Will you use UberEATS?

Posted by Justin Havre on Thursday, June 2nd, 2016 at 1:01pm.

The latest food delivery service has entered traffic on Edmonton streets and it has a slightly familiar name.

Uber Eats launched last month in Edmonton, after efforts to drive people in the city stalled. The City of Edmonton put the brakes on the ride-share service because it failed to operate under new city by-laws.  Now Uber is driving diner to Edmontonians, delivering meals picked up from some of Edmonton’s most popular restaurants

Stay-at-home diners simply download the UberEATS app on their smart phone and have instant access to menus from 40 Edmonton restaurants.  People who already have subscribed to Uber can use their existing customer profiles.  Meals are selected and purchased using the app and like Skip the Dishes, the Uber Eats vehicle and driver delivering the meal can be tracked in real time from the minute it’s picked up by the driver within the app.

Edmontonians can enjoy their favourite cuisine hot from their favourite restaurants while in their pyjamas.

A spokesperson for Uber, which is still waiting for a green light to start operations back up in Edmonton, said the company has partnered with some of Edmonton’s favourite local establishments rather than with some of the major restaurant chains.  Some of these local restaurants, like The Local Omnivore and El Cortez to name just two, historically have not offered delivery. 

Where is Uber Eats operating?

The meal delivery service is restricted to the inner-city area of Edmonton.  The service area is bounded by 23 Avenue on the south side, 137 Avenue to the north, 170 Street on the west side of Edmonton and 50 Street on the east side.

UberEATS is already on the road delivering food in Eastern Canadians cities.  Toronto was the first Canadian city and the 12th globally to put Uber Eats on the road and had signed up 100 restaurants in a very short period of time. 

Delivering food door-to-door was an excellent vehicle to keep Uber drives earning income while ride-sharing companies and municipalities alike wait for the province to approve commercial insurance appropriate for the purpose.  In Edmonton, thousands of Uber-ready drivers had to cease operations after initially driving illegally before being shut down.  Uber started offering service in Edmonton in January 2015 at a time when the ride-sharing industry was unregulated.

When it first arrived in Edmonton, 90,000 people downloaded the Uber App and 4,000 drivers had signed up to start driving.  While on hold, Uber Eats is a way for drivers to make a bit of income while waiting for necessary approvals to be put in place.

To get attention, food deliver via Uber Eats is free; however, this is for a limited and unspecified period.

Uber is undaunted in the face of other well-known food delivery companies in Edmonton.  Skip the Dishes is based in Winnipeg and Just Eat, a Toronto company, also deliver food from local Edmonton restaurants.  The other services also use an app and have websites.  Skip the Dishes has been very aggressive with marketing and just started delivering breakfast in weekends as well as lunch on weekdays.

 

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