The IT Nerd

Starting today, Uber is launching Uber Reserve for UberX and UberXL in select cities across Canada. Uber is known for being on-demand – push a button, and get a ride. Now, you can push a button and plan your ride, giving riders even more certainty and extra assurance. Uber Reserve is perfect for trips to the airport, train stations, other cities, business meetings or planned events, so riders can enjoy a stress-free ride.

Here’s what riders need to know: 

• Plan ahead: Uber Reserve allows you to request a ride up to 90 days or 30 minutes in advance, at any time and on any day of the year. You can also Reserve a trip with multiple stops to pick up friends and family along the way. 
• Save 30% this summer by planning ahead: Enjoy 30% off your next Uber Reserve trip (up to $30) in selected geos in Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa. Valid for pickup time until 11:55pm local time on Sept 19, 2023.
• Reliability on time: Count on your ride to be there when you need it with Uber Reserve. Our technology matches drivers for your trip ahead of time and helps them arrive on time for a stress-free ride.
• No rush to meet your driver: You have extra wait time built in so you can double check you’ve got everything before hitting the road. 
• Flexible cancellation: Change of plans? No problem. Uber Reserve lets you cancel up to 60 minutes before your requested pickup time with no extra fees. If you cancel less than 60 minutes before your reservation, you will be charged a cancellation fee for your driver’s time. You can view the cancellation fees in the app before and after scheduling your trip.
• Tailored for you: Ride options for every budget and occasion, and prioritized matching with your Favourite Driver! Favourite Driver allows you to select specific drivers whom you’d like to be matched with when requesting Reserve rides. You can add them to your Favourite Driver list during the rating process.

Here’s how it works: 

• Request a ride up to 90 days to 30 minutes in advance, at any time and on any day of the year.
• Once the rider requests a reservation, we start looking to match that reservation with a driver ahead of the pickup time. 
• Riders are notified once a driver has been assigned. 
• Riders will receive another notification when the driver is enroute.
• 5 minutes of wait time is built in depending on the product, so riders can take their time.
• Riders can cancel up to 60 minutes before your requested pickup time with no extra fees. 

Uber Reserve is already live in Toronto, Calgary and Edmonton on most of Uber’s products. 

Starting today, Uber Reserve for UberX and XL are available in the following cities:  

• Vancouver
• Montreal 
• Ottawa 
• London 

Today, Uber Reserve is live for UberX and Comfort in below cities and riders will be able to Reserve Uber XL as well starting today. 

• Kitchener-Waterloo
• Winnipeg
• Halifax
• Hamilton
• Niagara Region 
• Saskatoon 
• Regina 
• Quebec City 
• Windsor 
• Red Deer 

Today, Uber Eats is now available for teen accounts—meaning parents and guardians now have one less thing to worry about. Whether their teen needs a meal to refuel after practice or brain food to help them through a study session, parents and guardians can relax knowing their teen has a way to feed themselves, even if they’re not around. 

How Uber Eats for teens work: 

• Deliveries from highly rated delivery people: Orders through teen accounts will always be delivered by highly rated delivery people. 
• Teen-friendly view: Age-restricted items like alcohol will be filtered out.

Here is what a regular account view looks like:

Here is what a teen account view looks like:

• Live tracking and real-time alerts: Anytime an order is placed through a teen account, the parent or guardian will receive real-time status updates from pickup to drop off. 
• Support at your fingertips: If for whatever reason something goes wrong, the parent or guardian and the teen will be able to submit a support ticket in the app. 

Teen accounts enabled by parents and guardians will now provide access to Uber Eats and Uber Rides.  Launched earlier this year, teen accounts with Rides are designed for families on the go with safety features built into the experience for parents/guardians, teenage riders, and drivers. When a teen requests a trip, parents/guardians will be notified, can watch the trip right in their Uber app, and contact their teen or the driver. In addition, Uber safety features – like audio recording, live trip tracking, and PIN Verification to help make sure your teen is getting in the right car – will be mandatory. Only highly rated, experienced drivers will be able to receive requests for trips with teens, and drivers can always choose to stop receiving these trip requests. In case of an emergency, parents/guardians will have the ability to call 911 directly from the trip tracker screen. 

Starting today, all drivers on the Uber platform with an iPhone will now have the ability to use the Uber driver app directly from their dashboard while using Apple CarPlay. 

This means drivers will be able to see demand heatmaps, accept trips, and view navigation right from the dashboard screen in their car.

Uber’s goal is to be the best platform for flexible work in the world, and they’re excited to add support for Apple CarPlay to make using the Uber driver app on iPhone even more comfortable and convenient for drivers.

National Ice Cream Day is coming up on Sunday, July 16th, serving up some much-needed cool amidst the record-breaking heat. To celebrate, Uber Canada is sharing some chill trends revealing how Canadians are getting their ice cream fix, from top flavours and the largest ice cream orders to which cities have the biggest sweet tooth.  

• Getting straight to the pint: Halifax, NS takes the title of the Canadian city with the biggest sweet tooth, with eaters ordering ice cream more than in any other city in the country. Hamilton and Ottawa take second and third place, followed by Toronto in fourth. 
• Moo-ve over dairy: Ottawa, ON residents search for dairy-free ice cream more than anywhere else in the country.
• Legen-dairy ice cream orders: London, ON had the largest ice cream order in the last year consisting of nine boxes of milk chocolate ice cream bars with nuts—because one is never enough.
• The inside scoop on top flavours: When it comes to the most popular flavours, Canadians stick to the classics, including chocolate, vanilla and berry, but are also sampling mango, coffee and taro.

And for the cherry on top, we’re also sharing exclusive ice cream deals on Uber Eats in honour of everyone’s flavour-ite holiday. Baskin Robbins is offering a BOGO for their 3 Take Home Sundae flavours when you order for delivery through the Uber Eats app. 

Check out some highlights from Uber’s National Ice Cream Day trends:

Top 10 cities in Canada that order ice cream the most:

1. Halifax 
2. Hamilton 
3. Ottawa 
4. Toronto 
5. Kingston
6. Kitchener-Waterloo
7. Vancouver 
8. Edmonton 
9. Calgary 
10. Montreal 

Top 10 flavours in Canada

1. Chocolate 
2. Vanilla 
3. Berry 
4. Caramel 
5. Peanut butter 
6. Cherry 
7. Hazelnut 
8. Mango 
9. Taro
10. Coffee

I became aware of an Uber Eats scam via a post on Mastodon. And after doing some investigation, I found it worth my while to publish a story on the scam for two reasons. First, let’s start with the scam which is detailed here by Landon Epps who was a victim of this scam:

As mentioned above, a Washington Post reporter by the name of Chris Dehghanpoor was scammed twice. And he has a detailed summary of this scam here. That brings me to the second reason why I have decided to post this, Uber Eats was of no help in dealing with the scam that this reporter tripped over. In fact, they stopped responding to his DM’s for assistance. That reflects poorly on Uber Eats as you would think that they would want to protect their brand by getting rid of scams like this. But clearly that isn’t the case.

Uber Eats has a serious problem here, but until they choose to address it, I would recommend that you reconsider the use of this food deliver app as it seems like if you get hit by this scam, the company has decided that they not only won’t have your back, but they don’t seem to care that this scam exists.

Consider yourself warned.

This morning, Uber is hosting Go Get Zero, their first-ever sustainability product event introducing new products and features to support their march to zero-emissions. One of the products is coming to Toronto later this year—Uber Carshare—the newest way to rent affordable cars from people right in your neighborhood. 

With Uber Carshare, getting behind the wheel will be:  

• Convenient: You can find cars right around the corner to instantly unlock and drive.
• Flexible: Enjoy hourly options so you only pay for the time you need.
• Affordable: Browse a wide variety of quality cars to find the best fit for your needs and budget.

If residents are interested in being one of the first borrowers or owners with Uber Carshare, they can sign up today to be notified of launch details at this link. 

Just because you need a car sometimes, doesn’t mean you need to own one. Uber believes that car sharing is one of the most affordable and sustainable ways to access a car. Uber Carshare allows customers to pick up a nearby car and drive it themselves. Together with Rides, public transportation, riding a bike and walking, this means that you no longer need to own a car to get where you want, how you want. 

Most cars sit idle and are unused the majority of the time, so by putting them into shared use – optimizing utilization of existing vehicles on the road – it means fewer cars are needed to move more people. Research shows that carsharing can support car-free or car-lite lifestyles and even lead active users to reduce or “shed” the number of cars they owned before.

Since recently acquiring Car Next Door in Australia – and rebranding to Uber Carshare – Uber has seen the platform grow significantly, which has given them the confidence to launch this product in Toronto and Boston later this year. Uber Carshare is a perfect example of how we’re continuing to identify, innovate and scale the products that are meaningful to consumers and our business.

This is part of their sustainability commitment to provide sustainable, shared alternatives to the personal car. Other innovations that empower Canadians throughout the country to choose green include: 

• Uber Comfort Electric: It’s as simple as tapping a button and getting a ride in a premium EV. This is now available in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. 
• Uber Green: The most widely available on-demand mobility solution in the world for no- or low-emission rides.
• Transit: We’re partnering with local transit agencies around the world to add real-time transit information and ticket purchase directly in the Uber app.
• Bikes and scooters: We’ve integrated Lime bikes and scooters into the Uber app across 55+ cities globally, with plans to expand micromobility options.

Today, Uber officially expanded its ridesharing platform in British Columbia to Victoria, Kelowna, and Chilliwack, offering residents and visitors a safe, affordable, and reliable transportation option at the touch of a button.

In over 140 municipalities in Canada and over 10,000 cities globally, Uber users rely on the app to access transportation options whenever they need them. Whether it’s a ride across town to run errands, to get to work or school on time, or a late-night ride home after an evening out, Uber helps riders get where they want to go. 

To meet the expected demand for rides, interested drivers can visit driver.uber.com to learn more about driving with Uber. New drivers in Victoria and Kelowna who complete their profile and take 20 trips within the first 14 days of Uber’s launch will get an extra $1,000 promotion that will be added to their regular earnings.

For service area information and maps in each city, please click the following links: Victoria, Kelowna, Chilliwack.

Uber Canada has released its Economic Impact Report for 2022, highlighting the impact and value Uber and Uber Eats has created for Canadians in a year of inflation and rising costs.

The report reveals that Uber created $8.8 billion in economic value for the Canadian economy in 2022, and that Uber and Uber Eats produced $35 billion in consumer surplus. That is equivalent to 1.4% of Canada’s GDP. 

Some key insights from the report include: 

More people are choosing to drive or deliver with Uber than ever before due to inflation.

Like all Canadians, drivers and delivery people are feeling the pinch. 27% said they felt a little or much worse off than a year ago and 20% felt pessimistic about their personal finances over the next 6 months. 

• In the last quarter of 2022, Uber saw the highest number of signups ever on the platform in Canada. 
• 21% of drivers first started using Uber in the last year and 43% of delivery people first started delivering with Uber Eats in the last year.
• More than half (62%) of all those we spoke to said that the rising cost of living was the main reason behind their decision to work with Uber or Uber Eats.

In challenging economic times, apps like Uber are a vital lifeline, creating flexible income opportunities to help people stay afloat: 

• 76% of drivers and delivery people reported that their work with Uber or Uber Eats has become more important in the last year as a result of the rising cost of living.
• 58% said additional income provided by apps allowed them to save more money.
• 52% told us that app-based work has served as a ‘bridge’ between losing one job and gaining another.
• 73% said app-based work helped them to make money in an emergency situation.
• 92% of drivers and delivery people who use Uber told us that schedule flexibility was important to them when choosing work.

The report also shares new data on the growth of food and grocery delivery, the impact of ridesharing the night time economy, Uber’s progress towards its sustainability commitments and how the platform continues to transform the digital economy. 

You can read the full report here. 

While light on details, news has filtered out to me that Uber will be launching its ride sharing services in Victoria and Kelowna sometime “next week”. I have seen some emails that were sent to me by Uber that show that drivers could earn an extra $1,000 if they complete 20 trips within the first 14 days of the rideshare service’s launch in either city. That’s clearly an incentive to get drivers in either city on the platform.

This brings the total number of cities in BC covered by Uber to three. I will have more details on this expansion when I get them.

This morning, Uber hosted GO-GET, the annual product showcase introducing Uber’s latest innovations around the globe.This year, there are several new products coming to Canada and here’s the highlights.

Teen accounts

Teen accounts on Uber is a new feature to help parents manage all of their teen’s activities and busy life. From sports practices and mall trips to first job interviews and more, teens are always on the move – which means parents and caregivers are too. When parents set up a teen account with Uber, screened and experienced drivers can help get their teen wherever they need to go with safety tools built into every trip. Uber’s built-in safety features (not optional) include audio recording, live trip tracking, PIN verification, and RideCheck. 

Parents also have the ability to contact the driver directly during a trip, contact Uber’s support team, or report an issue. 

Teen accounts are a made-in-Canada innovation. Uber expanded and formalized processes initially developed for Innisfil Transit. Teen accounts were then piloted in Calgary in the fall of last year. Teen accounts will roll out in western Canada and Quebec starting today, followed by Ontario and Nova Scotia in the summer. 

Video gift messaging

Add a personalized touch when sending gifts on Uber Eats by recording your very own video message. This feature is launching today across Canada, starting with gift cards. Soon Canadians will be able to add video messages to thousands of gifts on the app, whether it’s a bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates, a bottle of malbec, their favorite sourdough bread, or even an order of tacos. 

Group grocery orders 

Build the perfect grocery cart with your roommates, family members—or even a group trip—to help everyone get what they need hassle-free. Now group orders for groceries are easier than ever on Uber Eats with features that let you invite participants to add items, set ordering deadlines and divide costs by automatically splitting the bill. For select grocery stores, there is now the option to pay for the entire order, or split the bill based on what each individual orders. 

As a bonus feature that’s perfect for roommates, Canadians can now also make group grocery orders ‘recurring.’ Simply select the recurring frequency you want (weekly, monthly, etc.) and the group will receive reminders to add their items to the shopping list from your preferred grocery store on a regular basis. Available today across the country.