The gift comes in the form of a new service offered by the homegrown startup company called road.lk.
In order to overcome the heavy traffic and parking problems faced by many shoppers in April, road.lk has turned matchmaker, to get those who travel with empty seats in their vehicles, to offer rides to those who wish to share a ride with them.
Called Rideshare, or Carpooling, to make use of this service, all a person has to do is log into the road.lk website, on ones computer, tablet or mobile phone, and then indicate your travel destination, date and time, and whether one is offering a ride or needing a ride.
The system matches all the postings and informs each party of the possible matches.
The riders and the drivers can then decide with whom they would share a ride.
Though new in Sri Lanka, carpooling services have been in existence in the US and Europe as far back as the mid 20th century.
In 2009, carpooling represented 43.5% of all trips in the United States and 10% of commute trips.
By using this service many of the hassles of new year shopping can be eliminated.
It is not unusual for us to expect heavy traffic in and around major shopping centers in the next two weeks.
New Year is a time when everyone wants to buy new clothes, and when every shop offers special discounts.
But the attractive discounts and the urgency of purchase are both held back when people think of driving in the heavy traffic and looking for a parking space, even if one had a vehicle of ones own.
For the others, using taxis or public transport is also a big hassle these days.
All these people have a need, to travel in comfort, at a reasonable cost and do all their shopping.
The vehicle owners who would be coming to these shopping malls can easily supply this demand and cover up a part of their travel cost.
Together these two groups would be contributing to the ease of traffic congestion to some extent, and also to reduce the fuel consumption and thus lessen the Carbon footprint.
Use this new facility for new year shopping, to travel to your hometown from Colombo, or to reach your favorite holiday destination.road.lk