In an email to drivers this morning, Sidecar announced that “effective December 31st at midnight, Sidecar will cease rideshare and delivery operations”. The email said that this effective shutdown is “in order to pursue other strategic opportunities”.
A tough year for Sidecar
This announcement comes after a year of many changes for the Sidecar team, namely that they switched to a delivery-first focus after being beat in the rideshare space by Uber and Lyft.
While Sidecar had been piloting deliveries for several months this year, in August they announced this shift to a delivery-first focus. On their blog Sidecar wrote:
“Last week news broke that Sidecar has moved to a deliveries first model. What deliveries first means is that almost our entire company is focused on innovation in the on-demand delivery space, just as we were on rideshare before it. On-demand is poised to take over the retail world. It’s already happening in San Francisco with everything available at the tap of a smartphone button.”
While they had a few big delivery partners, such as Eat24, they also had a difficult time maintaining others, such as with Instacart, and likely struggled to build enough demand and keep a sufficient number of drivers to make their delivery network effective.
For drivers who are still doing deliveries with Sidecar (raise your hand) the email also said that all rides and deliveries will end at 2pm PT on December 31st.
The email to the Sidecar Community
Here’s the email as it was shared with the Sidecar community this morning.
A message from the CEO
Sidecar CEO Sunil Paul published a post on Medium today titled, “So long Sidecar and thanks”. The post did not go into more detail on the rideshare and delivery shutdown, or what other “strategic opportunities” means but he did catalog a history of “firsts” for Sidecar and their journey to today.
Early driver reactions
On the SherpaShare Chat, drivers have been sharing their reactions to the Sidecar news today.
- “Oh no!!! Terrible news. Sidecar had all the cool tech features. Such a shame. I’d hate for Uber to have a monopoly”
- “Wasn’t it obvious?”
- “Maybe they could be brought over / consolidated here?”
- “It’s too bad. They had great ideas like carpool and fixed prices which will live on. They never ever marketed themselves properly. I didn’t even know they had $5 rides this summer until I checked my old email.”
- “They were first in the DC area but failed to make a mark as Uber raced ahead. Richard Brandon’s money just delayed the inevitable”
Another thread has also been discussing what this means for the independent contractor business model more broadly and which companies could face a similar fate.
One of Sidecar’s biggest fans and most active drivers, Dave in San Diego – who’s also been a long-time SherpaShare supporter – shared his emotional reaction with us:
“I am simply floored. I am not sure there is much to be said. I want to beg them to reconsider. All day, I have had [passengers] and drivers coming to me for answers. I have none. I have believed with all I have that SideCar was the best, and my opinion has been endorsed by every single Pax I have had. So, for now I can only say I am heart-broke to the very core.”
This is developing news. We’ll update this post with more information as it becomes available. Share This News
SherpaShare Blog 
Uber Drivers are not against fingerprinting. Uber might value the drivers more if they had to invest in them Perhaps if they had to pay for fingerprinting, Uber wouldn’t be so willing to dispose of drivers like dirty diapers. UberX drivers would be asked to pay the costs anyway, Uber wouldn’t pay. Perhaps that too is a good thing. Drivers then would be forced to look at the true costs of driving and perhaps then it wouldn’t take them six months to figure out they are foolishly paying for Uber’s fleet and losing money while Uber uses them like cash machines on wheels.
LikeLike