Designated driver services booming in big cities

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A year after drunken driving became punishable as a crime, drivers in China have become more serious about road safety, resulting in the rapidly developing yet unregulated designated driver business.

"We can receive 300 orders a day on average, nearly double the figure for the same period last year," said Liu Jing, a manager at Changyinwuyou, a company that provides designated driver services in Beijing.

As many as 500 people may call on a busy day, but the company can only handle fewer than 300 orders daily, Liu said. Designated driver services charge by distance, she added.

China amended its Criminal Law on May 1 last year, stipulating that all drunken driving constitutes a criminal offense, regardless of whether road accidents or other serious consequences occur.

Under the new law, drivers caught driving drunk will have their licenses revoked and could face a prison term of one to six months.

Official figures show a fall in the number of drunken driving cases in China.

According to the Ministry of Public Security's Traffic Management Bureau, from May 1 last year to April 20, traffic police handled 354,000 cases of driving under the influence of alcohol nationwide, down by 41.7 percent from the previous year. Drunken driving cases totaled 54,000, registering a 44.1 percent drop.

Instead, the designated driver business is booming in big cities.

"There are about 50 companies registered that provide designated driver service in Chengdu (capital of Sichuan province), and most of these were set up in the past year," said Chen Xu, vice-president of Chengdu Designated Driver Service Association.

Wang Wei, manager of Beijing Luantai, which provides driver training, car rental and designated driving services, said, "We received about 80 orders to chauffeur drunken passengers every day in the first four months of this year, an increase of more than 40 percent from last year."

Many hotels and entertainment venues have also cooperated with companies that provide designated driver services.

"At least seven or eight of our customers ask us to call the designated driver company to arrange drivers for them every night," said Wang Jianbin, service director of a branch of Partyworld in Beijing's Chaoyang district. "Most of our customers come in groups, and sometimes they designate someone to be the driver, who does not drink. This was rarely seen a few years ago."

Despite the surge in companies that provide designated driver services in Chengdu, the business volume registered remains roughly the same as last year, said Chen from the Chengdu Designated Driver Service Association.

"Many of the increased business went to the hundreds of unregistered companies that also provide designated driver services in the city," he said.

Designated driver service is a new sector in China and laws and regulations are absent, Chen said.

Liu Jing, the manager of Changyinwuyou in Beijing, said, "Many problems still exist in the sector. For example, we cannot buy insurance for our designated drivers as there is no such type of insurance in China. So things become thorny, if a car accident happens."

About the broadcaster:

Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is also fluent in Korean.