Uber Technologies launched its new food delivery service in August 2014 in Santa Monica.
This is the first product of the tech company that connects the drivers and the customers and making use of the existing platform to deliver food within few minutes.
This online food ordering and delivering platform partners with the popular and famous restaurants in the cities across the globe and it enables the customers to order the meals using the mobile app.
By making use of the existing platform the company set up its food delivery service with few curate menus each day and they also promised to deliver the not more than ten minutes. The company has expanded its service in many places like New York City, Barcelona and Chicago from April 2015. By the second half of the year, the operation extended even further in Washington DC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Austin, Toronto and San Francisco.
The food delivery business
The online multinational transportation network, Uber launched its pilot program in Aug 2014 by infusing the food delivery business within the ridesharing app and called it UberFRESH. In April 2015, the company rebranded UberFRESH into UberEAT took the extended the service in the local and international marketplace.
The company has its business running in thirty-three cities in four continents and announced that they will expand the service in many countries since 2016. The app updated its system and the mobile app allows the users to toggle between the EATS and the RIDES.
It partners with different restaurants and a wide variety of cuisines and plans with leading chefs and creates exciting menus with limited specifications. The signature dish of the restaurants keeps changing and they are frequently updated by the software and it also features dishes of the domestic celebrity chefs those who do not have separate outlet. Michael Mina is one such chef who partners with the food delivery app and promotes his dish. Other famous restaurants that partner with the app are the Roli Roti, Uno Dos Tacos, Stone’s Throw, Souvla, Mr. Holmes Bakehouse and Dosa. The cost of the meals is between eight dollars to twelve dollars with an additional three dollars as service charge.
The app that is used to place the order is the one that is used to book a ride. The menu is seen by the customer only if the service is offered at their location and they can place the order using the app. The app offers brunch, lunch and dinner option that have different menu each day and has two to four meal options. Since the user is registered with the app, they can make payment using the card. The food items are delivered through the couriers who come by foot, bike or car. This app is available for both the Apple and the Android users.
Continental Expansion of the food delivery service
After its operation in many cities, the UberEAT plans to launch its service in the African continent. Alon Lits, the General Manager of the sub Saharan Africa said that they are planning to change the eating habits of the people by taking food to their location, rather than them going in search of food. Also said that the small business can get exposure to with a big customer base and that the owners can be at ease and concentrate on expand the business further.
The company will launch its service in the northern suburbs of the South Africa capital; Johannesburg because it was the first African city to have the Uber ridesharing service that has seen a rapid growth in the business with forty thousand drivers actively participating in the operation. The Logistics Manager and Driver Operations of Uber in Johannesburg, Dave Kittley said that they have been offering services in many cities and that they have gained more knowledge about it and now it is time for them to implement all the facts that they have learnt into the real time scenario.
How it works
People would have registered in the ridesharing app with all the required details; they have to use the same login credentials in the UberEAT app so that they can access the application. The user can choose from a variety of options from local restaurants to celebrity chef dishes and make the payment online. The Uber courier collects the food from the respective restaurant and delivers it at the customer’s place.
With the help of the advanced software technology, the users can keep track of the orders that are placed by them. The drivers receive a notification from the UberEAT app whenever an order is placed and the driver has to go to the restaurant and show their reference id at the counter and say that they are from Uber. The driver will have only the details about the name of the customer, their home address, invoice details and the instruction. Like whether the ordered meal is hot or cold so that they can place it accordingly. Only when the order is confirmed and signed, the app updates and locates the delivery location. The delivery time is not more than thirty to forty minutes.
This online food delivery app gives the opportunity for the existing independent partners to take part in the food delivery app and help them increase their revenue. The General Manager said in an interview that they have partnered with eighty-five local restaurants and also have plans to include the street food outlets in the near future. The service charge or the delivery cost is R20.
Apart from making a revolution in the food delivery industry, the app plans to focus on other ecommerce players like beverages and other stuffs. This new program can be the seed to many other changes in the digital era. The restaurants that already have the after service delivery option can supplement it with the UberEAT drivers. UberEAT offers service from 11 am to 10 pm and includes the restaurants that operate twenty four hours. The Uber courier gives the delivery drivers an insulated bag that helps to keep the hot meals, hot and the cold meals to be cold until they reach the customer location.
Conclusion
The first international venture for UberEAT is Paris. UberEAT is still hiring people for various designations from sales person to bike couriers, marketing managers and general managers launch in twenty four different countries that are ranging from Manchester to Moscow and Madrid and eleven cities in 9 Asian countries that include Jakarta, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
The main difference between UberEAT and its competitors is that they have the list of restaurants that has partnered with the app; this option is not available in the other online delivery apps. By analyzing the customer needs and specifications, the app has partnered with many famous restaurants to the local fast food outlets that offer mouth watering dishes that are popular among the locals. The app charges the restaurants with the delivery charge and order placement charge for accessing the platform. To initiate customers to use the online food delivery service, the app offers R10 discounts which are seven dollars, for the first order.
Depending on the response of the service in Johannesburg, the company will further extend its operation with more features and options. All these are possible only because of the strong logistics base of the company in Africa.
Author Bio :
Anand Rajendran is the Co-founder & CEO of Casperon. He is a a content marketing and social media marketing Specialist. He covers many things like ecommerce, marketing, design, development, strategy, plus emerging trends, including omnichannel and cloud replatforming. Getmetaxi Software is a Taxi Dispatch Software developed by Company called Casperon Technologies .
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