Sidecar Driver Promotions in Boston, Chicago, DC This Week (Feb 23-March 1)
I was a bit skeptical about these “driver promotions” from Sidecar, but I have driven for them when they had these promotions and it has been busy and I managed to earn a decent hourly income with it.
I was actually quite surprised with the demand even a few weeks ago. Last month, Sidecar was giving out free rides almost every week so who says no to a free ride? I can tell you, almost no one. I managed to get 6 rides on a Wednesday Night last month. There wasn’t anything abnormal about the weather that night either, but so many people were taking advantage of the free ride. I would expect to both earn the same amount of money and get similar amount of passengers for both Uber and Lyft on a normal Wednesday night.
I can tell you firsthand that the promotion is definitely going to boost demand in these three cities this weekend. I spoke with a Sidecar representative about the Boston market and he says that its definitely one of their slower cities, and despite this, I managed to get a decent number of rides, even on a Wednesday night. I cleared about $20 an hour (deposited): $17 first hour, $20 second hour, $23 third hour. For a weekday night with nothing else going on, it’s definitely not bad at all.
The payments I got doesn’t include the 1.25x matched payments as I didn’t qualify as it was a Wednesday night.
The following weekend, I drove just Sidecar on Friday and Saturday night where I averaged $20 an hour take home before all the promotions, or $30 take home with the promotions.
So here is how it works:
- All rides that passengers designate as a shared ride (meaning that they are open to sharing their ride with someone else) is free. This is regardless of if there is another person sharing the ride or not. And all six of my passengers got free rides.
- The drivers get compensated for the actual cost of the ride directly from Sidecar. The promotion also eliminates commission, so we get 100% of the original trip fare for the rest of the week.
Below is the email drivers got in these three cities:
Have more questions about Uber or Lyft? Head on over to our Rideshare Driver Training Course! Driver PromotionsReasons to drive for Sidecar this week
1. Shared Rides will be FREE all week and weekend so expect extra rider demand! Shared Rides will show up as $0 in your driver app but please accept these rides. We now have the ability to automatically pay drivers for free rides, so please don’t hesitate to accept any Shared Ride requests. Check the “Other Transactions” section in your account for these payments from Sidecar.
2. 1.25X matched payments during peak hours! (It is only 1.1 in DC) Peak hours this week are:
- Thursday 7am–10am and 5pm–11:59pm
- Friday 7am–10am
- Friday 5pm – Sunday 11:59pm
This 1.25X payment will be one big deposit next week.
3. Last but not least, no commission! You’re taking home 100% of every payment all week long.
- 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.
