Driving under the influence can have a long-lasting and unpleasant effect on an individual, but it can end up even more costly than you may think if you are a small business owner.
If your business depends on fast and efficient transport but suddenly your driving license is revoked, you may have to make big and expensive changes to accommodate this. If you end up serving gaol time (which, depending on the circumstances of your DUI and any past offenses, is absolutely a possibility) you may have to hire other people to manage the business in your absence. And that’s not even mentioning the damage to your reputation it will cause.
Both drink driving and drug driving bring with them high financial penalties. Drug driving makes it an offence to drive with a ‘relevant drug’ in your system – these drugs include cannabis and ecstasy, as well as other ‘party drugs’. Australia is cracking down on this just as much as drink driving: police can stop and test drivers in the same way.
If you are convicted of driving under the influence, you will have to pay all fines, legal fees, and impound fees. Your insurance provider may either raise your rate or just drop you, and it may be difficult to find another one. If you have to serve gaol time, or attend any sort of class or treatment program, this will lead to loss of both productivity and income for your business. And then there’s the little inconveniences that come of not being able to drive- having to use public transport in the absence of a car will cost money as well. You will almost certainly find yourself thousands of dollars out of pocket, even for a first-time offense, and this can seem a nightmareish prospect when you have a business to keep afloat as well.
Of course, the easiest way to avoid problems like this is to never drive under the influence in the first place. But if you end up with a DUI, you need to act fast to avoid your business completely collapsing.
If this is your first offense, you will probably not have to serve prison time, and it is also unlikely you will be given legal aid. But you can do many things for yourself to make the process go smoothly – get character references from people who both know you and are ‘of good reputation’ themselves. If you can, explain to the Magistrate whether or not you knew you were under the influence and, if you did, your reasons for driving at the time. You can, of course, mention that you rely on your car to conduct your business.
What you will probably be told is, if you need to be able to drive in order to keep your business going, you can apply for a restricted license. Also known as a work license, this restricts the circumstances in which you can use your vehicle but still allows you to drive it. To apply for one, you need to be able to prove firstly that you are fit to drive (and will not offend again) and secondly that not being able to drive would affect your finances and work life significantly. Check that you are eligible for this, if you are, it could help a lot.
Gaining back your reputation can be, depending on the circumstances, even more difficult. Customers do judge a business on the behaviour of its owners and if they find your business unacceptable they’ll jump ship. Some people wishing to make amends will donate money to charity (especially charities related to alcohol or drugs in some way), print an apology in the local newspaper, write something on the Internet, or even send out individual letters to each customer explaining the situation with an assurance it will never happen again. (If it does happen again, you are almost guaranteed to lose a significant amount of customers, and therefore business.)
If you are careful, take the necessary steps, and behave appropriately, your business should recover. But remember, whenever you’re buying a drink and still planning to get behind the wheel- the real cost of that drink could come to thousands of dollars. Or, even worse, yours or somebody else’s life. Now that’s sobering.
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About the Author:
Don Broida is an economics student with the interest in entrepreneurship. He loves all things Australian, great wines above all. He would love to see bottles of Australian Shiraz stock shelves worldwide.
