Sober or scooter | New business an alternative to calling a cab

Some people might call dealing with drunks all night a headache. Ben Ranson and Dustin Lambert call it their business plan.

The co-owners launched their company, Sober Scoot, on a basic idea: A drunk person calls their service requesting a ride, the company dispatches a driver on a scooter to the bar, the driver puts his scooter in the trunk of the drinker's car and drives him and the car home safely. Once finished, the driver gets back on the scooter and drives off to the next call.

Behind the scenes, "turning a call," as they refer to the pickups, is often more complicated than that. Haunting the Grand Strand's parking lots from dusk till dawn, Ranson and Lambert deal with everything from miscommunication to scooters that won't start.

The business is already profiting a mere month after its June 1 hard launch, Ranson said.

Driving around the Strand while dispatching drivers on a recent Saturday night, Ranson, a waiter-turned-entrepreneur, talked about their frustrations, thrills and hopes.

A night out

Ranson had been on and off duty for well over 24 hours when he parked his blue SUV in the McDonald's parking lot near the former back gate at 11 p.m. The night before, the company gave its final ride around 5:30 a.m., and during the day they worked a Jimmy Buffett-themed golf outing.

The hours don't bother Ranson.

"It's the perfect 24-26-year-old's business. Someone older's not going to do this."

Ranson and Lambert still wait tables during the day - something that hasn't changed since the company's launch.

Ranson was working at Gordon Biersch in April 2009 when the idea came to him, he said.

"A couple Euro guys asked, 'Could you call a scooter taxi for me?' and I was like, 'I have no idea what you're talkingabout,'" Ranson said. "When I get home from work for that day, I get on the Internet and find out it was pretty big in Europe."

Ranson took to the idea immediately and found a company - he won't say which, for competitive reasons - that licenses use of its foldable scooters. After calling about 40 insurance companies, Ranson found one willing to insure the startup.

Ranson teamed up with Lambert, whom he has known since elementary school in Andrews. The pair got the scooters, the licenses, the drivers and even white polo shirts reading "designated driver."

They found out how much cabs cost and priced their rides just below average taxi fare. On St. Patricks Day they began on a trial basis before starting full-time service June 1.

Ride along

Driving down U.S. 17 Bypass near Surfside Beach shortly after midnight, Ranson pointed at a sign warning of a statewide drunken-driving crackdown.

"That's good for us. It scares people," he said.

Ranson and driver Shane Warren pick up another driver before setting up two scooters at a South Strand parking lot. One scooter starts immediately and the driver buzzes to his call.

The other scooter shudders, its lights flickering, as Ranson tries to start it.

"Come on baby, we need you right now player, we need you," Ranson begs the scooter.

The scooter does not start and Warren is already beginning to run late. After a minute of frantically cranking the engine, Ranson gives up and decides to drive Warren to Murrells Inlet for the call, then pick him up after the drop at The Market Common.

After dispatching several more calls, Ranson explains how tight scheduling can get.

"When you're dealing with some people who have been drinking, it sometimes takes 15 minutes for them to gather their friends and that throws everything off," he says around 2 a.m. "This is where you cross your fingers and hope for the best."

Adventures in driving

Four drivers turned calls Saturday, standing by in different places along the Grand Strand. Each had their own stories from the drunken rides.

Warren recalled the woman who was so drunk she threw up and passed out before he got her home. Her friends helped her inside, he said.

Another driver, 21-year-old Brandon Love, had an even worse call, Warren said. On his first night, the client was so drunk she urinated in her own car on the way home.

Saturday, Love's second night, was a little better. One call took twice the scheduled time as Love struggled to round up each member of the group he was driving home. Once in the car, the group blared the music and loudly sang along, Love said. They pretended to play along with the music, drumming on every surface, even Love himself, he said. Love didn't mind a bit, he said, all the ruckus helped keep him alert.

Women seem to have taken to the service more than men, Ranson said.

"They seem to be a little more responsible," he says. "Guys are more, 'Naw, naw, naw, I'm driving my truck.'"

Ranson's roots give him insight when he dispatches calls.

"Stay to the right, don't go through Murrells Inlet," he tells a driver. "It's 30 all the way through and there are cops. That'll take you an extra four minutes."

What's next

Even as the company irons out its processes, the owners are planning several avenues of expansion, Ranson said.

The business already takes credit cards, but Ranson said he hopes to expand to gift cards, mostly for parents who don't want their children to drink and drive.

Ranson would like more scooters, expanding from five to 15, he said, and more scooters are on back-order already.

And while most of the pickups have been for locals, they hope to soon tap into the region's 14 million annual tourists.

But disputes with Broadway at the Beach stopped some pickups there in mid-June.

The tourist hangout allows them to pick up passengers who call, but won't allow them to solicit, Broadway spokeswoman Lei Gainer said in a statement Thursday.

Still, tourists should get the word anyway, Ranson said.

"It's definitely instilled in bartenders, so when tourists ask for a cab, they'll say, 'Do you want a cab or want a Sober Scoot?'"