Sidecar: A Cheap, Reliable, and Effective Travel Alternative

Sidecar is an “on-demand peer-to-peer rideshare community”.  Normal people, like you and me, can sign up to be drivers to gain extra income during times of leisure.  These approved drivers create a network from which people in the city can access for on-demand rides.  The entire service is provided over a mobile application that allows people in need of a ride to see real-time locations of available drivers in their area and estimated time of pickup, view ratings of different drivers in the city, and pay for the ride (often at a much lower price than a taxi) virtually.  Sidecar pays its drivers a flat rate plus gas and keeps all of the “donations” received from the service.  The company operates somewhere between the taxi-cab industry and the emerging “shared services” industry.  Although peer-to-peer shared services have only recently begun emerging, Sidecar faces competition from Uber and Lyft.  Uber offers the same experience through a mobile application, but has its own fleet of vehicles and employees and also only offers rides from upscale vehicles.  Lyft also offers users the experience through the mobile application, but like Sidecar, it’s rides are sourced from people who drive their own vehicle and only when they want.  

Sidecar is one of the many peer-to-peer shared services that I have become fascinated with in the past few years.  As a technology enthusiast, I am constantly exploring disruptive products and services and have become particularly interested in the shared services moment.  HomeAway, Airbnb, Munchery, Lyft, and Sidecar and other emerging peer-to-peer shared services are disrupting traditional industries such as property rentals, car rentals, and food and drink.  The primary reason I am fascinated by these new technologies is their ability to optimize individuals’ lives by allowing them to extract more value from their present resources.  As an efficiency freak, it has often bothered me when I have had to make a significant investment in things I need, but know I will not use often.  I obsess over efficiency because I grew up in a low-income household and was taught from an early age that being wasteful is wrong.  As college students, we are faced with the eternal debate of whether it is worth having a car on campus or not.  The debate usually ends in students succumbing to having a car on campus and paying absurd parking fees, because when you need a car, well, you REALLY need a car.  As a future consultant, I know that I will usually be traveling more than half of the week and away from my home.  Even as this is so, I want to move into a nice apartment downtown because, well, I will finally be a real adult with real income and goddamnit I want to live like one.  Although, deep inside I cringe knowing that half of the $1000+ a month I pay for my apartment will be wasted while I am away for work.  With services like Sidecar and Homeaway, I can now increase the value I received from my resources by allowing others to use them.  We live in a consumerist culture where people spend absurd amounts on items they don’t always need, but as these emerging services penetrate other areas of our lives, there is extreme potential to reduce waste in the world.  

Sidecar’s fast, cheap way of getting around town is appealing to many customer segments.  The first is students.  The aforementioned debate of having a car on campus or not could potentially come to an end with this new efficient and cheap way of travel.  The value proposition for students is Sidecar as a low cost alternative to having a car.  The next customer segment is people who are going out for the night.  One of the biggest hassles of going out in any city is scrambling to find a safe ride to and from your destination.  Additionally, cabs are extremely unreliable and are subject to being stolen by other people looking for a ride.  The value proposition for people going out is the safety and reliability provided by Sidecar.  Another great customer segment is people who live in large cities with poor infrastructure for cars.  San Francisco and New York city, where these services have exploded, are two strong examples of areas where people often choose not to have a car due to the hassle associated with using it.  The value proposition for city dwellers is the cost, speed, and efficiency offered by Sidecar as an alternative to having a car.  

Sidecar has innovated in many areas on the Business Model Canvas.  A few of Sidecar’s customer segments, such as students who need rides for things such as going to grocery store, are segments that have traditionally been attractive to taxi cab companies.  Its value proposition is unique in the sense that it offers a reliable, cheap, and timely travel alternative, which are attributes that have not been commonly associated with traditional competitors.  By offering rides through a mobile application, Sidecar has also innovated the channels through which customers can order and pay for a ride.  Because customers’ and drivers’ information is stored through the mobile application, Sidecar has also innovated by allowing customers to see who the best drivers are and drivers to see who the best customers are.  Sidecar has created customer relationships in a space where there usually has been none.  Sidecars’ key resources are also new and creative, because its service is sourced by employees who opt in whenever they want to and thus, do not receive benefits and do not need to be managed.  Sidecar has revolutionized travel in a number of ways and is a primary example of a business who is adapting to its customers needs to provide a better offering.