STEVEN Lee, 20, spotted a business opportunity the moment the government announced stiffer punishment for drink driving.

He realised that pub-goers would be looking for alternative means of getting home after a night of merriment and started putting his plan in place.

The Seremban-born school dropout got his cousin and some friends together to set up AIDER.my to provide drive-home services.

“I’ve read the news that the government was coming down hard on drink driving, and I had a Eureka moment that I can provide drive-home services,” Lee told The Malaysian Insight.

Such services are uncommon in Malaysia but are the norm in other countries.

Lee asked his cousin if he was interested in the venture and the cousin then asked several other friends to join, eventually ending up with a six-man team to kick off their business.

“All six of us were students, with the youngest among us at only 15 years, but we have all stopped school,” he said, adding that the youngest was only allowed to deal with customers as he cannot drive yet.

And they have not looked back since starting their service in July.

All they do is drive the customer back to his or her house in their own car. Then the company, AIDER.my, will send a driver to pick the driver up.

Lee said the response has been positive.

“On average, we get about 20 to 30 bookings a day. If it’s a weekend, it may be an additional 60% to 70%.

“We are collaborating with some bars, so we work until the early hours, usually until about 2am, but it is also not unexpected for us to have to work until 3am to 4am,” he said.

Lee said customers may not be able to get e-hailing services late at night and prefer such drive-home services instead.

Most customers book their services about two hours beforehand, and Lee and his partners will designate the location where they’ll pick up the customers.

“There was once where the customer was so drunk, he passed out on the floor and we needed help to get him in the car,” he said.

As such, Lee said, AIDER.my has a policy of upfront payment.

“Our rates are RM19 within a 5km radius, and RM3 for every kilometre outside that area,” he said.

Lee also said that Seremban is a small market and they have plans to expand the business to Kuala Lumpur and Johor.

“Right now, drinking places still have to follow the Covid-19 standard operating procedure and cannot open until late at night, but we believe that once the restrictions are lifted, we will see an improvement in earnings,” he said.

AIDER.my also hired women drivers to serve female customers in order to ease safety concerns.

“We just hired 10 additional drivers recently, among whom are two women. They are in charge of driving female customers as women are usually wary of strangers, especially if they have men driving them home,” Lee said.

The company also screened potential hires to ensure the safety of both customers and drivers.

Lee said he had always wanted to start his own business when he was still studying, with the initial plan being to venture into the food takeaway business before settling on drive-home services, which he said is a newer market.

“There are many who speak of impending unemployment when you stop schooling, but I think this depends on the person. I think if you dare to dream and work for it, then the sky’s the limit.”

Following a spate of accidents caused by drunk drivers, the government recently proposed increasing the penalties of driving under influence from a maximum of 10 years’ jail to 15, from a maximum fine of RM20,000 to RM100,000, or RM150,000 for repeat offenders, and suspending the offender’s driving licence for up to 20 years. – August 20, 2020.