MilesheetFour people, one car, a field: splitting a festival run
The trip where costs are highest, plans change most, and nobody has any signal to work anything out.
Festivals are the worst case for shared travel costs and the best case for sorting it out in advance. Long distance, a full car, expensive parking, and a return journey undertaken by four people who are in no condition to do arithmetic.
Count everything, not just the fuel
The fuel is usually the smaller half. A realistic list:
- Fuel both ways
- Car parking, which at a large event is frequently £30–50
- Tolls if the route has any
- Clean air or congestion charges on the way through a city
A 250-mile round trip in a car doing a real 40 mpg is about 28 litres — roughly £41 at 145p. Add £40 parking and the trip is £81 before anyone has bought a ticket.
Split four ways that is £20 each. Split three ways with the driver exempt, £27 each. Both are defensible; the gap between them is what causes the argument.
A worked example
Four people, 250-mile round trip, 40 mpg car, 145p a litre, big-event parking:
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Fuel (28.4 litres) | £41.20 |
| Event parking, weekend | £40.00 |
| Tolls / charges en route | £0–£15 |
| Total | £81–£96 |
| Split | Driver | Each passenger |
|---|---|---|
| Four ways, equally | £20.25 | £20.25 |
| Three passengers cover it | £0 | £27.00 |
| Passengers cover parking, all share fuel | £10.30 | £23.63 |
Agree it in the group chat, before
The three questions, answered while everyone is still keen:
- Fuel only, or fuel plus parking and tolls?
- Does the driver pay a share?
- What if someone drops out — split by head on the day, or by seat committed?
Two minutes of typing in advance, versus a stilted conversation in a queue for the exit at midnight.
Why the driver deserves the exemption more here
Under normal circumstances "everyone including the driver splits it" is the fairer default. A festival run is the case where it is worth reconsidering, because the driver is also the person who is not drinking, is loading and unloading the car, and is driving home tired at the end of it.
Whichever way you go, decide it rather than defaulting to it.
Have the number ready
The reason this becomes awkward is that nobody has a figure, so it becomes an estimate, and estimates feel arbitrary in both directions.
Milesheet records the drive, costs it from your car's real economy rather than the brochure figure, lets you add the parking and tolls onto the journey, and splits the total between however many were in the car. Then send the journey as a PDF — route, distance, cost, split — which settles it without a conversation.