McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada today announced a partnership with UberEATS that should be welcome news to any Canadian fans of the Big Mac or any of McDonald’s other menu choices. In fact, the resulting service – which McDonald’s has unsurprisingly dubbed McDelivery – is already available throughout the country. As of June 4, customers can get deliveries from any one of the 187 fast food joints spread out across Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Greater Toronto Area, and Edmonton. The McDonald’s branding is already ubiquitous but, for those who aren’t aware, UberEATS is effectively a delivery-focused subsidiary of the popular ride-sharing company Uber. As of today, McDonald’s lovers will be able to enjoy any of McDonald’s menu items in the aforementioned areas delivered directly to them through the UberEATS mobile application that’s available for download on Android devices from the Google Play Store.
There are only two or three drawbacks users can expect to see from the new partnership and using UberEATS to get their McNugget fix. To begin with, although the full menu of each participating restaurant will be eligible, soft-serve cones are not going to be available for delivery. That is most likely down to the fact that soft serve ice cream has a tendency to melt very easily and keeping them cold enough during delivery would be difficult. Secondly, there will definitely be added costs to consumers for the premium delivery service. Those delivery costs, of course, will vary based on each overall order and be charged by UberEATS itself, rather than the restaurant. For its part, McDonald’s says that the base cost will be the same prices customers would pay for in-store, with delivery fees from UberEATS added on a per-delivery basis – which will probably be based almost entirely on the distances traveled. Finally, coupons and other promotional offers won’t be applicable to deliveries, according to the fast food giant.
Customers shouldn’t feel too let down either if McDelivery isn’t available in their part of the country just yet. By the end of the summer, the service is expected to be available at more than 250 restaurants, with 20 locations in Calgary being added as well. If McDelivery performs well enough, it’s not unlikely that the service could spread to more locations over the following months, and that’s especially true given the company’s prior propensity to try new technological paths for growth and customer convenience.