Drunk? Send out an S.O.S.

Posted: January 16, 2002

S.O.S. Drink offers motorists – and their cars – a safe way home after a night of drinking

By FrantiSek Bouc

Staff Writer

Taking care of drunken men – that’s the idea that Slavka Harazimova built her business on. About five and a half years ago, Harazimova became a pioneer, launching a service that takes drivers safely home, in their own cars, after they’ve been drinking at Prague’s pubs and restaurants.

Harazimova, a 29-year-old former hotel receptionist, admitted that such a venture sounded crazy at first.

„On one hand I saw potential clients all around me,“ Harazimova said. „But my friends and even myself had doubts that such an enterprise could develop into a respectable business.“

But what began with one inebriated car owner peaked over the recent Christmas and New Year’s period, when hundreds relied on Harazimova’s driving service.

„Our business doubled in late December and early January, which only confirmed that launching such a service was a good idea,“ Harazimova told The Prague Post. „It wasn’t only the [large] number of company parties and celebrations that made many drivers unable to sit behind their wheels, but also the icy roads.“

Harazimova’s firm – S.O.S. Drink – provides driving escorts for those who are for whatever reason unable to drive their cars home. A client calls the firm with an escort request and S.O.S. Drink sends two drivers to the location of the caller’s car. One escort picks up the client and drives him or her home in the client’s car, while the other escort follows in an S.O.S Drink car.

Clients are charged 30 Kc (83 cents) per kilometer. In contrast to S.O.S. Drink, taxis typically charge 16-22 Kc per kilometer.

Harazimova said she first got the idea for her driving service in the mid-90s, after visiting a friend in Munich, Germany.

„He told me about the service that he had used,“ Harazimova said. „I realized it could be a good business opportunity here as well, but there were many obstacles, mainly in the perception of a car’s value.“

In Germany, Harazimova explained, „The car was a means of transport, but here it is perceived as property. With the worth of cars equaling prices of some flats, it was essential to earn people’s faith at first.“

Harazimova established S.O.S. Drink in June 1996. To promote the new service, she distributed leaflets at major intersections and put them behind the windshield wipers of cars parked in front of bars and restaurants. The message was simple: „Next time, you don’t need to drive drunk.“

Harazimova said that in its early days, S.O.S. Drink had no more than one client per week.

„Many people still thought that the business was somewhat fishy and that we provided tips for car thieves. It took us some time before we earned peoples‘ faith and recognition,“ Harazimova said.

After one year of running the driving service, S.O.S. Drink was up to four clients per day. Today, the firm has around 200 clients per day and boasts 20 cars and dozens of drivers. The firm covers Prague and its surroundings, and it plans to expand to other cities within two years.

S.O.S. Drink’s clients are not only men who have consumed alcohol but also women scared of driving on difficult roads, according to Harazimova.

„Around 80 percent of clients are men, who often drive to pubs and bars. Women usually call us when they don’t feel secure about driving on their own,“ Harazimova said.

„We’ve also experienced a case that a skier broke his leg in the Swiss Alps and he called us to escort him and his car back home,“ Harazimova noted. In another unusual request, „A shy ex-girlfriend wanted to return a car to her former boyfriend, and she asked us to do it for her.“

Company services are strictly confidential, Harazimova said. However, she revealed that a former high-profile cabinet minister has taken advantage of S.O.S. Drink’s services. „We were quite surprised that he used our escort twice even when he served in the Cabinet, but it only proved that we earned a reliable reputation.“

Today, S.O.S. Drink is not the only escort driving service in Prague. Harazimova said that the biggest difference between her firm and her competitors is that S.O.S. Drink’s services are fully covered by insurance. She said also that because her firm was the first in the country to offer such a service and has established a large client base, she is able to keep prices at a minimum.

Suprisingly, taxi drivers, known to battle for the most attractive pickup locations, have not given Harazimova any trouble.

„Actually,“ she said, „they are quite comfortable with us, as they use our services themselves.“

Frantisek Bouc’s e-mail address is fbouc@praguepost.cz

s.o.s. drink file

# Established: June 1996