Uber Car Service Looks To Expand Horizons, Starts Testing Food, Merchant Delivery Services In New York, Chicago

Uber Car Service is expanding its horizons — and its business model. Known until now to be a car service that had the sole objective of transporting people, Uber is now transitioning into a food delivery service as well, according to Mashable. On Tuesday, Uber, which is arguably one of the hottest startups in the U.S., announced that it is starting a food delivery service in Chicago and New York. The aim? To deliver food to customers within 10 minutes of them ordering.

Uber Car Service calls the new delivery option UberEats and as has already been mentioned, it is just being introduced in Chicago and New York. At this point in time, the choice of food you could order with UberEats is limited. Also, unlike other competing apps that offer an a la carte menu from which you can order, UberEats only lets you order from pre-selected restaurants.

Initially, Uber Car Service plans to offer a rotating menu of food from select pre-approved restaurants around New York and Chicago. Everything you order using UberEats will have a flat delivery fee of $3 in Chicago and $4 in New York. The amount will go directly to the driver of the car delivering the food, the company says.

The news of Uber Car Service’s expansion plan comes a few months after there were reports from Washington that Uber was testing deliveries of household goods in Washington D.C. In fact, according to a TechCrunch report, Uber Car Service is also planning a merchant delivery program. The idea? To allow online shoppers to get same-day delivery of goods using Uber’s existing drivers. In fact, the pilot program is reportedly already underway. Several brands, nearly 400 of them, including the likes of Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany’s, Cohen’s Fashion Optical and Hugo Boss, are reportedly working to set up this merchant delivery program BY Uber Car Service.

According to industry experts, the expansion of Uber into uncharted territory is a natural process. Last year, Uber Car Service CEO Travis Kalanick was famously quoted saying;

“If we can get you a car in five minutes, we can get you anything in five minutes!”

Uber Car Service is however not the lone car service company that plans to expand in this manner. Competing taxi and car service startups are also jumping on the delivery services bandwagon. Recently, Gett, a car service that operates in New York, London and Tel Aviv revealed that they would start delivering pizza and food items to its customers.

Uber Car Service has been in the news for the past few months, most infamously after several incidents of violence reported from Uber car drivers.

[Image Via NY Post]