Curious how all you guys work it out. Lets say you are the driver or one of the drivers on a yak'n trip. Considering the mileage and wear and tear on your ride, how do you work it out? Are you just quiet and see if you get a few beers or some lunch. Do you let someone else from your crew drive next time? DO you just tell'em to fork it up and split the costs?

For our local day trips I figure that I would be going regardless of anyone else so if I get a beer or coffee out of it great. For longer trips gas $ is usually exchanged.

normally, the people being driven will just automatically give the driver gas money, eapecially if they stop on the way for gas. If we stop for food, then I might pay for them instead.

If you stay in the same group of guys week in week out, take your car this week, then someone elses the week after.

I wouldnt charge for wear and tear, but splitting the gas money is pretty easy

When I was in school many years ago, our outdoor group at Georgia Tech(ORGT), had a formal policy of splitting the gas/oil costs up between the passengers (driver got to go for free as he had the normal wear and tear and racks). Flats and things like breakdowns on the road were negotiated in some cases if it was a case of getting home with your gear. Miles to all of the usual rivers/creeks were known so milage costs were posted in advance on sign up sheets. Some of us carried this over for a while after school, before going on to taking turns, or bringing food and drinks after we all started making the bigger bucks, and just not thinking about it. When we bought a house 7 miles from the put in to the Chattooga in Clayton, our home became known as the Chattooga Hilton, with company in the spare bedroom, and on every couch and sometimes the floor and yard most weekends. WE never ever charged. Depends on where you are at. Never turned anyone away, and wound up getting a second freezer to cool everyones beer and make ice. Have been a starving student skipping many meals a week to have gas money to get to the river, and having to hunt and fish if I wanted to eat on the weekends. Ate one meal a day, mostly bullion or pasta to afford building my first boats from scratch on a school mold, and having to help the 3 folks in front of me on the list to attain enough skill to safely use the mold. You do what ever it is you have to do to paddle, as long as it is relatively honest, and isn't sticking up gas stations. Molds were pirate molds, and fabric was sort of \"salvaged\" from the textiles department at School but these were lighter gray areas back in the 70's.

In a similar vein - On school trips, Trip Leaders got to go for free, perk of going through tripleaders school, (just like perks of going through instructor's school), also as a bonus for having set up logistics of trip, and accepting trip leader's responsibilities.

When became commercial river guide, was a little bit of a shock first day to have guides eat last, IF, repeat IF any food was left over. Took over giving the lunch speech to remind our clients that the biggest rapids of day were still to come and wouldn't it be a shame if their guides were to weak to safely get them through because their hadn't been any food left over after the clients had eaten. Company almost always packed enough for seconds for everyone, as it was well known how hungrey paddleing can make you, but it was politer and safer to make your second pass after everyone had had something. If had to, also reminded them that Full people were more likely to fall overboard and it was easier to rescue them, if they were skinnier.I weighed between 125 and 140 back then and was very lean.

Remember your drivers - you don't want them falling asleep from hypoglycemia, so keep feeding them food and drinks and have good music to listen to on the way home, as well as being of good cheer in conversation and map reading. Also if THEY are drinking fluids, they will be willing to make those pit stops when y'all NEED to make pitstops.

in general, as a car owner, i never expect or ask for anything, but i'm excited about anything the others will offer.

whenever someone else is providing the car, my principle is that the car owner should never pay any gas. he pays for wear and tear, insurances, taxes etc, and the passengers will take care of the gas.

as both a car owner and a college student. I split gas with other college students and usually the other people in my club will let me ride for free and and later on I will let college students ride for free with me.

Doesn't matter who's driving, we always divide the fuel bill by the amount of people in the car. The fairest method for me is for the owner of the vehicle to make sure the car is full before the trip. Then at the end of the day/weekend the car must end on a full tank regardless of how many tanks are used, payed for by all occupants. Wear/tear is not something you can easily gauge and we never take that into consideration, although one should.

If someone doesn't want to contribute to the fuel cost then they are out of a lift. Simple.

How far do most people travel in a weekend for paddling? Typically we drive between 600 and 1500km in a weekend. 300 if it's pretty close, like the Vaal River and the closet for me is a 170km round trip (day trip).

I like the method where the gas bill is completely covered by the passengers. The cost of gas is usually just half of the complete cost so that way it's pretty fair to the owner of the car aswell.

For sure, with less people in the car it won't work. At least 3 or 4.

Philip, I gotta love your alcohol and swimming comments... Pretty good.

I mostly like the method when company cars are being used. No issues with gas, wear, tear or anything at all !
My paddling weekends are usually about 500 -550 km, used to be 700 - 800, but I moved closer .
I used to have a perfect shuttle car - a big Ford Connect (company of course)- but that is in the past, old job. The new job will only \"produce\" me a \"shuttle ride\" in another year or so... . But there are plenty of people that used to ride with me for a while and are happy to return the favor now.
Or sometimes we just share the gas... how boring.