Sidecar, a service that's something of a rideshare wars also-ran when compared with Lyft and Uber, has perhaps as a result of its position been fairly experimental with its business. The company has already got some skin in the on-demand delivery game, while others like Uber are flirting with doing the same. Currently, Sidecar Deliveries operates in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Boston and Brooklyn. And today, the company announced that it's expanding its delivery offerings to include pot, partnering with Meadow, an existing medical marijuana delivery start-up.
Meadow, along with competitors like Eaze, have been frequently called "The Uber of pot." Well, now it's the Sidecar of pot, I guess? Or Sidecar is the Uber of Pot? Hard to say.
"[C]ompanies like Meadow don’t need to build a delivery network to serve their partners they can outsource the logistics to us," writes Sidecar, summing up the business plan nicely. The alternative, after all, is coming up with its own driver program and having to vet everyone themselves. It's unclear, by the way, what will happen with existing Meadow drivers.
Additionally, as is true of Eaze and others, drivers making pot deliveries must be card-carrying medical marijuana patients themselves (otherwise the wouldn't be able to carry the goods). Customers will still order through the Meadow app, which allows you to choose marijuana from local dispensaries.
When asked by Re/code if he were worried that delivering weed "could hurt Sidecar’s brand," Sidecar’s CEO Sunil Paul said that, “If it’s legal and fits in the car, we can deliver,” Paul said. “The same things we do for medical marijuana we can do for alcohol delivery.” So, there's that to look forward to.
Related: With Pot Legalization Likely, Scott Wiener Wants To Talk About Local Regulations