When many will be clinking glasses of hard apple cider and spiked eggnog this month, Barry Sommer and Zener Stanfill are making the holiday season safer with a new designated driving program — Mr. Sober.
Sommer, 55, and Stanfill, 39, have known each other for three years. These entrepreneurs own a company, Signs4TheTimes, making LED light signs for billboards and vehicles, and they met producing suggestive shows for a community television station, Stanfill said.
“We actually meet rather provocatively,” Stanfill said. “We both helped produce TV shows in the community. Most of them deal with subject matters that people aren’t generally
comfortable with.”
Though their beginning is elusive, their current occupation could be life-saving.
Sommer and Stanfill got the idea from an episode of the BBC show “Top Gear,” in which the hosts showed how a foldable Honda motorcycle can be transported in the trunk of a car. A week after seeing the show, the two got into business doing a similar type of transport ­— but of people. However, Stanfill said the Mr. Sober system runs a little differently.
Sommer explained that the two will drive to the bar, tavern, or place of drunkenness to pick up the customer, then one Mr. Sober will drive the intoxicated individual home while the other Mr. Sober will follow behind in a 1980s Chrysler LeBaron — thus both driver and car remain safe.
“We do this for two reasons,” Sommer said. “To reduce the number of drunk drivers on the road and also to give something back to the community.”
For current University students and staff, the Designated Driver Shuttle (DDS) is a popular means of transportation when alcohol gets into the mix, but unlike the convenient student taxi service, Mr. Sober costs are steep for the average student pocketbook, at $20 per ride.
But out of the $20, $5 will go to a local charity of the customer’s choice.
“Or we’ll give it to local veterans, the Eugene Missions, Sexual Assault Support Services or Food for Lane County,” Sommer said.
University student Andy Bryn, DDS director, said cost will be a big factor in students’ decision-making when it comes to getting home.
“For the most part, I don’t see much change in the amount of students (DDS) will get,” Bryn said. “Mr. Sober costs $20 a ride, and that will be the main decision factor for students.”
While the cost for DDS is imbedded within the ASUO incidental fee, Bryn said that the amount students pay is still far less that what they would for this program. But Stanfill and Sommer said they don’t want to be confused with a taxi service or compete with any program similar to DDS.
“We are most concerned about getting people and their vehicles safely back home or where they need to go,” Stanfill said. “We knew that there is an incredible need and want for such services in this community.”
Thanksgiving weekend was their first operating weekend in service, but there were no riders — only calls for information.
“We only had people call in for more information,” Sommer said. “But I’m sure we will have interesting customers coming.”
While usual hours for Mr. Sober run on Friday and Saturday evenings from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., the two are making an exception for tonight’s Civil War football game at Autzen Stadium, and again for any caller who really needs the service during the working week.
“We will try to be available early in the evening,” Stanfill said. “If anyone needs us to come to Autzen Stadium, it will be hard to get in and out of there, but we will still definitely go to bars or pick you up at a friend’s house.”
So far, the two have passed out coaster cards with their contact information and service hours to taverns, bars and restaurants that sell alcohol in the area.
“We figured that insurance companies would benefit from less accidents, bars would benefit for less liability, and it would reduce the workload for law enforcement officials,”
Sommer said.
The two said they are concentrating on the city limits of Eugene and Springfield, but they would be willing to travel outside of those boundaries, all in hopes of preventing future accidents.
“If you drink, we will drive you home,” Sommer said.
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