ALL ABOARD THE PASTY CONNECTION!

It all started as a slightly sozzled conversation at a dinner party in a tiny Cornish village.

But next month Sam Connor, Adrian Bennetts and Paris Val Baker’s Facebook phenonemon ‘The Pasty Connection’ will go live online with almost 2,000 followers ready to sign up.

The free, independent, community based service – which is completely non-profit – lets local folk offer each other lifts for fuel money.

The enterprising trio go live end July with a dedicated lift-share site aimed directly at the Duchy.

Thirty-six year old Penzancer Sam told CCN: “We started Pasty Connection about a year ago.

“Adrian and I had been to a party in Crean we were talking about the ‘Pasty Connection’ between Cornwall and Bristol, as we knew so many people who lived up there.

“That’s when the idea dawned on us to start a page where people could swap lifts and offer car-space.”

The self-employed mason, who works with traditional lime construction, went on: “You drive up and down a motorway and see so many cars empty.

“Both of us are very eco-aware so we wanted to start it from that perspective too.

“I set up the Facebook page and it blossomed from there we got to just under 1500 and now it’s at 2,080.”

At Pasty Connection you can turn your Facebook notifications on and off depending on if you’re travelling that week.

Sam and Adrian say the interactive technology of the world-conquering social network has given their site the edge over other, static start-ups.

And when their website kicks in later this month, they’ll be looking to take that tailored tech further.

Paris explained: “We’ll have a mobile application linked in with the site. It should automatically direct you to people in your area.

“The site will drag your details and picture over from Facebook and you can choose to keep the image or not and we’ll let you keep the copyright.”

“We want to have a feedback system on drivers – so you can have star drivers who will always turn up.

“Of course if you run across someone who’s really grumpy and won’t let you out to have a wee or something we can flag that up too!

“Also there’s basic sensible rules – like checking out someone’s driving license, which we’d hope drivers would be happy to do.

“We’re going to include advice about city-safety, clubbing, and just general help for people who might be going up to London and Bristol for the first time.

“Safety is a priority but we hope it’ll also be fun: we’re waiting for the first Pasty Connection love story!

“We’re sure someone’s going to fall in love after sharing a lift and we’ll be right there when they do with a load of carbon-credits for them!!”

The wider picture around the site is saving the planet.

37 year old Adrian is a tree surgeon and shares Sam’s green ideals.

He told us: “We’re hoping that what people will do is when they need to do a journey in their car, they’ll also maybe log on and ask for a lift.

“It’s not a big money saving scheme, and we’re all eco-friendly, the big idea is to save carbon.

“It may not make us millionaires but It makes us feel good about ourselves!”

So far Pasty Connection posters have cadged pretty much every lift you like – from trips all the way to Scotland, to Penzance musician Roo Raptus Leach, who posted this week he’d like ” A lift down shops and back”, generously offering “a few quavers in return”.

Log on to the Pasty Connection now if you’d like to grab or offer a lift and help save yourself some money and the planet from pollution!

Hooray!

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Posted by admin on July 1, 2012. Filed under NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry