Most motorists have experienced problems with parking their vehicle. ALEX GALBINSKI talks to two friends who hope to make life easier for drivers

Searching for somewhere to park when you are in a rush can be a maddening experience. You can find yourself driving around cursing the controlled parking zones and the efficient parking attendants, trying to find somewhere to park.

In the end you waste time, are late for work and have higher blood pressure than when you set out.

But the dreaded hunt for a parking space may just become a thing of the past, as two 23-year-old friends have set up a website allowing drivers to rent parking spaces on people's driveways.

Anthony Eskinazi, of Grey Close, Hampstead Garden Suburb, came up with the idea when he found himself driving around San Francisco with a friend trying to find somewhere to park ahead of a baseball game last June.

They spent 15 minutes going round in circles, when he suggested knocking on a homeowner's door and offering them $10 to park in their driveway.

His friend, mortified, said they couldn't do that out of the blue, and they eventually found a spot in a car park, but Mr Eskinazi pursued his idea when he came back home.

"What we are trying to do is behaviour changing," said the maths graduate, who worked for accountancy firm Deloitte & Touche for one month before launching the site, with Katie Harvey, in September last year.

He said: "I see this as a way of interacting with people and providing a service that is needed around the world.

"People do it every year at Wimbledon at the tennis championships, and they charge £100 a day, mainly for big corporate deals. But you hope people on our site wouldn't charge for a few minutes a day, perhaps a token amount per year, like £50 or £100."

The site already has more than 1,000 registered users nationwide - with around 400 spaces offered and 600 drivers, of which 20 spaces and 50 drivers are in Barnet.

Drivers wanting to find a parking space can the site's search facility and the interactive map system, powered by Google, to see exactly where available spaces are located and how much they cost.

Once a parking space is booked, the owner receives a text message telling them a driver wants to use their space and if they both agree, a contract is generated.

Prices are set by the space owner - not necessarily homeowners, they can also be renting a space with permission from their landlord - and listing a space is free, but once a successful transaction is completed, the company takes a ten per cent commission.

The highest earning space owner is in Notting Hill, who is earning £5,500 a year, but someone in Wentworth Avenue, Finchley, near West Finchley Tube Station is letting out their space at a more palatable £6 a day.

If parkers don't find a space which matches their requirements, they can request automatic notification when one becomes available.

"This company has got legs," said Ms Harvey, of Rowan Walk, who spent one-and-a-half years with advertising agency Publicis, and is now in charge of strategy, marketing and PR for the website.

She said: "Parking is a very grey, boring thing and I wanted to change its image so I wanted the website to be as welcoming, warm and easy to use as possible.

"We could have gone about it by saying that councils want to fleece motorists, but we have positioned it as a green parking system because it takes cars off the road, easing congestion and one of the Government's policies is to encourage integrated transport, so people will use their car for half of their journey instead of all of it.

"The Government predicts that by 2030, there will be a 45 per cent increase in car ownership. Space is going down and down.

"So many people can benefit from this, people going to hospitals - people are calling parking charges at hospitals a tax on sickness'.

Hannah Eder, 18, of Southway, Hampstead Garden Suburb, has been using a parking space since October to park near her school in Hampstead.

"It's fantastic. It has helped me so much.

"I find it very inconvenient to use public transport and parking on a meter is very expensive and there is a maximum stay of four hours.

"My father used to take me and my brother to school on his way to work but he wanted to leave earlier than we did to miss the traffic."

Instead of paying £2.50 for one-and-a-quarter hours, Hannah now pays £20 a week for her space in Arkwright Road, which, she said, also allows her to miss much of the rush-hour traffic on her way home. The friends have a vision of the company, which they see as underwritten by clever branding and more friendly than its competitors.

"It's a people's brand, like Google. I love the idea of helping people and I love the whole community feel of this," added Ms Harvey.

For more information, visit www.parkatmyhouse.com