Sidecar Makes up for Outage on NYE
I drove for a few hours on Sidecar just to test the waters for what 2015 may bring and I had a decent experience. They changed the app a lot in the past few months so it was hard to get used to. The driver app is quite different from Uber and Lyft.
I had already stopped driving when the outage happened. There wasn’t much mention of it on Facebook or on the Garage but surely enough, Sidecar responded to it.
Below was the email I received yesterday about the outage:
Hi Drivers,
As you may know, we experienced a brief app outage on December 31st, New Year’s Eve. The outage lasted for 40 minutes and was caused by an extraordinary spike in demand. If you drove during the outage that night, please accept our sincerest apologies, and know that we’re proactively making server infrastructure improvements that will reduce the likelihood of this happening in the future.
To undo some of the damage the outage caused, we’ve updated the New Year’s Eve driver bonus. We were so excited for you all to make a ton of money with the bonus, and hope this update helps make up for missed fares.
If you drove on New Year’s Eve, please read on for how this change opens the bonus to more drivers:
No Online Hour Requirement – Because some drivers were online and decided to stop driving for the night due to the outage, we removed the online hours requirement.
No Total Fare Requirement – Because multipliers weren’t as high as we expected, we also removed the fare minimum requirement.
Reduced Total Ride Requirement – Lowered by 2 rides in each bonus tier to make up for the outage, so if you:
Gave 3 rides or more, keep 100% of your fare (no commission)
Gave 5 rides or more, keep 125% of fares (no commission + 25% bonus)
We also realize you were not adequately communicated with during the outage. Please know that we are taking this very seriously and are meeting as a team to improve our current communication processes. We will provide more about this in the coming days.
That being said, there is some good news.
Even with the outage, we were up 35% over last year’s NYE, and it was our 2nd best day ever (like… ever… in the history of Sidecar). That’s pretty awesome! Even though you may have felt frustrated, we should all be very proud of what we have done together as a team.
Thank you for your patience as we worked through all the details. While we can all agree that this was a setback, we are using it as an opportunity to learn and improve.
Ride on,
Sunil Paul
CEO and Co-founder, Sidecar
Sidecar noticed the error and made up for it, which says a lot about the company and its willingness to work with drivers. This is the first time I’ve seen a rideshare company made the guarantee better than advertised. It has been so hard just to get Lyft or Uber to hold up the guarantee. I definitely find myself wanting to drive for Sidecar more than Lyft or Uber despite the huge pay decrease.
Overall, the compensation is a bit better than what Uber and Lyft offered when they both had their own outages over Halloween.
Lyft Nationwide Outage on Halloween
Uber Worldwide Outage on Halloween
So, where you affected by the outage on Sidecar on NYE?
Have more questions about Uber or Lyft? Head on over to our Rideshare Driver Training Course! Driver Promotions- New Uber Drivers will get up to a $800 bonus after signing up: Sign up for Uber.
- New Lyft Drivers will get up to $800 if you sign up here using this link.
