
Uber Rush - nikunjk
http://blog.uber.com/RUSH
======
johnvschmitt
Mixed feelings on this. It tends to expand the recent meme of "Everyone's a
contractor, nobody's an employee".

There's no minimum wage or other worker protections if you sign contracts for
services.

The social contract is never signed, & it's getting abandoned more & more.

~~~
oleganza
The "social contract" is a religious non-proven abstraction. There was never
any social contract anywhere. And even if there was, it does not bind you or
me in any way. And even if it could, we could impose our own versions of a
social contract on each other making it irrelevant.

The consensus on social norms is not a consensus if it's enforced by some
group on another - that's just bullying, not agreement. If our ideas of how
society should function differ, we can either reach some compromise to mutual
satisfaction (==consensus) or start fighting and guy with 51% of power will
win. But that wouldn't be a "contract", "consensus" or "morality" in it. It'll
be just an outcome of a brutal conflict.

~~~
tsax
The most amusing part about the fictitious 'social' contract is that its
proponents are loathe to respect ACTUALLY SIGNED contracts.

~~~
oleganza
Because "society" is more important than your greedy individualistic
exploitative capitalistic contracts.

~~~
tsax
Conveniently enough, 'society' as such is defined by the activist, the
benevolent overseer. No thanks.

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rdl
Unclear if this is better used for transporting drugs, or transporting cats.
Seems like it would work for either. I don't see any real terms of service
limitations or KYC which would prevent it from being used as a "delivery
service" for drugs.

~~~
samstave
In any metro area, there is already door-to-door delivery for any drugs you
might want, likely cheaper than what Uber can afford anyway as delivery price
is already baked into the price of the drugs.

This is just Kozmo.com 2.0

~~~
llamataboot
In NYC and the Bay maybe. In most other metros?

~~~
TheCowboy
I'd extend it to include even rural and suburban areas.

It is easier to imagine if you consider that it is likely safer for a dealer
to simply travel to their customers. One attracts too much attention if they
have random people showing up at their residence, or takes on more risk if
they have to meet under the public eye. Customers share in this decreased
risk.

It also provides low level dealers a competitive advantage in markets they
don't have locked down. It might be more of a necessity than optional service
these days.

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inthewoods
I'm wondering how big this market is - when I was growing up in NYC bike
messengers were everywhere. And if you were an architect (like my stepfather),
then there was a constant need to ship around drawings et al. But the
messenger business seems to have largely disappeared - still there, but much,
much smaller than when my brother was on the bike. Hasn't the digital age
really ended the need for a lot of this? I'm guessing that there is a market
need here or else Uber wouldn't be pursuing - but I do have to wonder. I agree
with others, though, that they should get their business billing situation
settled.

~~~
pattisapu
Lawyers have a huge and ongoing need for couriers who can hand-deliver
original documents.

~~~
windsurfer
They also have a huge need to have their courier requirements disrupted.

~~~
samstave
>their *everthing disrupted

FTFY

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nicolethenerd
The zone pricing is a little strange to me. So it's cheaper to have something
delivered the 50 blocks from 110th to 59th St than it would be to go say, a
block or two from 35th to 33rd?

~~~
korzun
Makes sense, traffic congestion varies.

~~~
waterlesscloud
Traffic has zero to do with this.

~~~
samstave
except.... cars

~~~
jacalata
but it's only offered by bike or foot

~~~
samstave
I bike nearly 100% of my daily commute for the last 3 years. I am affected by
traffic, not so much to the point that I am as slow as traffic, but traffic
affects me to a discernable degree.

Bridge fail; increased load on bart.

Traffic jam == less aware driver which cause me to be more cautious on my
route to work == slower... I bike 2 miles from home to Bart, then bike 1 mile
from Bart to office... used to be greater distance...

So minimum 6 miles a day: ~260 work days a year = ~1560 Miles biked... *3+
years at a scaling factor of say, 80% is ~3700 miles commuted... my speed has
always been based on external factors; traffic, Bart death, cal-train
fullness/death, weather, etc...

It is a significant impact on timing... so to say that Rush is not subject to
any of this is ignoring reality.

HOWEVER: I will admit that in dense urban environ, with bikes, bike always
win..

So: I'd conclude based on own experience that traffic reduction, sans massive
catastrophe to the biker, is ~10-20% BELOW WHAT AN UNFETTERED BIKER CAN DO
(i.e. n cars at all)

A biker, assuming reasonable distance, should be significantly faster than a
car, in dense urban.

So, I may have invalidated my GP post...

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hcarvalhoalves
"Premium Rush" [1]?

I didn't knew bike couriers existed before I saw this movie on TV. Is this
common in NY, or is Uber introducing the idea? Is it common elsewhere?

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn6ie1zCkZU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn6ie1zCkZU)

~~~
tokenadult
_I didn 't knew bike couriers existed before I saw this movie on TV. Is this
common in NY, or is Uber introducing the idea?_

Bicycle couriers have been in New York City and other large cities in the
United States (including mine, Minneapolis) for a long time. They are
especially suited for traveling from one building in a dense "downtown" area
to another.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_messenger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_messenger)

[http://www.blazingsaddles.net/](http://www.blazingsaddles.net/)

~~~
aestra
(In New York at least) they also deliver food.

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arasmussen
Uber RUSH lets you deliver packages with a mobile app that's probably as
convenient as their driver app.

Awesome expansion by Uber. I suppose the same drivers that drive people around
will now be driving stuff around too? Probably doesn't even cost too much in
terms of new infrastructure. I wonder where they'll go next.

Edit: They actually did mention that the messenger arrives via bike or foot,
so they won't have the same drivers delivering packages.

~~~
tomphoolery
Did they specifically mention that it was a car who would be moving the
package around? Seems like bike couriers would be a way better option, at
least for NYC...

~~~
arasmussen
Ah you're right. "Your messenger will be on bike or on foot, and will not be
able to deliver some oversized items"

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rosem
I'm only on board with this if they are covering the bikers that are going to
end up in the hospital — otherwise it's on everyone else.

~~~
pdq

        We’re proud to announce our partnership with the 
        Bike Messenger Emergency Fund (BMEF). The BMEF 
        is a non profit public charity organization that provides 
        emergency compensation to bicycle messengers who 
        are hurt on the job. With the launch of UberRUSH, we 
        will donate $1 from each delivery to the BMEF.

~~~
rosem
This is not insurance.

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mason55
As everyone predicted, Uber is branching out with their expertise on
"delivering things on demand", whether it be cars, ice cream trucks, kittens,
or now packages.

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vm
I wish I was in NY just to play with the UX!

If I have a RUSH order in progress, can I still order a traditional Uber ride?

RUSH is a business use case, which makes me think they'll soon support
multiple concurrent rides since that's also a common business use case. When I
was a lowly analyst, I often had to coordinate multiple cars for large groups.
Really common situation in the NY finance scene (thank god I haven't worked
there in a long, long time...).

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samirahmed
i often get the feeling that uber is positioning itself to strike gold with
business billing. uber should build a feature that enables companies by
allowing employees to expense there uber rides and 'rush' deliveries.

There is alot of business in this space and they will get the app into high
level employees phones

It would be the akin to a corporate 'amex' ... bill the company 'uber'

~~~
parm289
I agree. It seems that Uber could be for transportation what Seamless is for
food (at least in midtown Manhattan). Currently, banks etc. either hire
company car services to take employees home late at night or reimburse late-
night taxi expenses post-hoc. It would be great to simply charge these late-
night rides to the company Uber just as we order dinner on the company
Seamless.

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peatmoss
I was kind of hoping this involved bringing Geddy Lee to my home.

