Uber and Budweiser team up to give you free Christmas Eve ride home

How to get a free taxi ride home this Christmas Eve

Beer brand Budweiser and taxi service Uber are offering people a great Christmas present this year – a free ride home.

The companies teamed up to get “the nation home safely” on December 24 by offering everyone in the UK a free taxi ride home. The holiday freebie is part of Budweiser’s latest campaign to discourage drink driving.

The offer will be available on uberX between 4pm and midnight on Saturday 24 December to both new and existing Uber users, with rides up to a value of £15.

With this year’s Christmas Eve falling on a Saturday for the first time in five years, over a quarter of Brits claim that they will be taking advantage of the weekend and heading out to celebrate with friends and family before Christmas Day .

Budweiser and Uber are hoping the offer will encourage their customers to pre-plan their journeys.

Steph Okell, marketing manager, Budweiser UK, said: "We’ve run a lot of responsible drinking campaigns in the past, but for 2016 we wanted to take our commitments to the next level with an initiative of epic proportions that would really have an impact."

“We want to spark as many conversations as possible and if we can deter people from getting behind the wheel after drinking this Christmas, we’ll consider the campaign a success.”

Budweiser has launched its biggest responsible drinking campaign in the UK, centred around the Super Bowl’ advert featuring Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren.

Relying on simplicity over fanfare, the advert sees queen of British cinema enjoying a Budweiser, before proceeding to rant about the dangers of drink driving.

In December 2014, Uber ran a similar campaign with Diageo whisky brand Johnnie Walker, offering 250,000 km of free rides worldwide.

Road safety minister Andrew Jones said: “Drink-driving destroys families and ruins lives, yet some reckless drivers continue to take the risk and get behind the wheel after drinking. We urge people who want to enjoy a festive night not to ruin it. Don’t drink and drive, use the bus, catch a train or book a car instead.