Uber is taking on PostMates with new delivery service

Through the partnership, select retailers selling with Bigcommerce will be able to use UberRUSH to offer faster, cheaper, and more reliable deliveries to local customers, getting products in customers’ hands on the same day they are purchased.

The real business for Uber Rush will be in becoming the delivery fleet for small businesses across a city. The price of delivery will range from $5 to $7. On-demand meal delivery service UberEats, which launched in Chicago in April, is another example of its logistics ambitions. “It’s a business for us”, said Jason Droege, who runs UberEverything, the part of the company that tests new initiatives outside of the ride-hailing business.

“It’s no longer an experiment …” Other launch partners include Delivery.com, food service ChowNow, florist service BloomNet and digital cash register service Clover. “When it’s a business, you’re anxious about the profit and loss”.

Drivers who wish to drive for UberRush will have to opt in and receive training on package deliveries.

With its huge financial backing and brand recognition, Uber could put a big dent into the delivery logistics industry, thanks to a crowdsourced approach that lets anyone become a courier.

Uber’s mile-based pricing allows Dryv, a dry-cleaning and laundry-delivery startup, to handle off-peak orders relatively affordably, said co-founder Dan Parsons.

The key difference between the new Uber Rush and a lot of its competitors like Postmates is that Uber Rush is created to be only your delivery driver – not the app where you place your order.

For merchants that use software providers like Shopify, the Uber same-day delivery button will appear as an option to customers when they’re checking out – but only if the delivery address is within the vicinity of the merchant.

Uber, which faces legal claims against alleged violations including using unlicensed drivers for its taxi-hailing operations, also operates a food delivery service in eight USA cities, including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Uber will pay the driver 75% to 80% of that fee, then keep the rest.

“That’s a service that’s available to consumers”. It’s expanded its API today to enable merchants to order deliveries for as little as $2.50 per pickup.