Update: Wednesday, March 7, 2018:
Uber Eats begins delivering restaurant meals to homes and offices on Thursday, March 8. Customers will have 200 restaurants to choose from, including Trotters, La Tradición and the entire Mercado 60 group of vendors.
Thursday, March 1, 2018:
Mérida, Yucatán — Uber doesn’t just deliver people to places. In other cities, Uber delivers restaurant food to people’s homes and offices.
Not just typical takeout, but food from restaurants that never offered servicio a domicilio.
That part of Uber, the app-based ride-share service, will finally come to Mérida soon.
It’s a less controversial part of Uber’s business, which has blindsided the taxi industry. For customers who prefer to eat at home or at their desk, it greatly expands their menu choices — and even includes alcoholic beverages.
Uber Eats has been in Mexico City since October 2016, where it launched with 500 restaurants. It then appeared in other major markets such as Puebla and Querétaro. Meals are delivered by cyclists in addition to regular Uber drivers and payment can be in cash or credit card.
Exactly when it begins in Mérida was not announced; officials set up a Facebook page and offered a local phone number as early as Feb. 8.
Uber drivers are required to own a car, but this service opens up employment opportunities to people on two wheels.
Already, candidates are reportedly lining up for delivery-driver training. Recruits are promised more than 4,000 pesos a week with a 500 peso bonus for completing their first 40 trips.
Before they have completed their expansion to Mérida, Uber Eats already has competition. Mexico City-based Rappi has also announced its own home-delivery service in the coming weeks.
Rappi is active in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, the country where it was founded in 2015. It delivers not only food, but groceries, drugstore medications and even cash from an ATM. Its sideline is a dog-walking service, performed by its couriers.
With information from Sipse
