Need a lift from Rosebank to Fourways, Gardens to Camps Bay, or from Brooklyn to Centurion? Or do you need a travelling companion for your trip from Port Elizabeth to Durban this December?

Look no further – a SAFIPA project called Lift Club SA will help you connect with a person who is heading where you need to go.

Lift Club SA is a web and mobile portal that allows for commuters to find a lift, or to offer a lift to other commuters who are travelling to various destinations, over long or short distances. Through the site they can establish or join voluntary lift clubs by becoming members on the website. Registration is free.

Why lift-sharing?
In the face of greater environmental awareness around the need for living a ‘greener’ life, Lift Club SA offers an easy solution to decrease our carbon footprint on a daily basis. Apart from the obvious benefits of decreasing fuel and parking costs, one is also helping to reduce the level of carbon emissions and air pollution, and helping to decongest our already heavily utilized city roads and highways. Lift Club SA thus meets the needs of Government’s Traffic Demand Strategy, which is aimed at reducing the acute problem of traffic congestion, and has called on all citizens to share lifts as much as possible. On a global level, it also addresses the need to meet targets set by the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development and the Kyoto Protocol.

Apart from daily city commuters, Lift Club SA also provides an opportunity for 
those living in rural, outlying 
areas, to be able to access affordable transport.

“So many of my friends, colleagues and general public have been complaining about the ever-increasing traffic congestion on the road. Especially when commuting to and from work on a daily basis. Parking is also a major nightmare. So I have always been discussing possible solutions,” explained Lift Club SA founder, Ashiek Manie, “I learned of the government’s concern in this regard and their travel demands strategies that referred to the need to reduce the number of cars on the road. Having triggered an interest in this subject, I realized that this was a worldwide problem and that certain countries even penalized motor vehicles occupied by one person only. Lift sharing was one significant way to alleviate this problem, with that lift sharing projects operate successfully overseas.”

Going mobile
Founded in 2010, the website is fully functional with a growing number of registered users who are already using the service. A basic WAP-enabled site is also available, with the next step being the launch of a mobi site to broaden the services on this platform. “The mobi site development will differentiate it from any other similar initiatives. It will also extend the reach of the Lift Club SA services to those members of the community who do not have access to the internet or those who are on the go all the time,” explained Manie. A basic mobi site should be available in the next two months, and “collaborative technical and development support would be most welcome.”

With numbers growing steadily on the site, Manie is looking at below-the-line marketing, focusing on schools and universities as a first step. Growing the user base of Lift Club SA is a key goal in order to secure additional funding and sponsorship. “Here, once again, collaboration with other SAFIPA projects could enable the sharing of website databases. The benefit would immediately give projects access to larger 
numbers of users who in turn would be offered additional services – all facilitated by SAFIPA project funding.”

With talks currently taking place with a large network operator who is keen to collaborate with this project to enhance its commitment to achieve a cleaner, greener environment, Manie hopes that with significant buy in, the Lift Club SA portal will be able to offer additional value-added services within the next year.

A call for collaboration

Manie welcomes any suggestions for collaboration, if you’d like to get in touch, please contact him at info@liftclubsa.co.za