any shared cost. A second table counts drives against lifts taken so the turns stay even.

Neighbours sharing a school or station run, colleagues sharing a commute, clubs getting children to matches, and families where more than one adult does the driving.

What this helps you track

• Who is driving on each day of the week, and which run it is
• What time the pick-up is and who is being collected
• The distance covered on each run, if you are sharing costs by distance
• What each person put in, and whether the turns have stayed even
• Which days are still unfilled, with a week to sort them out

How to use it

1. Write the group, the week beginning and how you have agreed to share costs at the top — the basis is yours, not ours.
2. Fill in each day's run, driver, pick-up time and passengers. The seven days are already printed.
3. Write the distance if you are splitting by distance, and whatever was put in the pot in the cost column.
4. Tick each day once the run has happened, so a missed turn is obvious rather than argued about.
5. Use the second table to count drives and lifts per person; the balance column shows who is ahead and who owes a turn.
6. Print a fresh sheet each week, or duplicate the browser copy and clear the ticks.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser
• Excel / Google Sheets workbook

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The workbook uses plain formulas only — SUM, IF, COUNTIF and the like — so it opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets without anything breaking, and every calculated cell is grey so you can see which figures it worked out.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

How should we split the cost?

However you agree. Some groups share fuel by distance, some take turns driving and settle nothing, some put a flat amount in a pot. The sheet has a line at the top for whatever you decided and columns to record it; it suggests no figure.

What does the balance column mean?

Drives minus lifts taken, per person, for the period the sheet covers. A positive number means somebody has driven more often than they have been driven; a negative one means the opposite.

What about insurance for giving lifts?

Whether a shared journey is covered, and on what basis, depends on your policy and the rules where you are. Ask your insurer before money changes hands; the sheet makes no statement about it.

Can we use it for a longer rota than a week?

The printed sheet is a week because that is what fits legibly. For a term or a season, keep the weekly sheets together or use the browser version and add rows for as many days as you need.