SafeRide Program

Greg Carpenter has called and requested the City consider providing taxi service hours that will work with the SafeRide Program. SafeRide is a program set up by the Tavern League of Wisconsin with grants from the Department of Transportation who fund the program through surcharges on OWI convictions. The department may award grants to any county or municipality or to any nonprofit corporation, as defined in s.66.0129 (6)(b), to cover the costs of transporting persons suspected of having a prohibited alcohol concentration, as defined in s.340.01 (46m), from any premises licensed under ch.125 to sell alcohol beverages, to their place of residence. The amount of a grant under this section may not exceed 50% of the costs necessary to provide the service. The liability of a provider of a safe-ride program to persons transported under the program is limited to the amounts required for an automobile liability policy under s.344.15(1). Grants awarded under this section shall be paid from the appropriation under s.20.395(5)(ek).
County businesses that are ready to begin a Saferide program must establish a contact person to keep records and communicate with the Tavern League Saferide Coordinator. The local businesses must market the program to promote participation. The League provides many proven materials to help. The local businesses must also provide matching funds equal to the amount of your initial grant. This may be done in many ways. Selling Saferide vouchers, golf tournaments, donations etc. are methods used by existing programs.
The City becomes involved because we provide the local taxi service. The SafeRide program has two main options for providing rides, a taxi cab service or a Good Samaritan program. The SafeRide Coordinator will want to know what the specific areas of service and operating hours are for the City taxi service. Our service doesn't cover the hours that are critical to the SafeRide Program and I’m sure they will want us to consider doing it for the SafeRide program because the taxi service is the preferred option. They may want to negotiate the regular rates for rides and ask if we can give you a better price - perhaps a percentage off. They will want us to set up special billing for them with for once a month billing or possibly bi-weekly. The City would have to negotiate these conditions with Brown Cab. Brown Cab has not offered to provide this service and is not interested in anything other than the City paying the full cost of the hours associated with providing the service.
The Good Samaritan payouts are also an option. The Walworth County Tavern League pays out $2 per mile round trip from bar to the patron’s house and back - the minimum Good Samaritan payment is $10 with a maximum payment of $30. The $10 minimum gives the driver a guaranteed amount of money that they can be happy with. Upon completion of the SafeRide, the driver returns the vouchers to the bar the ride originated from for payment. The bar pays the driver from the register, and sends the voucher to the coordinator for reimbursement. The City would not participate in a Good Samaritan Program.
If a Council member is interested in moving this further, they must have it placed on an agenda for discussion.