our history

Ali first saw car-sharing in action as an 18-year-old travelling through Germany in his gap year. He discovered a network of car-sharing bureaux at major train stations that provided a cheaper way of getting around than the train or bus. He immediately saw the benefits and on his return to England tried to find a similar system. But there was none. Ali was amazed. 'It seemed such a simple solution to overcome not just costly travel, but congestion and pollution as well,' he says. Like many students, Ali travelled frequently between his home town (Norwich) and his university town (Bristol). 'The train was so expensive,' remembers Ali. 'And I knew that someone must be making the same journey in a car who would really appreciate being able to share the costs. I realised it was a whole market that no one was servicing.'

During his second year at Bristol, Ali took his first steps towards setting up liftshare. 'I talked to friends, family and advisors, and found ways of piloting the idea without spending any money,' explains Ali. 'Money was something I didn't have.' It was around this time that the internet was beginning to take off and Ali saw its potential. 'I knew we couldn't copy the German model of liftsharing - opening up offices at railway stations would have meant a high investment for no guaranteed return but the internet meant we could set the system up virtually for free,' he says.

He may not have had much money, but he did have lots of friends who believed in his idea and were willing to help him out: a computer scientist friend built the initial website as a project for part of his university course; someone produced marketing materials for free; and a small band of friends helped him launch liftshare at six Freshers' Fairs throughout the country, including Bristol. He remembers the first Freshers' Fair. 'First thing in the morning we charged people £10 to join the system. Then by lunchtime we were charging £5 and by the end of the day we were offering it for free. Students loved the idea but they didn't want to part with a tenner.' Lots of people signed up, but Ali was left with one important question: how do I make money from this?

And more money was desperately needed for development. Ali applied for government funding, but didn't get anywhere. He worked in the post office from 4 am until lunchtime and then worked on liftshare in the afternoon. Two work experience students built the next version of the website and the following year they promoted it at even more Freshers' Fairs. Lots more people joined and more and more people were getting matches. But still no income.

Then in 1999, Glastonbury Festival got in touch with Ali. Thousands of people descend on Glastonbury every summer for the festival and it was causing huge congestion on the local roads, which in turn upset local people and meant festival goers were spending a lot of their time sitting in traffic jams. The organisers asked liftshare to build them a branded car-share website so that people travelling to the festival could share lifts. It was a huge success and has saved an estimated 10,000 car journeys to the festival each year. It was also a breakthrough for liftshare. It showed how it could make money and highlighted the importance of finding people with a common link. This has served as the basis of liftshare's business model: allowing the public to sign up free to the national car-sharing system, while earning revenue from clients who pay a one-off sum plus a regular licence fee for setting up a system for their employees or customers.

Word began to spread and they continued to develop the software and fine-tune their business plan. Then in 2000, liftshare won its first big commercial contract, providing a liftshare system for a group of businesses in South Gloucestershire. Since then the organisation has grown substantially and now works with almost 1000 clients across the UK, including local authorities, hospitals, universities, schools and communities, building branded and private car-share systems. All kinds of organisations have come on board, from football clubs to corporate giants like Barclaycard and British Telecom.

It is estimated that the system saves approximately 31 million car miles per annum and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by over 10,000 tonnes per year. But it is not just the environment that has benefited. It has made a difference to people's lives as well. For those living in rural areas, where transport is poor or non-existent, it has provided a lifeline. 'They use the system for everyday things like visiting the doctor, shopping or going to church,' explains Ali. It has quite literally brought  people together. One liftsharer was amazed to meet their next - door neighbour though the site. And after the bombings in London in July 2005, liftshare helped thousands of people get home when Transport for London posted an emergency news flash on its website encouraging people to use the service. 'The feedback afterwards was amazing,' says Ali. 'People emailed to say: "What a great idea, what a brilliant service. But why haven't we heard of you before?'"

liftshare has also driven car-sharing up the Government's agenda. 'It feels like every day momentum is gathering,' says Ali. 'Three years ago, car-sharing wasn't a transport option or talked about as part of a transport policy. I'd go to conferences and listen to people talk about spending billions on buses and trains when there were millions of empty seats in cars on UK roads. Now carsharing is up there among the top two or three issues. And that's down to what we're doing. We made the case for it and made it happen.'
A number of recent awards have helped to raise the profile of liftshare. Ali won the 2006 Transport Planner of the Year, 2005 UK Enterprising Young Brit of the Year Award, and liftshare  bagged the 2005 Chamber of Commerce Award (Business Commitment to the Community), the 2004 Chamber of Commerce Award (The Microsoft Award for Innovation Through Technology) and the Business in the Community Big Tick Award for Excellence in Environmental Performance. 'Winning awards is great,' Says Ali 'As well as getting lots of publicity, it gives the team a real boost knowing that other people believe in what we are doing.'

The Chancellor, Gordon Brown MP, presenting Ali with the 2005 UK Enterprising Young Brit of the Year Award

Ali has built a small but focused team up around him. 'There are only ten of us in the office and we've a lot of clients,' he explains. 'I don't believe in long working hours, so we need to be really efficient as a team. We minimise the time it takes to do things by automating as much as possible.' The business also has a flat management structure. 'I believe in giving people freedom to think for themselves,' he explains. 'We have our vision and objectives that everyone works towards, but beyond that it's up to them to run their own projects.' As a business liftshare also  practices what it preaches: three people car-share to work, three cycle and two work from home.

Ali believes that the single most important thing that helped liftshare succeed is passion. 'We're passionate about what we do and totally believe in it. We've never focused on the financial reward. That came because we believed in our product.'

And his vision for the future? 'We want to be providing effective and efficient mobility for all. It's about much more than just car-sharing. It's about providing cost-effective and sustainable solutions to travel issues.'

Now Ali is seeing his success, he looks back on all those years of hard work fondly. 'I thought it would take about six months to get as far as we've got today. It took eight years. But every day has been fascinating,' he says. 'If what you're doing makes you happy, then it doesn't matter if you don't make money. You learn something every day and you enjoying doing it.'

www.liftshare.com

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