“We started having conversations about why people end up driving drunk, and she said one of the main reasons why people end up driving drunk is because people don’t want to leave their car,” Perdue said. “So I thought, wouldn’t it be great if someone could get their car home for them.”
The business works like this — a customer calls the Your Ride Home (937-709-4667) dispatch line and tells them where they are, and within 25 minutes of the call, two drivers will be dispatched to the location.
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“One driver finds you and gets in your vehicle with you and drives you wherever you need to go, then the other drive follows behind,” Perdue said. “You get where you need to go, the driver of your car gets out, and gets back into the other car, the following car.”
Customers can also request a driver, either by name or by gender.
“Sometimes women are aren’t the most comfortable in a situation like that - someone they don’t know, so a woman can request another woman driver,” Perdue said.
A ride will cost a customer a $20 flat rate, $4 goes to a booking fee and each driver receives $8, as long as the customer is going within 10 miles of their starting point. Going further than 10 miles? That’s fine, but cost will increase to $2 per mile. Tipping is recommended, but not required, Perdue said.
“We are trying to stay affordable,” Perdue said.
Perdue said the business has been, “snowballing,” since launching a couple months ago. In the month of September, Your Ride Home was dispatched to about 110 calls for rides.
“This business is growing really fast. August we had about 46 rides, the month before that it was 27 so it’s just snowballing,” Perdue said. “We started with four drivers and I just left a meeting with all 10 of our drivers.”
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Perdue said he didn’t start Your Ride Home to, “make a bunch of money,” instead, he did it to, “just help people out.”
“I think we are saving lives here. People are making the decision to not drink based on our service and that’s what we want. We are here to help and we are here to show people they have options that aren’t driving drunk.”
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