The IT Nerd

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.  

Just in time for warm weather and sunny days, Uber is introducing Uber Rent this week across Canada. This new product allows Canadians to rent a car from companies like Avis, Hertz or Budget with a tap of a button directly in the Uber app. 

This is a seamless way to rent a car when you need a vehicle to head out of town, run an errand, or take a weekend getaway. Booking is fast and easy using your Uber account and payment methods. 

More transportation options like this in the Uber app provide more options to help Canadians get anywhere and provide an alternative to personal car ownership, helping reduce overall congestion and greenhouse gas emissions. 

Here’s how it works: 

• Open your Uber app and tap the “Rental Cars” icon.
• Enter the address that your rental car pickup/dropoff will be near and the times and dates that your reservation will start and end. 
• Browse vehicles and compare prices. You can pay in advance to save money or pay at the rental location.
• Go to the rental location with your driver’s license and credit card at the time referenced in your reservation in the Uber app.
• When your reservation is over, return your vehicle to the selected location.

When you rent with Uber, to make it easy for people to pick up their car rental, Uber is offering $10 off your ride to pick up your vehicle at the rental location.

The Fine Print: This offer is only available to users who have booked their rental on Uber Rent and request a ride to a rental location in Canada for the date and time noted in the rental confirmation email. Maximum of 1 ride per offer. Promotion is valid up to 5 times per user. Discount does not apply to surcharges, tolls, or tips and cannot be combined with other offers or discounts. Offer is non-transferable. Offer and terms are subject to change.

Did you lose a picture of 2Pac when riding with Uber? Because somebody did…

As Mercury goes into Retrograde – which astrologists say influences forgetfulness – Uber is back with the seventh annual Uber Lost & Found Index, revealing the most surprising and most popular items left behind by riders over the past year. 

Clothing, bags, and phones topped the list once again of the most commonly forgotten items, but as we well know, riders aren’t just leaving the usuals behind – they’re forgetting everything from frozen burgers to teeth sets to ping pong tables – and that’s just to name a few. 

Below is Uber’s full 2023 Lost & Found Index, along with easy instructions on how you can retrieve lost items:

Top 10 most forgetful cities across Canada:

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

Top 10 most commonly forgotten items across Canada:

1. Article of clothing
2. Backpack or bag
3. Phone 
4. Headphones 
5. Jewelry 
6. Wallet or purse
7. Vape or e-cig
8. Laptop
9. Watch
10. Umbrella

The most forgetful day and time in Canada: 

• Sundays at 6PM 

The most forgetful day in Canada in the last 12 months: 

• January 1, 2023 

The 10 most unique items lost across Canada: 

• Mattress cover, Saskatoon
• Purple sparkly leopard print high heel that has pointy end, Kitchener-Waterloo
• Stove, Winnipeg
• A picture of 2Pac, Montreal
• Possible a pack of frozen burgers, Ottawa
• Star Wars Yoda blanket, Hamilton
• Projector, Calgary
• Teeth set, Calgary
• Ping pong table, Toronto
• A pizza, Halifax 

If you’re one of those people who left something behind, look no further than this help page, which outlines the simple steps you can take the next time you leave something behind when riding with Uber. 

The best way to retrieve a lost item is to call the driver – but if you leave your phone itself in your car, you can login to your account on a computer. Please note there is a $20 fee to get your items returned, and that fee goes entirely to the driver because of the inconvenience of returning the item.

Here’s what to do:

1. Tap “Your Trips” and select the trip where you left something
2. Scroll down and tap “Find lost item”
3. Tap “Contact driver about a lost item”
4. Scroll down and enter the phone number you would like to be contacted at. Tap submit.
5. If you lost your personal phone, enter a friend’s phone number instead (you can do this by logging into your account on a computer, or using a friend’s phone).
6. Your phone will ring and connect you directly with your driver’s mobile number.
7. If your driver picks up and confirms that your item has been found, coordinate a mutually convenient time and place to meet for its return to you.
8. If your driver doesn’t pick up, leave a detailed voicemail describing your item and the best way to contact you.

Starting tomorrow, Tuesday, April 18, British Columbians can order safe, legal cannabis and get it delivered straight to their homes thanks to a partnership between Uber Eats, a global leader in ecommerce and delivery technology, and Leafly, a leading online cannabis marketplace and information resource. British Columbians 19+ can place orders from local licenced cannabis retailers in the Uber Eats app, and have it delivered to their door by the retailer’s provincially certified staff. 

How it works: 

• Open the Uber Eats app and select the “Recreational Cannabis” category or search for one of the licenced cannabis retailers. You will see a confirmation that you must be of legal age to enter the virtual storefront.
• After this, you navigate the menu of the retailer to place an order. You must be within the delivery radius of the licenced cannabis retailer in order to be able to place an order. The usual quantity limits for individual cannabis orders will apply.
• Just like ordering takeout or other items using Uber Eats, you will be notified when the licenced retailer accepts the order and the estimated time of delivery. 
• The order will only be delivered by the licenced cannabis retailer’s own provincially certified staff. Independent third-party delivery people will not deliver cannabis at this time.
• When the delivery person arrives, your age and sobriety will be verified as required by regulations. 

This expansion to British Columbia comes exactly six months after Uber Eats and Leafly brought cannabis delivery to Ontario, which was the first time in the world that cannabis delivery was available on a major third-party delivery platform. 

BC is a mature market with more residents reporting accessing legal cannabis than ever before. This partnership will help licensed merchants connect with those existing cannabis users safely and conveniently. Recent research from Public First shows that some cannabis users drive after consumption with 1 in 7 (14%) of cannabis users admitting to having driven a vehicle within 2 hours of consuming cannabis. Delivery options like those available through Uber Eats are expected to help decrease impaired driving and improve safety on the road.

The first cannabis retailers on the platform in British Columbia are: 

• Sea to Sky, Vancouver
• Original Farm Cannabis, three locations in Vancouver and Victoria
• Leisure For Cannabis, Vancouver
• ARCannabis, four locations in Vancouver 
• 4Twenty Cannabis, two locations in Vancouver
• North Shore Cannabis, Vancouver  
• Queensborough Cannabis, New Westminster 

To celebrate Earth Day this month, Uber has a few things to share. Starting with the introduction of Comfort Electric to Toronto and Montreal. Tap a button and find a premium EV like a Tesla, Polestar, or a Ford Mustang Mach-E. This is Uber’s first all-electric rides product in the app. They first introduced Comfort Electric to Canadians in Vancouver last year. From April 11-30, riders can get up to 25% (up to $10) off two Comfort Electric trips with the code GOELECTRIC. More info here. 

There’s also new data on Uber’s partnership with Hertz which was announced in the summer of 2022. Under that partnership, drivers can sign up to rent Teslas on a weekly basis in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. This partnership gives drivers an opportunity to try an electric vehicle as their primary rideshare vehicle and understand the benefits and cost savings of going electric. 

Since launch in July 2022, Uber has seen:

• Over 1,600 drivers participate in this program and with more than 700,000 fully electric trips completed. 
• This totals over 7 million kilometres driven. 
• 82% of drivers, in Canada, renting a Tesla through Hertz have never owned or driven an EV prior to this program. 

Uber has also renewed their partnership with Plug’n Drive, a non-profit committed to accelerating EV adoption. Over the last year, Plug’n Drive has hosted 11 webinars and 3 in-person EV test drive events with over 1200 drivers attending. These are great opportunities for drivers to learn about the total cost of owning an EV and the benefits of making the switch from gas to electric. 

Uber has committed to becoming a zero-emissions mobility platform in Canada, the US and Europe by 2030, and globally by 2040. That means every single driver on the Uber platform needs to be in an EV. Click here for information about our progress and plans.

It’s been one year since Uber has given riders the ability to see exactly how their rating is calculated via the Privacy Center in the Uber app. Since then, revealing personal rider ratings has become a trend on socials, and many people are making a viral moment out of checking their rankings.

For the second year in a row, Uber is releasing the top five and lowest five ranked Canadian cities for rider ratings. 

Some riders took last year’s rankings to heart and turned their city’s ratings around thanks to helpful tips from drivers, while other cities dropped from the top spots. Winnipeg and Halifax entered the top five, Red Deer dropped from number two to three and London graduated from the bottom five cities. As some of the newest cities with rideshare in Canada, Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivieres in Quebec are taking the top spots. 

The below list shows the top 5 Canadian cities which have the highest average rider rating and lowest average rider rating. 

Highest average rider rating: 

1.  Sherbrooke, QC
2.  Trois-Rivières, QC
3.  Red Deer, AB 
4.  Winnipeg, MB 
5.  Halifax, NS
   

Lowest average rider rating: 

1.  Ottawa, ON 
2.  Toronto, ON 
3.  Montreal, QC 
4.  Hamilton, ON 
5.  Edmonton, AB 

For step-by-step instructions on how to find your ratings breakdown, check out this blog.

To access the Privacy Center and ratings breakdown in the app:

• In the settings menu, tap privacy and then Privacy Center
• In the Privacy Center, swipe to the right and click on the “would you like to see a summary of how you use Uber” tile
• Scroll down to the “browse your data” section and tap on “View my ratings” to see the breakdown

Want to improve your rating? Drivers have shared some of the top reasons they hand out fewer stars: 

1. Pack it in, pack it out: Drivers shouldn’t have to clean up after your mess. Always make sure to take your trash and any other belongings with you. Don’t leave a mess behind. 
2. Buckle Up: Studies show that unbuckled passengers in the back seat can put the driver at greater risk of injury in a crash. So always remember to buckle up for your and the driver’s safety. 
3. Be ready: Remember that drivers’ time is valuable and they shouldn’t have to wait for you. A smooth pickup is better for everyone so be ready to go when the driver arrives.
4. Treat everyone and everything with respect: As outlined in Uber’s Community Guidelines, they want riders and drivers to feel safe, respectful, and positive. Always treat your driver and their vehicle as you would want to be treated. 
5. Don’t slam the door! It is easy to accidentally slam a door if you aren’t thinking about it, and drivers have consistently cited door slams as a reason why they deduct stars.   

Canadians everywhere are flying out of their seats at the opportunity to travel and get out to see the world again. And with spring and March Break just around the corner, many Canadians are looking for easier ways to plan their travel and navigate buzzing airports across the country.

As Uber trips to the airport are outpacing pre-pandemic levels, today, Uber is launching new in-app products and features as well as sharing Canadian travel trends to take stress and guesswork out of travel planning and, ultimately, help get Canadians to and from, and even around, the airport as quickly and efficiently as possible.

NEW IN-APP PRODUCTS AND FEATURES

• Be ready to roll from the get-go: With Uber Travel, you can reserve rides for each leg of your itinerary in one fell swoop. Just connect your Gmail account and Uber will do the rest, organizing your hotel, flight, and restaurant reservations all in one place for a stress-free travel experience. With Uber Reserve, you can choose the ride that best fits your budget, luggage, and group size needs. Plus, you can also book your ride up to 90 days in advance, enabling you to lock in your ride at the same time as your flight and hotel, leaving no part of your trip to chance.
  
• Minimize airport wandering to maximize your time for adventure: Seamlessly make your way through the airport with the new step-by-step wayfinding feature on our app. With detailed directions to get from the gate to the rideshare pick-up area, their new wayfinding product will help you navigate through airports with ease. Available at 30+ airports across the globe including Toronto YYZ and Calgary YYC in Canada.
  
• Every minute counts: We all know the feeling of waiting to deboard a plane and wondering how long it’ll take to get from the gate to your ride. That’s why Uber is rolling out a new feature to help you plan how long it will take to walk from your gate to baggage claim, so you can accurately request your Uber ride. Available soon at more than 400 airports around the world including airports in the following Canadian cities: Montreal, London, Vancouver, Kitchener-Waterloo, Regina, Winnipeg, Calgary, Hamilton, Halifax, Ottawa, Quebec City, Toronto, Windsor, Kingston, Edmonton, Niagara Region, and Saskatoon.
  
• Business Travel: Soon Uber for Business will be rolling out Business Comfort in select cities, an exclusive ride option for those traveling for work with a unique business-class experience. 

CANADIAN TRAVEL TRENDS 

Heading into one of the year’s busiest travel seasons, Uber looked at Uber Rides data to share new trends and insights highlighting how Canadians like to travel—from the busiest time and day of the week for travel to and from the airport to their favourite pre-flight eats!

Whether it’s arriving at the airport with enough time to grab a bite or looking for a quick and easy ride home after your travels, check out how these Canadian travel habits might help you plan your next trip.

Hello beauty sleep and goodbye to the red-eye

• We’re a nation of early risers that want to be home by the end of the workday. On average, Canadians travel the most to the airport at 6:00 a.m. and back home at 5:00 p.m. Toronto is full of keeners, with the earliest travel time to the airport at 5:00 a.m. and Vancouverites want to be home by lunch, precisely at noon. 

We’d rather celebrate TGIF in the sky

• What better way to kick off travel plans than with a weekend to play? Canadians would rather travel to the airport on Fridays and give themselves a three-day weekend by travelling back home from the airport on Mondays. If one thing is for sure, it’s that we know how to live it up.

We take our pre-flight culinary pre-gaming seriously

• Many of us resort to snacking while waiting to board our flights—”treat yourself” is a way of life in our great nation. Canadians’ favourite way to do this? With breakfast sandwiches and muffins. As expected, we also have city-specific tastes. Toronto and Calgary have a penchant for spice with orders like pad thai, chicken shawarmas, butter chicken, and naan. Montréal loves tried, tested, and true comfort foods—think dumplings, fried chicken, and burgers. And Vancouver? With a (very specific) popular order of half chicken, fries, and soup, we’ll let you decide for yourself.
  

PROMO 

To help Canadians prepare for takeoff with these new airport features, Uber One members who use Uber Reserve in March 2023 will earn $20 in Uber Cash to put towards their next Reserve ride with the code GORESERVE. Canadians can rely on Uber to help them get where they need to go and back again safely, stress-free, and on time.

The full news release on the Uber website here.

In 2021, the Canadian Black Chamber of Commerce (CBCC) and Uber Canada announced the nationwide launch of Black Business Direct, the newest national digital directory to help even more Black-owned businesses be discovered. Today, Uber Canada is renewing its commitment to the CBCC and Black Business Direct for another two years.

Black Business Direct is a free, easy-to-access resource for Canadians to search and support local Black-owned businesses across the country. Over the last two years, Black Business Direct has grown to over 1000 listings with new additions every day. CBCC has also made the directory bilingual, introducing a French version of the site. 

You can get more details on their website here.