Back on April 20th, Uber announced a new delivery service called Uber Connect. It’s for people looking for a same-day local delivery service. It could be a great solution during Covid-19 because deliveries can be made safely without any contact.
According to CNET, this new service is only available in Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami, New Orleans, Orlando, Phoenix, San Antonio, Tampa Bay and Washington, DC in the US. No word yet if there are plans on expanding to other parts of the country. This is yet another effort from Uber to diversify their business as rideshare has taken a dramatic drop in revenue.
Now, Uber has tried this in the past under a different name, UberRush. This was a service only available in San Francisco and New York City. It was initially set up to delivery packages of 30lbs or less. Much of their core interest came from business to business deliveries. Uber shuttered the doors on UberRush at the end of June, 2018 according to TechCrunch. No specific reason was given for the shutdown but one can assume that the demand just wasn’t there to make it profitable.
It will be interesting to see if Uber Connect takes off in light of current the current pandemic and the need for social distancing.
*Previously posted on July16th
Tomorrow: Lyft Essential Deliveries Service
