Hi everyone,
I’d like to share a story that happened in Brazil last May and underscores the power of Waze’s community and what makes it so special.
Background
Over the past year, the Brazilian government has been gradually increasing gas prices to compensate for the reduction of several other taxes. Truck drivers believe these increases negatively impact their business. On May 21st, a group of independent truck drivers initiated a national strike after the government once again increased gas prices.
During the strike, truck drivers blocked highways and the distribution of gas. Four days into the strike, Waze was notified by the Community that the blockings had led to a critical situation:
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Gas shortage in gas stations and airports - lines of up to 5 hours and diverted flights.
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Sudden abusive gas price increase of up to 127% (from USD 1.8 to USD 2.7).
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Food shortage.
Power of the Community -
Wazers who were left without any gas were using our SOS feature to request help.
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Wazers were opening Update Requests to report closed gas stations.
We got a notification about what was happening by the community (way to go, antigerme!), and immediately were able to activate our Crisis Mode:
- A Crisis Event was launched.
- A push notification was sent to ~8M users all over Brazil encouraging them to update gas availability and prices.
CCP and press coverage
Thanks to the community, we were able to share with our partners the location and details of gas stations with and without gas availability/prices.
Additionally, this campaign caught the eyes of the press, which massively reported about it. See example (in Portuguese).
Results
The community’s strong activity has resulted in sharp increases in gas price updates and SOS requests from the app.
As you can see, with community power and Waze’s technology, together we can make a difference in the world. Outsmarting life, together 
