Uber launches an experimental service to deliver lunch. Is anyone at UberIndia listening?

An experiment that involves food? GENIUS!

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ith so many wheels at their command, Uber believes it can expand its taxi services to a point where Uber cars will be the only vehicles filling the streets of the cities.

This famous ridesharing service had experimented with many types of delivery services, like Corner stone for delivering basic necessities, UberRush for bicycle and pedestrian-based Courier service and so on. But this was the first time they gave food any serious consideration.

“We’ve all been there — that moment when you go from hungry to ‘hangry’ during the lunch rush. At Uber, we take these problems seriously and wanted to explore another way to get lunch without the line.” Uber blog post

To ensure that their sentiments matched with the thoughts of the public, they introduced UberFRESH. This temporary food delivery system could deliver food from restaurants to customers in Santa Monica, California, within a bracket of 10 minutes.

10 minutes, you say? Start the countdown

Uber introducing UberFRESH, food delivery service, as new experiment https://t.co/Wslqs07wYt

— Dr. Mantis Toboggan (@thatLennox) August 26, 2014

The experiment lasted only a few days, from 26^th August to 5^th September. From the moment you hit pay in your smartphone mobile app, the countdown began and your food was promised to be delivered within a small gap of 10 minutes.

This service extended only to lunch hours, 11:30 am to 2:30 pm, and it effectively utilized Uber X service and a team of drivers for the cause.

The speedy service was the main eye-catching feature of Uber’s testing service. People don’t want to wait hours to receive a lunch which will probably end up cold thanks to the time delay.

If you thought the 10 minutes was too good to be true, you were right. You could order only from selected restaurants like, Tender Greens, 41 Oceans, Cookie Good and so on. And the delivery did not include knocking on people’s doors. The parcel would be presented right outside the building, on the street itself.

On the plus side though, no extra delivery cost was charged.

“While UberFRESH is a limited duration and location experiment this week, depending on the results we look forward to expanding UberFRESH throughout the southland.” Uber blog post

UberIndia, we have high expectations

In a country like India where the fares of autos are constantly shooting up, and where the food delivery comes with a huge service charge bill, UberFRESH could be a life saver.

Even if the choice for food is limited and you’ll probably have to keep checking the street for the taxi, this could still be a plausible option for corporates and home-dwellers who just want a quick meal.

UberIndia, we’re waiting.

Who else is waiting with us?