2011
Operation Red Nose is a unique program dedicated against drinking and driving. Essentially, it is a volunteer driving service provided during the Christmas Holiday Season to all drivers who have been drinking or who do not feel fit to drive their own vehicle back home. It is an original and free way of getting a safe ride in their own vehicle without driving it themselves!
How does the service work?
The Operation Red Nose service is provided by a team of three volunteers. Two of these three volunteers ride with the client in his vehicle while the other volunteer follows them behind in his own car. These volunteers are the escort driver, designated driver, and the navigator.
Escort driver
This volunteer uses his vehicle in order to drive the volunteer driver and the navigator to the location where the next client is waiting. The escort driver follows the client’s car. Once the client reaches destination, the volunteer driver and the navigator join the escort driver in his vehicle. At this point the team either goes back to the headquarters or simply calls the dispatcher to know where to pick up a new client.
Designated driver
This volunteer drives the client’s vehicle.
Navigator
This volunteer rides along with the volunteer driver and the client in the client’s car. He or she usually sits in the back, along with the client, and makes sure that everything is going according to the client’s expectations. This person is also responsible of preparing a receipt and handing the client an Operation
Red Nose envelope.
Features of the service
The Red Nose service is not intended just for people who have been drinking alcohol. Any person who does not feel fit to drive, due to tiredness or other reasons, can call the services of Operation Red Nose.
A person may call once or more than once during the same evening, either to go from one place to another, or simply to go home.
The service is free. Donations are accepted and are all returned to KidSport Tri-Cities.
The only requirement: the client must own or operate a vehicle at the time of his call. In other words: no vehicle, no service. Operation Red Nose is not a taxi service, but rather a volunteer driver service for motorists and their cars.
The client is driven in his own vehicle and never in the vehicle of the Operation Red Nose volunteers.
Other p assengers may also ride in the client’s vehicle (just as long as there are enough seat belts) and will be dropped off before the owner's car is taken to the requested destination.
The service is confidential. The volunteers commit to be discreet by signing a form in which they agree not to give any details that could help identify a client.