A lot of companies have leaped into providing same-day delivery besides well-known Google and Amazon. The latest to join in is Sidecar. The ride-sharing company has announced that it will be officially launching same-day delivery. Sidecar Deliveries is a new program that offers third party companies to use Sidecar vehicles to deliver their goods. For the past six months, Sidecar has been testing the service within the San Francisco Bay area and it has gone well there. With the success, Sidecar knows its’ business model works and will be rolling out the service.
Sidecar stated in the article, “During our test period, Sidecar drivers earned 75% more when they delivered both people and packages. Riders also reap the benefits of this people and packages combo because there will be more drivers available, lower wait times and even lower prices.” The idea makes sense, however, it was even more sensible to test their model first. Sidecar has researched and developed a same-day delivery solution that fits the company, which must be done. Without it, only estimated financial decisions, making for sub-par operational investing and the service won’t last long-term.
Founded in 2012, the San Francisco-based Sidecar is also available in Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago, Charlotte, Boston and Washington, DC. It has figured out the formula for same-day delivery in which it rents out its’ cars for third party deliveries, working with companies in the e-commerce, hot food, flowers and groceries spaces, rather than becoming a delivery service itself. The report stated that Sidecar’s same-day delivery space has spiked upward, representing 10% of its’ current ride volume in San Francisco. A San Francisco courier can assist an e-retailer quickly test same-day delivery and find whether it will produce growth also.
“Same-day delivery will represent half of our business by the end of 2015. Our vision is that one day any business will be able to take an order and get it to the customer in an hour, and Sidecar will be the service that powers this capability,” Sidecar said. Having items delivered within an hour is not only Sidecar’s vision, but a number of e-retailers and physical store retailers are striving to consistently offer same-day delivery within one hour. A same-day courier like 1-800 Courier specializes in fast, on-time deliveries and can be a viable nationwide courier to implement this level of last-mile services.
San Francisco is just the beginning, as Sidecar plans to roll out the service nationwide this coming year. This will put the company in a better position for more market share from competitors; namely Uber, which has decided to not offer the service. There are numerous big name e-retailers and brick-and-mortar retailers that are expanding into multiple US cities and will probably go nationwide also. Google and Amazon are launching same-day delivery in several cities, yet Macy’s is the retailer that launched same-day delivery late last year, including San Francisco, San Jose, Houston, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington DC, New Jersey, and Chicago. Retailers are all pushing to make same-day delivery a viable and everyday way we do business.
Reference: 2.9.15, Vator News, Steven Loeb, Sidecar launches its own same-day delivery service
