By Aida Sevilla Mendoza
Philippine Daily Inquirer
IN ITS Accident Reporting and Analysis System 2006, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) listed speeding (6,233 cases), faulty overtaking (5,848 cases) and inattentiveness (5,238 cases) as the top three reasons for traffic accidents in Metro Manila. Driving under the influence (DUI) was listed as a minor cause with only 14 cases.
The MMDA’s findings are debatable since speeding, faulty overtaking, inattentiveness and/or falling asleep at the wheel could very well be traced to having had one too many. It highlights the apparent reluctance of traffic authorities to recognize DUI as a major cause of road mishaps. To promote road safety, the MMDA and local government units should include in their budgets the purchase and use of evidential breath-testing devices to accurately measure the blood alcohol concentration level of motorists involved in accidents or observed to be driving recklessly or erratically.
A better idea
At some social occasions in Metro Manila, there is a “designated driver” who takes the wheel when a guest who has no chauffeur is too drunk to drive home. Sometimes it is the wife who volunteers to drive. A better idea comes from Seoul: replacement drivers.
According to an International Herald Tribune (IHT) feature article bylined from Seoul, a replacement driver is one who makes his living by delivering inebriated people and their cars home. Seoul, the capital city of South Korea with a population of 10 million, has a vibrant nightlife. Among office workers and businessmen, team-building or clinching a deal means frequent group dinners at karaoke bars where drinking, singing and dancing last till the wee hours of dawn. Intoxicated men lurching out on the streets toward their cars after midnight face random roadblocks set up by police determined to crack down on DUI. Rather than lose their licenses and pay a penalty, the tipsy motorists call for a replacement driver.
Peak hours
Replacement driving began in the late 1990s but took off only three years ago with the advancement of wireless technology. Tens of thousands of replacement drivers go to work when the streets of Seoul fill up with streams of cars returning home late at night. The peak hours are between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m., when taxicabs are scarce and charge double the normal rate. (Naturally, taxi drivers hate replacement drivers.)
At present, some 100,000 replacement drivers handle 700,000 customers a day across South Korea, with the number soaring by 30 percent on Fridays, says the Korea Service Driver Society, a lobby for replacement drivers. Replacement driving has become so essential to Seoul and other major cities of South Korea that in 2006, the national statistical office began monitoring the price of replacement driving services as an element in calculating the benchmark consumer price index.
Call centers
Replacement driving service companies advertise their call center numbers on radio, the Internet and cell phone messages, the IHT article reports. In the evening, they plaster the windshields of parked cars with call-center leaflets. The drivers have handheld devices through which the call centers transmit orders from customers. The call center gives details such as the customer’s cell phone number which the replacement driver calls to locate him.
It is highly competitive work. Dozens of drivers compete for the same order originating from their neighborhood and the one who clicks on the order first takes it. But sometimes, when a replacement driver takes a taxi and rushes to the customer’s location, he finds that the customer had called more than one company and already left with the driver who got to him first.
Part-timers
Many replacement drivers are part-timers. There are cashiers, students and salesmen needing extra income. There are female replacement drivers for female customers. Some husbands and wives work as teams, with the wife following the husband in a car and picking him up when an order is finished. Some call centers operate shuttle buses that pick up their drivers around Seoul.
The replacement driver interviewed by the IHT said he was paid 15,000 won (US$16) for delivering a customer and his car home 20 kilometers away. He earns about 2.2 million won (1 won = 0.0011 US dollar) a month, but after paying for the call center, wireless data transmission, insurance and his rented room, he can barely send 1 million won to his family in a rural town. He considers full-time replacement driving — sleeping during the day and working all night — temporary while he looks for a better job.
Would replacement driving succeed in Metro Manila? Probably not, because most hard-drinking party goers have chauffeurs of their own. Besides, the MMDA and police don’t find DUI to be a major cause of traffic accidents.
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TODAY’S BUMPER STICKER: You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.
