The first can be called wild, the second organized. The advantages of the wild method come down to the fact that the traveler may not have to pay for the trip at all. The disadvantages, however, are merely continuations of other advantages - unexpected adventures, meeting new people, unpredictable situations with an open outcome. The advantages of organized hitchhiking include legal protection and certainty in the driver-passenger (or group of passengers) relationship.
About wild hitchhiking, you probably need to know only two things: when standing in Germany by the road, at the exit from a gas station or parking lot, be sure to hold a sheet of paper or cardboard with a clearly written designation of the destination. In this case, you should use the abbreviations of populated places that are used in car license plates (for example, "B" - Berlin, "BN" - Bonn, "K" - Koln, "MA" - Mannheim, "HB" - Bremen). As a rule, drivers who take a passenger into their car do not require monetary compensation. After all, any driver who wants to at least partially reimburse the cost of gasoline and car depreciation can use the services of an intermediary bureau - Mitfahrzentrale, which is available in almost all German cities.
As Deutsche Welle notes, high gasoline prices have made life easier for all those who like "organized hitchhiking". The passenger pays part of the cost of gasoline. The trip is thus several times cheaper than traveling by train or bus. Of course, not every inquiry to Mitfahrzentrale can be successful. Nevertheless, especially in recent months, the indicators of the largest electronic hitchhiking exchange in Europe - the site mitfahrzentrale.de - show an ever more rapid growth in supply and demand. There are already more than 650 thousand registered users on the portal. According to the Bonn company EuropeAlive Medien GmbH, 10 thousand shared trips pass through the free service mitfahrzentrale.de every day. A small "urgency tax" of €3-4 may arise only if people seeking each other need to urgently contact each other through the company by phone. Otherwise, communication takes place directly on the portal and, as already mentioned, is free.
In total, according to the founder of the company Martin Buske, the portal's database contains users from four thousand European cities. Almost 60% of active users are students and schoolchildren. Mitfahrzentrale.de does not set prices, but only gives recommendations that drivers and passengers can use as a guide. For example, the cost of a trip on the Bonn - Berlin route fluctuates around €30, from Hamburg to Cologne you can get for €21.
Given that there are problems with employment in Germany, labor mobility is growing, and with it the need for the most flexible transport services. And traditional hitchhiking is paving new paths.
_