
UberRUSH API – Add on-demand delivery to your app or service - motti
https://developer.uber.com/docs/rush
======
laurabw
We integrated the UberRush API as part of our multi-carrier shipping API
[https://goshippo.com/shipping-blog/introducing-uberrush-
ship...](https://goshippo.com/shipping-blog/introducing-uberrush-shippo-
demand-delivery-network-powered-uber/) It's interesting to see Uber entering
the space of same day delivery. Happy to chat about the integration experience
if anyone is interested!

~~~
47
Why does your API is making such a big assumption that there is only one
parcel/package per shipment[0].

I have looked at your competitors as well. Except for one all of them make
this assumption. I guess customers with multi package shipments are not your
target clients.

[0]
[https://goshippo.com/docs/#shipments](https://goshippo.com/docs/#shipments)

~~~
sawyer
We call them Orders, and support them for all carriers including Uber.

[https://www.easypost.com/docs/api#orders](https://www.easypost.com/docs/api#orders)

~~~
47
I might be wrong but it seems like the api is creating one shipment for each
package with in an order. I assume that mean you will get a tracking number
for each package (Unless tracking number is associated with order, not the
shipment in the api). The Scenario I have seen this is not something
desirable. UPS[0] and Fedex[1] I believe let you ship up to 20 boxes in one
shipment.

[0][https://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/sri/glo_mlt_pc.h...](https://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/sri/glo_mlt_pc.html)
[1][http://images.fedex.com/ca_english/businesstools/shipsoftwar...](http://images.fedex.com/ca_english/businesstools/shipsoftware/FSM_Express_MPS_Processing.pdf)

~~~
sawyer
Yes, most carriers will assign a unique tracking code (and shipping label) to
each shipment in the order, and also a "master" tracking code for the entire
order. Depending on who the recipient is they may want to watch the entire
order from the single master tracking code, or keep an eye on each individual
shipment.

It's not common, but sometimes individual shipments / parcels get separated
from their orders in transit, so it can be helpful to have the individual
tracking codes.

~~~
DecoPerson
Australia Post calls them "consignments."

All articles belong to a consignment, and a consignment has one or more
articles. There are dozens of services, the most used is eParcel which goes:
Consignment #: ABC1234567 Article #: ABC123456789123456(09999)

Both include check digits, and the extra (09999) is the destination post code
so it can still be routed in cases where the address info is damaged and the
central servers are not available.

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dieselz
This is a game changer - not only for what service it provides, but I think it
will lead to more companies making APIs for totally non-technical tasks. Sure
there are companies like task rabbit, shyp, etc etc, but this is the next
level of ease.

Relevant - I want an API for a cleaning service. AirBnB integration so that it
can automatically track when a guest has left and the cleaner shows up within
an hour to get it ready for the next guest. Would build if I didn't have so
many projects going on already...

~~~
jasonjayr
Well, isn't EDI just an API for manufacturing + supply chain management?

As far as retail stores are concerned, they make an API call to a supplier,
and product shows up.

Granted, it's a pretty convoluted API, but I don't think it's too difficult to
imagine what a supply chain algorithm would look like. Just lots of exception
handling + long timeouts...

~~~
manufacturious
I'm working on a project involving EDI data right now. You speak as though you
have some experience in manufacturing and data. Would you be willing to chat
with me for a few minutes about the space?

~~~
jasonjayr
I'm not sure what I could offer -- my experience is limited to wrapping my
head around EDI file formats + processes, and understanding what would be
required to support a small manufacturing company's who directly drop ships
their products.

Given the Expense + complexity of EDI, in all cases we've found it more cost
effective to integrate with all the alternate Web-based import/export tools
provided by systems like VendorNet, or whatever other crazy systems our
customers use.

If our volume gets bigger, we'll probably have to revisit that position, but
it's served us very well for now.

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delbel
It would be nice to have a field to denote "This driver has a marijuana
handlers permit" so they could potentially deliver recreational marijuana from
retailer to consumer. Although I'm sure the regulators would want to go over
this. This would be in Oregon.

~~~
chrismessina
Currently UberRUSH is only available in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago,
so that's the first gating issue for this idea.

Second, there are several restrictions on what can be delivered via UberRUSH:

\- People or animals of any size

\- Alcohol (or any other goods that require identification)

\- Illegal items

\- Dangerous items (weapons, explosives, flammable, etc.)

\- Stolen goods

\- Any items for which you do not have permission to send.

\- Couriers reserve the right to refuse delivery of any item.

I work on the Uber Developer Platform team and am happy to answer additional
questions, though suggest checking out our FAQ first:

[https://developer.uber.com/docs/rush/faq](https://developer.uber.com/docs/rush/faq)

~~~
mey
Some other things you might think about excluding. BioHazards, Waste,
Industrial Materials

Could be argued that they fall under Dangerous items, but if you look at USPS,
they've seen it all and get pretty specific.

[https://www.usps.com/ship/shipping-
restrictions.htm](https://www.usps.com/ship/shipping-restrictions.htm)

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ryanto
Neat. I've always wondered if Uber's ride sharing had a weak moat. As a
consumer there's little difference for me between taking an Uber, Lyft, or
something else. This makes it easy to compete in the consumer ride sharing
market.

If Uber is able to integrate with other apps this introduces a high switching
cost for those apps... and that gives them a pretty solid moat. Excited to see
how this API gets used.

~~~
nikrdc
Where did you find this term "moat"? (Genuinely curious)

~~~
joshvm
A moat is the trench around the outside of a castle that is often, but not
always filled with water. It's a defensive structure because people have to
cross it to get your castle in the middle. So Uber's castle (i.e. it's
product) doesn't seem to be that well defended against competitors (it has a
weak moat). They have the numbers and the user adoption, but fundamentally
they're no different from Lyft et al.

That's my interpretation anyway! I've never heard 'weak moat' used in this
context before though. Apologies if you actually know what a moat is and that
all sounded rather patronising :/

~~~
BWStearns
> A moat is the trench around the outside of a castle that is often, but not
> always filled with s/water/alligators/.

Joking aside, that's a great way to describe the do-hard-things concept. I
think the gp was more asking if that was a metaphor derived from some pg (or
whoever) blog post.

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King-Aaron
They're eagerly trying to adopt driverless cars for their fleet, they're
pushing their way into disrupting most markets, and now adding a direct
delivery service to their product.

Uber will be a company to watch in the coming years.

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sharemywin
Better hope domino's doesn't enter the market. Not sure if they could since
it's all franchises. But, I imagine they could price it less than $6 per
delivery.

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thesimpsons1022
maybe not. dominos makes money from the pizza it is selling not just the
delivery fee. if they had to purely make profit from delivery it might be a
similar price

~~~
jocro
I'd imagine it comes down to multitasking - could Dominos successfully deliver
pizza at the same time as other items? Each delivery fee would only have to
make up the difference of the distance they were already traveling to the
additional destination. Considering their coverage, and the fact that the
drivers have central hubs and don't have to spend time idling, I think they
could offer more competitive pricing while still profiting. They also have
more freedom to prioritize pizza/packages as needed, where an Uber driver
can't (reasonably) add a stop to their to route with a passenger in car.

~~~
Zombieball
Exactly this. The fact that dominoes makes money off the pizza sale just means
they have a business stream to subsidize the cost of delivery to nearby
locations.

Same reason Amazon can run Fresh. If you order groceries and your neighbor
orders an Amazon package, just pocket the money that would've been paid to a
carrier to deliver that box and get your Fresh driver to do so instead.

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timvdalen
I just see an empty page with

>docs-598c00d615.js:1 Uncaught RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded

on the console

~~~
HNoonan
This is a known bug that manifests in the newest versions of chrome. We are
addressing this immediately.

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Cyph0n
Wow, this looks awesome. The ad for UberRUSH is one of the best I've ever
seen:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRu6M9sCfmo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRu6M9sCfmo).

I've actually been thinking of starting a similar venture in Tunisia. Over
here, there is simply no straightforward way to deliver packages within a
city. Obviously I don't have the platform Uber has, so I'm thinking of
building both at the same time, but with a focus on package delivery for
individuals or small businesses.

What I'm worried about the most is package insurance. How is this usually
done? Do I need to setup a policy with an insurance company? Or can I just
mention in the ToS something like "we are not responsible for the condition of
the received package"?

Any input on this or any other potential hurdles would be appreciated.

~~~
chrismessina
While I can't comment on the kind of insurance your business might need, in
the case of UberRUSH, if a package gets crushed in transit, UberRUSH has
insurance up to $250. If the package gets crushed due to our service, we will
take care of it.

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KaoruAoiShiho
Can somebody give an example of a service that needs this, where Fedex
wouldn't do?

~~~
laurabw
FedEx is not really focused on same day/same hour intra city delivery. Most of
the shipping providers have an infrastructure around warehouses set in place.
This means that the shipping providers picks up all packages and then brings
them to a warehouse where they are sorted and then shipped out again. UberRush
comes to the pick-up location and directly brings it to the recipient.

~~~
dragonwriter
> FedEx is not really focused on same day/same hour intra city delivery.

Well, in that they have lots of other services, sure, but FedEx does have both
long-distance (FedEx SameDay) and shorter-time-window local (FedEx SameDay
City) same-day services.

The main difference would be that FedEx isn't subsidizing rates with investor
money to fuel growth, so its more expensive.

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tombone12
"Tip: While couriers will come in store to pick up the delivery, the most
successful users of UberRUSH conduct curbside handoffs. By eliminating the
time required for your courier to park and find the handoff spot, you can have
your deliveries arrive to your users as fast as possible!"

As this is a service intended for people with no existing logistics
infrastructure, this seems to be firmly in line with the uber policy of
reminding everyone why rules are created in the first place...

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Animats
From the article: _" An UberRUSH delivery typically involves interaction
between three parties: the customer, the business, and Uber (courier). The
diagram below outlines the interaction between these parties during the
delivery lifecycle."_

So the drivers are not a party to the transaction? Is Uber still trying to
claim they are "independent contractors"?

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jbmorgado
I don't get it. But how much do we - the app developers that are using this
API - get from the fare?

I'm not seeing that information in the documentation. Or does UBER want us to
get clients for them for free?

~~~
chrismessina
That's a curious way to look at it. If you are a developer and need to deliver
items to your customers or customers' customers, surely you'll need to pay
someone to do that. Via the UberRUSH API, you can now integrate our delivery
services to handle that, and yes, either you or your customer would need to
pay for the delivery service.

The benefit of using the UberRUSH API is that you can take advantage of the
elasticity of Uber's fleet to scale up and scale down delivery services on
demand without needing to build up or manage your own couriers.

We think of it similar to how developers use AWS: developers _could_ run their
own server infrastructure but their costs would be much higher on a per-unit
basis because they don't have the scale or purchasing power that Amazon has.
Furthermore, running servers and dealing with amortization and depreciation
probably isn't good for their businesses (unless their businesses are in
scalable server hosting!).

We hope that developers use the UberRUSH API to lower the costs of running
businesses that need to move physical goods in cities where we operate; we
know full well the costs and challenges of setting up an elastic logistics
network (it's our core business) and are passing on those capabilities and
cost savings to third parties so they can focus on the value that they're
providing, rather than merely on how to fulfill requests.

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asimuvPR
I wonder how the market leaders will react to this. They are essentially
challenging UPS, FedEx and the USPS. Its going to be interesting.

Is there a list of allowed deliverable items?

~~~
atonse
I think they're challenging Instacart more than those others.

I still can't use this API to ship something to another town, can I?

~~~
chrismessina
Please see my comment on what's currently allowed, and where our service is
available:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11871600](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11871600)

UberRUSH is focused on courier-style deliveries within a single urban
environment; you can not use UberRUSH for long distance deliveries.

~~~
asimuvPR
Thank you for providing the list. Its more open that I would have imagined. Do
the current Uber imposed car requirements still apply? (I mean the year / type
of car allowed).

~~~
chrismessina
It varies; if you drive with Uber, then you can choose to also deliver goods
and products. Some driver-partners choose to only do deliveries for UberRUSH;
some do both.

Here are the requirements to deliver for UberRUSH:

\- Be at least 19 years old (21 years old in Canada)

\- Be able to lift 50 lbs

\- Have a driver’s license, insurance, and vehicle registration

\- Have at least 1 year of driving experience

If you want to be a bike courier:

\- Be at least 19 years old

\- Be able to lift 30 lbs

Source: [https://get.uber.com/p/delivery-
partner/](https://get.uber.com/p/delivery-partner/)

~~~
asimuvPR
Thank you. :)

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jakozaur
Uber can kill whole delivery company segment. Clients would go where delivery
is the fastest/cheapest. More volume, gives more efficiency.

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plandis
Does anyone have any experience with how this compares to Prime Now from a
sellers perspective?

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supster
What cities is this available in?

~~~
citizens
SF, Chicago, NYC

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hayksaakian
if you don't want to develop a program, there's a frontend for business owners

[https://rush.uber.com/how-it-works](https://rush.uber.com/how-it-works)

~~~
hbhakhra
What do you mean by this? Is this a way for small business owners to get
UberRUSH integrated without the need for a developer? They announced it as an
API so I figured there had to be some manual integration. If there is manual
integration required, this seems like a good fit for a consultant to come in
and do it.

~~~
chrismessina
Correct. The UberRUSH API is for those businesses or developers that want more
control over how they integrate UberRUSH into their business or customer
experience. Prior to launching the API, UberRUSH was available for businesses
through the console mentioned above without requiring any coding.

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Bombthecat
As someone working with idg and APIs and management. We need more APIs ;)

