Uber Eats is helping out where it can, amid this Coronavirus outbreak, and is giving over 300,000 meals to Healthcare workers and first responders. It is also waiving delivery fees to small businesses in some of its markets.
Uber’s Chief Financial Officer, Nelson Chai told CNBC in an interview on Squawk Box this morning that Uber is “doing what we can”.
Chai did not mention which markets it was waving the delivery fees for small businesses on Uber Eats, however. Chai did say that “as more customers are choosing to stay indoors, we’ve waived the Delivery Fee for the more than 100,000 independent restaurants across US and Canada on Uber Eats.”
Uber is also going to be doing something that sounds like its taking advantage of the current crisis, but it is really helping out local restaurants that are most affected by this crisis. “We will also launch daily dedicated, targeted marketing campaigns – both in-app and via email – to promote delivery from local restaurants, especially those that are new to the app.”
This is going to help these smaller restaurants get customers that they likely wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. It’s a good move by Uber.
This comes after many States have limited restaurants & bars to take-out only
Since Sunday night, a number of States have ordered the closure of restaurants and bars for dining in. Only allowing customers to take their food to go. This is to help keep the number of people in public places down.
As the CDC announced on Sunday night, that Americans should aim to stay away from places with 50 people, for the next two months. So restaurants, bars, movie theaters, gyms and many other places of business are closing. Some have already closed, with more closing today.
There’s currently 3,774 cases of Coronavirus in the US, with 69 fatalities due to the virus already. Worldwide, the numbers are much larger. Wuhan, China was first to be placed on lockdown, in late January. Since then, we have seen entire countries be placed on lockdown. Including Italy, France and Spain. Which is a really big deal, locking down an entire country, forcing everyone to stay inside, is definitely out of the ordinary.
But Uber is here doing what it can, seeing as it is not a healthcare provider, it is somewhat limited on what it can do. And it also doesn’t want to expose its drivers or passengers to those with the disease, and possibly spreading it even further.