Friends on call

Back in June of this year, I spearheaded a program in partnership with Lifeline Ambulance, to help fight the war against drunk driving by setting up the country’s first ‘Driver on Call’ program. The idea was to offer an alternative, or practical solution, to those who find themselves in a situation where they feel it is no longer safe to drive home due to intoxication, a spike in blood pressure, fatigue, reaction to medication, or whatever physical or emotional reason that has limited their ability to get behind the wheel, by sending out a highly trained driver to drive you and your vehicle home safely. 

The reaction to the program has been nothing short of overwhelming; but seeing that it has gotten so much attention recently, rather than explaining once again how it works, with your indulgence, I would like to dedicate instead the next few paragraphs to thanking those who have made it possible.

Firstly, Lifeline Ambulance. They took a huge gamble with this and continue to operate at a loss—or barely break even with the 500-peso call out fee that sends two highly trained EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians) out to drive you home in your car—but have remained committed to doing so simply because, in their own words, “We would much rather prevent your accident than respond to it.”

And that they have. In just six months, with no advertising at all, they have picked up over 200 responsible people who were not too proud to make the right call after a night out drinking or who were feeling impaired for any other reason. Ok, I’ll admit that about 150 of those calls were me, but hey, I’m still fine-tuning the service. Besides, it’s all part of research, okay? Although I’ll admit that I may have gone too far when I sent them to pick up my dry cleaning..

Seriously though, most of the calls have been coming from women, which is great, but I still live in hope for the day that more men start realizing that it takes more courage, strength and character to pick up a phone and call for help than it does to drive themselves home intoxicated. At the end of the day, there’s no point being brave and dead.

Secondly, I would like to thank Chevrolet Philippines. Increasing the Lifeline fleet requires a lot of capital, and with a business model that charges 500 pesos for two drivers to be on call 24/7 to take you and your car home (with the Spark of Life tailing behind) to any point in Metro Manila, you can begin to imagine just how hard a laugh the banks must have had when being approached for finance—which is why we couldn’t be more grateful for such a flexible, creative and open minded marketing team like those from The Covenant Car Company Inc. (TCCCI) who helped make it happen.

But still, with repayments to be made, extra drivers, advanced driver training and other overheads that go along with keeping a fleet out there on the roads, it takes a lot more than any paramedic is trained for to keep this community service alive. 

So in no particular order, I would like to thank Bridgestone for agreeing to supply all the tires for the entire fleet, Garmin for providing valuable and accurate GPS devices, ROTA for the upgraded wheels, the DOTC and Assistant Secretary Lantin  for not just accrediting the service but partnering up with Lifeline for this advocacy,  Maverick Media Solutions for the creatives and artwork, Liquidpost production house for an upcoming animation, as well as Total Philippines for generously donating a monthly allowance of gasoline. 

All of this invaluable support has helped subsidize the cost of the service to keep the price realistic, and eventually at some point, can even allow the service to be charged by zones with a lower initial call out fee of, say, 200 pesos, to encourage those who don’t live too far away from where they are partying to also use the service.

And then of course there are my good friends in the media. It was touching to see all professional rivalry put to one side for a common goal, and I will always be grateful to all those who wrote about it or helped spread the word through either their columns, publications, TV shows, radio or their social media accounts. Folks like Brian Afuang from Manila Times with that extremely catchy “Pick up Line” article that took up almost two pages with a world-class layout, to Pinky Colmenares of Manila Bulletin for her recent column, to Ira Panganiban, DJ Matt, Eggay Quesada of RJ 100, Jeanette Tuason and Alvin Uy of Inquirer, Kevin Limjoco of C! Magazine, my STAR Motoring editor, Manny De Los Reyes, Ricky Alegre of Business Mirror, Eric Tipan from Jam 88.3, Neil Almighty from the station formerly known (and loved) as RT, and even my natural sworn enemy, Vernon Sarne, from rival publication Top Gear, all your incredible support. 

We may compete furiously on the shelves, but it is nice to know we’re all batting on the same side when it comes to making our roads safer, which probably forced the mainstream television and news programs to take notice and bring this to a whole new level. ABS-CBN’s Bilis Balita picked it up first, which led to another fantastic feature on ANC Alerts with Lexi Schultz, followed by GMA 7 with Michael Fajatin, to Vicky Morales also of GMA 7, to TV5 news, and finally to my dear friend and award-winning television host, Issa Litton and the rest of the team on PTV4’s Metro One morning show.

A special mention also to Vince Pornelos of Autoindustriya.com, not just for writing about it in his column, but for becoming the very unflattering image model for a reenactment photo taken by the legendary Ardie Lopez, that has been shown around the world. After the image of Vince slumped across a table filled with half-finished bottles of beer and rum, as well as being driven home by Lifeline appeared in his blog, Vince was kind enough to allow us to use the pictures for illustration purposes on other news mediums. 

It first hit the airwaves on ANC Alerts with Lexi Schultz when I was being interviewed live to explain the Driver on Call program. As the interview was underway, I could feel my phone vibrating violently in my pocket. Needless to say I could not answer it on air, but when the segment was done, and I finally opened my messages, there was a pretty colorful one from Vince that read: $%&#!!! My mom just texted me that she saw me wasted on ANC Alerts. And she’s in Oman!!

The photo did have some fine print claiming it was for illustration purposes, but as a parent myself, I can understand how that may have been missed by a pretty angry mom several thousand miles away. It may have been acting, but it is either Ardie Lopez is even more incredible a photographer than I’ve given him credit for, or Vince is one of those very special method actors. Either way, thanks, guys! I owe each and every one of you one or two pints. And a lift home after. 

*Lifeline Driver on Call is available 24/7 for a flat rate of 500 pesos anywhere within Metro Manila. Call 16911 or 0917-5216911 for help.