I am not suggesting that the DRIVER charge, I am suggesting that the OP’s kid, as one of the friends, suggest that method of contributing to the other friends as a fair and generous gesture TO the driver.
The driver is then free to say, gee thanks, or to say, oh no that’s too much $X would be fine.
Big difference.
Wow. Can you be serious? So glad you aren’t a “friend” of mine.
@raclut, it is one thing to do favors for people when you can easily afford it. I would do the same. I do stuff all the time, actually, and pay for stuff that I can ill-afford. I find it difficult to even put in for reimbursement when I ought to.
There have also been times when I literally could not afford the gas. Many college students are on an extremely tight budget, and aren’t getting allowances–or free cars–from their parents.
Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back.
That was unnecessary on several different levels.
If someone asked for that, I’d probably chuckle and say “here’s $20” or whatever is clearly more than half of the gas we’re going to use. Definitely wouldn’t sever a friendship over something so trivial.
I had a roommate who needed to drive home at the end of the semester but didn’t have anyone to drive with her. My sister (already a college grad) went with her. Roommate’s parents paid for everything and even flew my sister home.
Okay, but the driver was already planning to drive home, so he/she should have been prepared to shoulder the entire cost of the trip. The OP’s kid joining in and chipping in any amount would presumably been a windfall, actually.
Car insurance follows the car not the driver. As long as you give someone permission to drive, he is covered.
@mommdc “We used to have a car loan and only the two people listed on the loan as joint guarantors were allowed to drive the car until the loan was paid off. It had nothing to do with insurance”
I don’t understand what you mean. Whose rule is this? How is it enforced? In other words what is the consequence for not following the rules? Your car is repossesed?
My firm handles cases involving cars loans and I have never heard of this. What sort of loan was this? Dealer / manufacturers loams don’t include a guest driver prohibition provision though there may be limits dictated by insurance issues for who is a regular driver.
OP, if your kid is passenger have him buy a tank of gas if long trip. Tell him to be helpful passenger - stay awake and buy some snacks.
Honestly when my D1 drove home (5 hour drive) I didn’t care if they contributed - just liked her having another set of eyes. When D2 drove back to school (12 hr) not only was I happy for her to take a friend, I paid for hotel room along the way (which do anyway when she makes the trip since she gives out after about 9 hours) and I paid the plane ticket for friend to get home after a few days hanging with D. I really hate my kids driving alone.
“Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back.”
Honestly that was never my intention.
I have experienced enough hardships in my life that I wouldn’t wish on anybody.
In desperate times when I felt there was no solution, I have also experienced miracles when I least expected and a stranger has come forward to help me. (even some people on cc) Maybe it is just my way of paying it forward.
Anyway OP is free to do as he or she pleases. It’s interesting how each of us can look at a problem and address it in so many different ways. Hope OP finds a solution that works for them. What matters is that the child reaches home safe and sound.
@scmom12 EXACTLY! I would just be so grateful that they were not alone. A blessing to have a passenger with them.
@raclut, that was a mean and unnecessary thing for me to say. I apologize.
I recall when my older sister came home from college for her second year winter break. My dad hadn’t been feeling well at the time and had been relieved when she told us she had gotten a ride with a friend - it was about a 350 mile trip. When she pulled in at home, Dad and I came to help get her bags, and Dad insisted on giving the driver of this monstrous station wagon two $20 bills, and he topped off the oil. The driver was happy to take it, saying it was his older brother’s car, he didn’t know all that much about cars etc. but he promised he’d return it with a full tank. Then as we pulled her bags out of the back gate, my sister showed my dad the bumper sticker on the wagon said - “Gas, Grass, or Ass, Nobody Rides for Free!”