UberEATS: Uber Is Expanding into Food Delivery as Well

When it first made an appearance on the market in 2010, Uber was likened to a taxi service. However, it stood out by having clean cars, good prices and small details that kept their clients happy, like offering free water for instance.

The company managed to expand its services all over the world. Like it’s doing with UberEATS now, it expanded with caution on each market and inevitably managed to raise a lot of debate around its efficiency.

UberEATS – The newest food delivery service

 

However, Uber isn’t content with just offering taxi services. This is why, in August 2014, Uber launched the first trial period for UberFRESH. That is where it all started.

According to their website, UberEATS is now available in 12 cities, the majority of them being in the US: Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto and Washington, D.C.

Uber claims that, with this service, you can have meals delivered from a local restaurant in 10 minutes (or less, as they say). This definitely sounds great, considering how much you generally have to wait for food to be delivered.

Now, this got me thinking. 10 minutes is an extremely tight time frame. If I would go to a restaurant, then I wouldn’t even know what I would want to eat, let alone have the waiter be ready with the food on a plate or ready to go.

The same problem appears when you order food from your favorite pizza restaurant. It can take up to an hour or more if they have plenty of orders placed.

Why UberEATS is a service that people need

Because we’re constantly too busy. And that means that we usually forget to eat, ignore the hunger and continue our day thinking about the minute we finish work, so that we can finally eat something. We need food for our brains to function properly. This means nutritious food, not just a bagel and several cups of coffee.

For many people who work in corporations, their usual lunch break no longer exists, as they have to work during that time. But when you have the option to use a service that delivers your meal so quickly, I believe you can take a few minutes off between your tasks to snack on some food.

How the service is supposed to work

For every city, there’s a specific FAQ page available. It includes different time schedules for each city, offering information about when UberEATS is available.

For example, in LA, the service is available for lunch, dinner, and brunch (on Saturdays and Sundays). In Paris, on the other hand, the food delivery service from Uber is available only for lunch. A city like Toronto, however, will get to enjoy a more extended delivery schedule, namely from 10 AM to 10 PM.

Other than the delivery hours, you should know that, for every city, there’s only a certain area where UberEATS is available. I believe that’s mostly because it would be too difficult to offer such a cost-efficient service in large cities.

Each meal costs between $8 and $12, which is a really decent amount. In addition to the cost of the meal, there’s also a flat delivery fee. I browsed just a little bit through their menu and found it to be extremely diverse. It can definitely satisfy the needs and particularities most people have when it comes to their eating habits.

Unfortunately, all the meals are pre-arranged. So, if you don’t like a certain ingredient, then you’ll just have to overlook that aspect or order from somewhere else. Still, you can also see meals in advance and set reminders to be notified when the deliveries start for a certain meal.

Ordering food is pretty hassle-free and straightforward. All you have to do is use the Uber app, select the meal option, select your location and then just go downstairs in a few minutes to get your delivery.

Uber is expected to extend this service to other major cities as well, since there is a pretty high demand for it. It might take some time to achieve a worldwide food delivery system, but it seems to me that Uber might just have the resources they need to pull this off.

Do you live in one of the cities where UberEATS is available? Have you tried the service for yourself? If so, what were your impressions? Me, as well as my audience, would be more than happy to hear what you thought about it. Feel free to leave your insight in the comment section below. 

Philipp Kandal