
Uber Is Testing a Massive Merchant Delivery Program - jigneshhk
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/28/uber-is-quietly-testing-a-massive-merchant-delivery-program/#.up0lhs:ihj8
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ghaff
It's probably worth noting that--primarily in denser locations--the rapid
delivery of goods is already a thing. Delivery of papers by bicycle messenger
(although that has declined), takeout delivery, grocery delivery (which has
been around for a long time in many cities but has been getting more
systematic with services like Instacart). Of course, there have also been
massive failures trying this in the past like Kozmo.

I suspect there's a complicated relationship between density, profit margins
and overall cart value of what's being delivered, price sensitivity, and other
factors. It obviously does work in some domains and those who already have
established something that could form the basis of a delivery infrastructure
may be in the best position to experiment further. It won't work for
everything or everyone but if fast delivery works for food for example,
there's no inherent reason it shouldn't work for a lot of other goods that
people can't get easily delivered today.

~~~
tracker1
It's also about division of labor and specialization. Grocery stores don't
have thousands of vendors showing up at stores, they have long delivery chains
that consolidate and redistribute... On the last mile for home delivery it
makes sense for one service to act as a delivery agent for multiple stores,
when a pizza shop doesn't have many orders from 1pm-5pm, they are paying
employee(s)... with a service based delivery, the throughput is more optimal.

Not to mention the time this will save... I hate going to the store, which
kills at _least_ two hours a couple times a week. I'd pay $20-30 to have that
time back. It won't reduce traffic either, but at least the uber drivers are
more likely in economy/subcompact cars (a lot of prii) which would displace
the SUV behemoths that would otherwise be used by those most likely to be
ordering.

~~~
ghaff
You could presumably try something like TaskRabbit although I have no personal
experience and it would presumably cost more than $20-30 for the length of
time you cite.

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feefie
In Canada, today only, Uber is delivering puppies for 15 minutes of playtime
cuteness: [http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/uber-to-offer-puppies-on-
dema...](http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/uber-to-offer-puppies-on-demand-
thursday-in-four-canadian-cities-1.2350822)

~~~
codecamper
And then what do they do with the puppies after the 15 minutes are up?

~~~
a2tech
[http://www.willitblend.com](http://www.willitblend.com)

~~~
hitekker
Normally, I would just upvote and go on but that was actually hilarious.

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netcan
Uber is in a inherently interesting space, directing large numbers of people
using software for stuff that happens outside of the computer.

That means that instead of solving problems that are sticky enough in the lab
never-mind in the world, they can solve them with a market. For problems like
who should deliver what package and how to optimize that, they can offload a
lot of the intelligence to drivers.

This might have interesting implications for other products.

~~~
amelius
It's nice that, with this approach, individuals can make some money besides a
regular job. But what's not so nice, is that the level of the work is quite
low. And what's also not nice, is that Uber is a regulator of that market
(having strong financial interests themselves).

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carlmcqueen
Quietly is a funny way to put it since I've heard it in the news three or four
times lately.

Each time I hear about it I think of a hollywood heist movie that starts and
finishes quickly when the robbers simply figure out how to manipulate things
so they're the uber driver delivering the package they want.

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microman
How does insurance work with this? What if my driver is robbed, gets in a
crash or decides to pocket my stuff? Do Uber insure the contents or the
retailer (or neither)?

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tempodox
After appearing in TC & on HN, the “quietly” attribute may be removed from the
testing. It has become quite loud now.

~~~
crdb
I believe this is the essay you're looking for:
[http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)

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varunjuice
A major threat to Uber's profitability is its inability, thus far, to
monopolize drivers. If it expands successfully in moving goods, it might be
able to consolidate enough demand to make sure every available driver is
always working for Uber.

It'll be interesting to see if its able to drag Lyft, Instacart, Shyp under
the water as it puts its very large oxygen tank to use.

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calinet6
I'm just thinking of SimCopter, where as a copter pilot you could get missions
of all kinds popping up on the screen, and you could choose to take a
delivery, passenger, fight a fire, and more stuff I can't remember.

Not a bad model really. Uber is a distributed worker service.

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ams6110
The taxi companies in my town have always offered package delivery (though
I've never seen it used much). The idea isn't new, though the technology could
help out with the practicality of it.

~~~
jsackmann
Yep. I drove a cab for about a year (2003ish, college town of ~200,000
people), and the company I drove for did this. It wasn't a big business, but
there were a few substantial accounts, notably the local university hospital
system, which sent around a lot of specimens in very serious-looking
containers. Pre-ubiquitous GPS, shared taxi dispatching and routing involved a
lot of yelling and guessing.

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imaginenore
[https://www.uship.com/](https://www.uship.com/)

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marvel_boy
Right now Uber is trying a food delivery scheme in Barcelona
[https://hbr.org/2015/02/ubers-food-delivery-experiment-in-
ba...](https://hbr.org/2015/02/ubers-food-delivery-experiment-in-barcelona)

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Animats
Uber's selection of businesses for delivery is strange. Hugo Boss? Louis
Vuitton? _Tiffany 's?_ Those are all stores for which the shopping experience
is paramount.

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theophrastus
Bezos was an early invester in Uber, ([http://www.geekwire.com/2011/jeff-
bezos-hops-uber-invests-pr...](http://www.geekwire.com/2011/jeff-bezos-hops-
uber-invests-private-car-service/)) so until the drones darken the sky hauling
Amazon boxes this makes some sense.

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aetherson
The brands mentioned seem like an implicit admission that this will be an
expensive service. Is there actually demand for same day delivery of
Tiffany's? Who buys stuff from Tiffany's but can't be bothered to go to the
store and also needs it for tonight?

~~~
flycaliguy
I think they are trying to just punch up the status of the service, making
those be the first brands people associate with it.

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JohnLen
This will be an ideal service that many are looking forward to. Fast and
convenient.

~~~
sschueller
On the backs of 1099 workers. Uber needs to be work on some social
responsibility. Do we really want a country where the majority are struggling
to serve the few?

~~~
dylanjermiah
They're free to work for whoever they want. No one is forcing anyone to drive
for Uber, they're doing it voluntarily. Why forcibly stop consensual
behaviour?

~~~
ashark
Freedom of choice comes in degrees, with no sharp divide between free and not
free.

The freedom of an individual to negotiate with employers exists in a context
of wild inequality in negotiating position, information asymmetry, and
coordination problems among workers that lead to a race to the bottom (absent
collective bargaining or government intervention).

I don't know enough about Uber and their workers to comment on that in
particular, but I don't think that "they could have _not_ signed on, so it's
OK" is necessarily a strong position from which to oppose collective
intervention, governmental or otherwise, without qualification of the degree
to which participants in an agreement were free to make their decisions, and
what the consequences of thier decisions will be on the choices available to
others. Since we're talking about low-wage workers and a giant company, my
_guess_ is that closer examination of those considerations won't aid an anti-
intervention or pro-market (for common definitions of pro-market) argument.

~~~
viscanti
It doesn't seem an issue of workers negotiating with the individual business.
You're redefining "freedom of choice" to mean freedom to negotiate with a
company. It's clear that the parent meant freedom to choose when/where they
work. If there were better alternatives, people would chose that over Uber.

The fact that they aren't choosing other things shows that they're making an
informed decision that they believe is best for them given their alternatives.
We're free to wonder about if things could be even better for the people who
made the choice to work for Uber, which is where some kind of negotiation
between workers and Uber would come in, but that seems to miss the point
completely. If there were better alternatives provided by any other company,
most of the workers would go there.

~~~
ashark
> You're redefining "freedom of choice" to mean freedom to negotiate with a
> company. It's clear that the parent meant freedom to choose when/where they
> work.

Can't it be both? Really, I don't see how the two can be considered
separately. The individual negotiation occurs in the context of the broader
field of choices and consequences available, and of the relative power of the
participants (which may, perhaps most relevantly, be considered as their
ability to cope with any harm that results from saying "no" to a given offer).

> The fact that they aren't choosing other things shows that they're making an
> informed decision that they believe is best for them given their
> alternatives.

I don't agree that the fact of a choice having been made gives us any insight
in to the degree to which it was "informed" but otherwise, sure.

My point is: that someone said "yes" and that it was within their power to say
"no", is a pretty poor metric for freedom _per se_ , and a bit more than that
is going to be needed to demonstrate that (say) government intervention would
necessarily be inappropriate or harmful.

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tiffanyricks
It would be smart for Uber to acquire Instacart. Instacart has the knowhow and
Uber has the network and technology. It seems like a smart business decision
that will lead to world domination.

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scrapcode
Kind of the same thing, but in the opposite direction: This morning my
girlfriend got a notification that some day next week Uber drivers will pick
up donations and transport them to Goodwill.

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ams6110
I seem to recall WalMart looking into the idea of having customers deliver
goods to others "on their way home." Don't know if that was successful
anywhere.

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Billybauld
Uber is becoming like Google but for the physical world. There are so many
parallels -- the omnipresence for starters.

~~~
wavefunction
You registered 4 hours ago just to make this comment?

~~~
Billybauld
Of course not, but everyone has to have a "first" comment on here, right? What
a ludicrous reply for you to make, I mean really.

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richwalinsky
This company is in a inherently interesting space, directing large numbers of
people using software for stuff that happens outside of the computer and also
offer lots of jobs for people

~~~
fanalog
Did you copy the other comment, or is there a bot writing pro-Uber comments in
here?

~~~
wavefunction
It's interesting, netcan has been here "forever" and has a ton of karma but
"richwalinsky" has been here for 171 days and has 1 karma.

