Survey Finds Employers Are Doing the 'Ride Thing' During the Holiday Season

Network of Employers for Traffic Safety and Anheuser-Busch Release Results of 2006 Designated Driver Poll

ST. LOUIS, Nov. 28 -- What's the best way to impress the boss during office holiday parties? It's not by belting out your favorite song during the karaoke competition. According to a new survey, 65 percent of Americans believe that being the designated driver is the best way to win points with the boss, while only 7 percent said that singing a favorite holiday song would do the trick. As companies around the country plan their holiday events, the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) and Anheuser-Busch encourage employers to make sure their employees get home safely after the festivities.

The survey, conducted by Data Development Worldwide, also found that 71 percent of Americans say their employer uses at least one of four ways to assure employees get home safely from holiday office parties: encouraging the use of designated drivers, offering plenty of food, serving alcohol responsibly or offering free safe rides home.

"Employees are a company's greatest asset," explains Kathy Lusby-Treber, NETS executive director, "and offering a designated driver program at holiday office parties ensures that everyone has a safe ride home, sending a clear message about driver safety."

John Kaestner, vice president of Consumer Affairs for Anheuser-Busch Cos., Inc. said, "It's great to see so many employers taking steps to ensure a fun and safe time at the holiday party for their employees. What better gift to give a friend than to be their designated driver."

  Additional survey results include:

  --  More than 148 million American adults have been a designated driver or
      have been driven home by one.
  --  Ninety-two percent of American adults 21 and older have heard of the
      idea of a designated driver.
  --  The vast majority of adults (95 percent) say that promoting the use of
      designated drivers is an excellent or good way to help reduce the
      problem of drunk driving.
  --  Being the designated driver (65 percent) beats out dancing the
      Electric Slide (4 percent) and hovering over the buffet table (4
      percent) as the best way to impress the boss.
  --  Americans would overwhelmingly prefer their designated driver to be a
      friend (78 percent), rather than a taxicab (14 percent) or mass
      transit (4 percent).
  --  Given the choice of five special occasions in which to have a
      designated driver, Americans choose New Year's Eve - with six in 10
      saying they would want a designated driver on that night (62 percent).
  --  If using a text message to round up friends at the end of an evening,
      most Americans would use the text message, "Next stop ... home!" (52
      percent).
  --  The favorite accessory of designated drivers this year is a Global
      Positioning System (28 percent), followed closely by a bottomless cup
      of coffee (24 percent) and a "rockin" stereo system (22 percent).

Drunk-driving fatalities nationwide continue to decline. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports drunk-driving fatalities have decreased 39 percent since 1982. In addition, Christmas drunk-driving fatalities were 37 percent lower in 2005 than in 1982; and New Year's Eve drunk-driving fatalities were 24 percent lower in 2005 than in 1982.

The designated driver poll was conducted Aug. 24 - 27, 2006, using random digit dialing procedures. The findings were based on telephone interviews with a representative sample of nearly 1,000 Americans, ages 21 and older. To see the full survey results, visit http://www.alcoholstats.com/ .

The Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) is the only organization dedicated exclusively to traffic safety in the workplace. NETS is a public/private partnership that engages employers of all sizes and industry-types in seeking, developing and expanding best practices in traffic safety.

Anheuser-Busch and its wholesalers have invested more than a half-billion dollars since 1982 in a comprehensive portfolio of more than two dozen community-based programs and national advertising campaigns to promote responsibility and discourage alcohol abuse, including underage drinking and drunk driving. Since 1989, the company and its wholesalers have provided more than 815,000 safe rides.

The company ranked first in the U.S. beverage industry for social responsibility in FORTUNE magazine's 2005 "America's Most Admired Companies" and first in the beverage industry worldwide for social responsibility on FORTUNE's 2005 "Global Most Admired Companies" list. For more information about Anheuser-Busch's responsible drinking programs, visit http://www.beeresponsible.com/ .