This rideshare company will tow your car home if you drink too much
Today at 09:55 PM
Victorian drivers can organise a ride home for themselves and their vehicle through the new DiDi Tow feature.
Rideshare app DiDi has launched a dedicated tow truck booking system to give users a safer option than driving drunk after a big night out.
By selecting the orange tow truck icon on the app, Victorian DiDi users can request a designated tow truck to take them and their vehicle home.
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DiDi Tow is currently only available in Melbourne’s CBD, but the rideshare company is weighing a national rollout if the trial is successful.
“DiDi Tow is an Australia-first service and it’s designed to get both passengers and their cars home on the same night and save them that terrible morning trip,” DiDi driver Lena Parevska told Channel Nine’s Today.
While it’s usually an expensive exercise to get your car towed, Parevska said pricing would initially be the same as DiDi’s regular rideshare offering.
“For this trial period, we are looking to price the same as DiDi Express, once the trial is over we’ll be looking to build a price model,” she explained.
For reference, a roughly seven-kilometre trip from Melbourne’s CBD to a suburb in Melbourne’s inner-east costs between $15 and $25 depending on demand.
The tow truck driver will secure your vehicle to the flatbed and give you and any passengers a lift home in the truck’s cab.
Users will also be able to rate and review their tow truck driver as they would with a regular rideshare trip.
Parevska even joked that fast food pit stops on the way home are entirely possible, telling Today: “Hey, if I’m really hungry as well, absolutely we will be pulling over if it’s safe to do so – I don’t see why not.”
Australia’s road toll typically spikes over the Christmas holiday period, with last year’s December road toll totalling 118 deaths – 15.7 per cent higher than the five-year average.
New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland are typically the states with the highest proportion of road fatalities. In particular, Victoria saw a 60 per cent increase in road deaths in December 2023 compared to December 2022.
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