Designated Drivers ‘R’ Us

The holiday season brings great seasonal beers and a lot more opportunities to enjoy them out with friends and family—all the more reason to launch a pre-New Year’s resolution to be a more responsible beer advocate and create a plan to assure you get home safely when the holiday events wind down. After all, the pub is a great place to enjoy some of the most pleasurable things in life: great beer, friends and laughter. A drunk-driving arrest, crash or worse is a surefire way to nix those fun times.

Unfortunately, there haven’t been a lot of options for those times when you get a little too caught up in the moment and, despite best intentions, partake of a bit too much. You can have a friend drive you home, or you can take a cab. But there’s still that rather large problem sitting outside: your car, and how to get it home.

A growing number of organizations across the country are making it their business to get you—and your car—home safely after a night on the town.

Most companies work like this: The dispatched driver reaches the customer on a collapsible scooter, folds it up and stashes it away in the patron’s car, then drives the customer home before heading off again on the scooter.

“It works pretty well in the city,” says Kevin Oliver, president of the Booze Crews, a newer organization located in Naperville, Ill. “The scooter goes about 30 miles per hour, so it’s no problem in town. I can even use the iPhone credit card app (so patrons can pay with their cards), so I am completely self-contained.”

Like many similar companies across the country, the Booze Crews charges a flat pickup fee of $25. Then there’s a charge of $2 per mile to take a patron home—a price that Oliver says compares favorably to a one-way fare for a local cab.

“[The Booze Crews] does cost a little more than a taxi ride, but you also can load as many people in that car as you want, and we don’t charge any extra fees,” Oliver says, adding that on a recent Saturday night, he drove several people in a packed minivan to different homes before dropping off the minivan and its owner.

At Wingman Chauffer Service, in the Dallas, Texas, area, members pay $10 a month for priority pickup and a $10 discount on pickup fees.

“If you use Wingman just once a month, there is a strong value in membership,” says owner Brad Relander. “Our clients tend to be more responsible than most, and many don’t even show signs of intoxication. They’re the ones that realize a $40 ride home is a much better deal than $10,000 in DUI costs.”

Booze Crews, Wingman and a handful of other services also use a two-car system for clients who live farther away. In those instances, a second person follows the client and driver in the client’s car with a “chase car.”

A similar organization, RideOn, out of Portland, Ore., now exclusively uses the two-car system after initially trying out the scooters.

“Although the scooters were fun and people loved them, they proved to be a safety issue with Portland’s environment,” executive director Scott Conger says. “Not only do we have inclement climate, but, apparently, there are quite a few intoxicated people on the roads at 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.”

Conger says RideOn is the only organization of its kind that has gained nonprofit status. The 100 percent volunteer organization teams up a pair of RideOn volunteers so that one drives the patron home while the other follows behind in a RideOn vehicle.

“Our goal at RideOn is to create safer streets for all of us, including RideOn drivers. This [two-car system] also allows our volunteers to travel in pairs, which provides added safety for our drivers,” he says. “Most of our volunteers are imbibers themselves. They choose to volunteer one night a month to assure that RideOn’s service is available for the other nights. All RideOn volunteers also get free rides as an added bonus.”

Conger says the nonprofit status allows for donations and fundraisers, which helps keep costs down for customers. RideOn charges a flat fee of $10 to drive both patron and car home.

Prices and hours of availability do vary across the country from organization to organization, but are easily accessible via the internet.

For example, Oliver, who also has been the company’s sole driver so far, says Booze Crews operates Thursday through Sunday from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m., which effectively takes away his weekends. But it’s worth it.

“At the end of the day, we’re getting people home safely,” he says. “That’s what really matters.” ■