Barely two weekends into its Philly expansion, on-demand car service app Sidecar has been shut down by the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA).
Sidecar acquired its competitor, Austin-based Heyride and expanded to Philly, Austin and Los Angeles, it announced earlier this month. The app is like on-demand car service Uber, except that the drivers aren’t necessarily professional drivers and it’s cheaper (you’re given a “suggested donation” amount once the ride is over).
The Parking Authority fined Sidecar $3,000 for operating without the appropriate authorization, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Read the Philadelphia Magazine piece to hear how reporter Victor Fiorillo‘s three Sidecar rides went (not quite as smooth as Uber, he wrote).
Sidecar has two staffers on the ground in Philly, not counting drivers, according to a spokesman. The spokesman with which we were communicating is out of the office today, according to an auto-response, and did not respond to initial requests for comment, but we’ll update the story if we hear back from him.
On Saturday, SideCar was the target of an orchestrated sting operation conducted by the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA), which regulates taxis. Three everyday drivers in our community were given hefty citations and had their cars impounded, leaving them alone in the dark and cold in need of a ride home. The citations wrongly assert that SideCar and its community of drivers and riders is an “unauthorized service provider.”
Before you go...
Please consider supporting Technical.ly to keep our independent journalism strong. Unlike most business-focused media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational support.
3 ways to support our work:- Contribute to the Journalism Fund. Charitable giving ensures our information remains free and accessible for residents to discover workforce programs and entrepreneurship pathways. This includes philanthropic grants and individual tax-deductible donations from readers like you.
- Use our Preferred Partners. Our directory of vetted providers offers high-quality recommendations for services our readers need, and each referral supports our journalism.
- Use our services. If you need entrepreneurs and tech leaders to buy your services, are seeking technologists to hire or want more professionals to know about your ecosystem, Technical.ly has the biggest and most engaged audience in the mid-Atlantic. We help companies tell their stories and answer big questions to meet and serve our community.
Join our growing Slack community
Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!