10 ms·

UberRUSH API – Add on-demand delivery to your app or service

183 points by motti 10y ago

ryanto 10y ago
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 10y ago
  Where did you find this term "moat"? (Genuinely curious)
  - findjashua 10y ago
    warren buffet
  - sorenbs 10y ago
    It's a fairly common term to describe barrier to entry dynamics. See for example a random article like this https://stratechery.com/2015/selling-feelings/ https://stratechery.com/2015/selling-feelings/
  - joshvm 10y ago
    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 10y ago
      > 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.
  - sketchthat 10y ago
    I tend to hear the term "Rust on" (as in metal rusting). So the more rusted on you are the harder it is to get you off. The more integration you have across the board, the more rusted on you are and people can't be bothered trying to clean the rust off.
- ec109685 10y ago
  Why isn't it just as easy for businesses to switch to the delivery service that is cheapest at any given moment? There are API aggregators that abstract out the differences between delivery providers. Their moat is their crap load of drivers.
dieselz 10y ago
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...
- hatsunearu 10y ago
  It really is. There is nothing more to say than the fact that small business owners can't afford to have a dedicated delivery service when they know demand is near 0 in some hours and through the roof in another. I'm curious though--will small business owners bother to implement this in their website, or isn't it easier for someone else (Uber, or its competitor) to do it for them?
  - dieselz 10y ago
    if you check out the bottom of the article, Uber has developed a dashboard for SMBs. But it's smart that they've opened this up to enable startups to leverage this as well as enterprise customers.
    - chrismessina 10y ago
      Indeed, UberRUSH exists for business end users that want to deliver their goods and products easily, especially if they don't have an app: https://rush.uber.com https://rush.uber.com The UberRUSH API exists for developers that want to go above and beyond and integrate Uber deeply into their products, services, or experiences. A great example of this is Pythagoras (https://www.getpi.co/ https://www.getpi.co/), a re-imagining of pizza delivery. Pythagoras doesn't have a brick and mortar storefront, and care a lot about design — so they built their own iOS app and use UberRUSH for delivery. Prior to integrating with UberRUSH, they needed to build and maintain their own fleet of delivery couriers, which limited their reach to a few neighborhoods in San Francisco. After integrating with UberRUSH, they now deliver across the city, expanding their addressable market size overnight without any additional overhead (aside from integrating the UberRUSH API into their app). In this sense, we're offering the utility of UberRUSH to more contexts and use cases.
sharemywin 10y ago
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.
- thesimpsons1022 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    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 10y ago
      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.
  - sharemywin 10y ago
    From quora: In city areas it is possible to make up to 8 deliveries per hour. In suburban areas it is possible to make up to 4 deliveries per hour. In rural areas it is possible to make up to 2 deliveries per hour. If you assume about $14/8 that's about $1.5 cost during prime times.
KaoruAoiShiho 10y ago
Can somebody give an example of a service that needs this, where Fedex wouldn't do?
- laurabw 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    > 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.
  - kuschku 10y ago
    DHL has same-day and within-of-6-hour delivery in most cities.
- cthulhujr 10y ago
  The on-demand aspect of the service is what I believe to be most important. FedEx et all will deliver to my doorstep, but can they be here in an hour?
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    > FedEx et all will deliver to my doorstep, but can they be here in an hour? FedEx SameDay City Priority seems to guarantee delivery within 2 hours from package ready time within the shortest (0-15 mile) delivery range, and its available in a lot more cities than UberRUSH.
laurabw 10y ago
We integrated the UberRush API as part of our multi-carrier shipping API https://goshippo.com/shipping-blog/introducing-uberrush-shippo-demand-delivery-network-powered-uber/ https://goshippo.com/shipping-blog/introducing-uberrush-ship... 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 10y ago
  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
  - laurabw 10y ago
    Valid question. General answer is that we and other companies in this space are fairly young companies and most of us haven't been able to tackle that problem yet. We are all working our way upstream. We have multi package shipments in beta. Here's the gist: https://gist.github.com/sbeidas/0c3e1364abc077543996f97f9aa7aec2 https://gist.github.com/sbeidas/0c3e1364abc077543996f97f9aa7... It's live and in prod but beta. Let me know if there's feedback
  - sawyer 10y ago
    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
    - ecomm94098 10y ago
      That's awesome.
    - 47 10y ago
      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.html https://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/sri/glo_mlt_pc.h... [1]http://images.fedex.com/ca_english/businesstools/shipsoftware/FSM_Express_MPS_Processing.pdf http://images.fedex.com/ca_english/businesstools/shipsoftwar...
plandis 10y ago
Does anyone have any experience with how this compares to Prime Now from a sellers perspective?
supster 10y ago
What cities is this available in?
- citizens 10y ago
  SF, Chicago, NYC
- mehabahaha 10y ago
  SF NY CHI
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
timvdalen 10y ago
I just see an empty page with >docs-598c00d615.js:1 Uncaught RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded on the console
- HNoonan 10y ago
  This is a known bug that manifests in the newest versions of chrome. We are addressing this immediately.
delbel 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    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
  - jdavis703 10y ago
    And remember marijuana is still illegal at the federal level. A RICO investigation is the last thing Uber or its investors want.
- SilasX 10y ago
  I think it would also be nice to have a general interface portal for 1099-economy gigs so you can list (and document) all your qualifications and you see results from Uber, Taskrabbit, Doordash, etc that you're qualified for. (Though naturally the bigger players there might not like sharing access to their platform like that.)
Bombthecat 10y ago
As someone working with idg and APIs and management. We need more APIs ;)
asimuvPR 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    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 10y ago
      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 10y ago
        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/
        10y ago
Cyph0n 10y ago
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.
- untilHellbanned 10y ago
  Ad is from Oct14, 2015.
- chrismessina 10y ago
  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.
tombone12 10y ago
"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...
hayksaakian 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    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.
King-Aaron 10y ago
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.
Animats 10y ago
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"?
jakozaur 10y ago
Uber can kill whole delivery company segment. Clients would go where delivery is the fastest/cheapest. More volume, gives more efficiency.
jbmorgado 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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.

183 points by motti 10y ago

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 10y ago
Where did you find this term "moat"? (Genuinely curious)
- findjashua 10y ago
  warren buffet
- sorenbs 10y ago
  It's a fairly common term to describe barrier to entry dynamics. See for example a random article like this https://stratechery.com/2015/selling-feelings/ https://stratechery.com/2015/selling-feelings/
- joshvm 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    > 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.
- sketchthat 10y ago
  I tend to hear the term "Rust on" (as in metal rusting). So the more rusted on you are the harder it is to get you off. The more integration you have across the board, the more rusted on you are and people can't be bothered trying to clean the rust off.
ec109685 10y ago
Why isn't it just as easy for businesses to switch to the delivery service that is cheapest at any given moment? There are API aggregators that abstract out the differences between delivery providers. Their moat is their crap load of drivers.

dieselz 10y ago

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...

hatsunearu 10y ago
It really is. There is nothing more to say than the fact that small business owners can't afford to have a dedicated delivery service when they know demand is near 0 in some hours and through the roof in another. I'm curious though--will small business owners bother to implement this in their website, or isn't it easier for someone else (Uber, or its competitor) to do it for them?
- dieselz 10y ago
  if you check out the bottom of the article, Uber has developed a dashboard for SMBs. But it's smart that they've opened this up to enable startups to leverage this as well as enterprise customers.
  - chrismessina 10y ago
    Indeed, UberRUSH exists for business end users that want to deliver their goods and products easily, especially if they don't have an app: https://rush.uber.com https://rush.uber.com The UberRUSH API exists for developers that want to go above and beyond and integrate Uber deeply into their products, services, or experiences. A great example of this is Pythagoras (https://www.getpi.co/ https://www.getpi.co/), a re-imagining of pizza delivery. Pythagoras doesn't have a brick and mortar storefront, and care a lot about design — so they built their own iOS app and use UberRUSH for delivery. Prior to integrating with UberRUSH, they needed to build and maintain their own fleet of delivery couriers, which limited their reach to a few neighborhoods in San Francisco. After integrating with UberRUSH, they now deliver across the city, expanding their addressable market size overnight without any additional overhead (aside from integrating the UberRUSH API into their app). In this sense, we're offering the utility of UberRUSH to more contexts and use cases.

sharemywin 10y ago

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.

thesimpsons1022 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    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.
- sharemywin 10y ago
  From quora: In city areas it is possible to make up to 8 deliveries per hour. In suburban areas it is possible to make up to 4 deliveries per hour. In rural areas it is possible to make up to 2 deliveries per hour. If you assume about $14/8 that's about $1.5 cost during prime times.

KaoruAoiShiho 10y ago

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

laurabw 10y ago
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 10y ago
  > 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.
- kuschku 10y ago
  DHL has same-day and within-of-6-hour delivery in most cities.
cthulhujr 10y ago
The on-demand aspect of the service is what I believe to be most important. FedEx et all will deliver to my doorstep, but can they be here in an hour?
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  > FedEx et all will deliver to my doorstep, but can they be here in an hour? FedEx SameDay City Priority seems to guarantee delivery within 2 hours from package ready time within the shortest (0-15 mile) delivery range, and its available in a lot more cities than UberRUSH.

laurabw 10y ago

We integrated the UberRush API as part of our multi-carrier shipping API https://goshippo.com/shipping-blog/introducing-uberrush-shippo-demand-delivery-network-powered-uber/ https://goshippo.com/shipping-blog/introducing-uberrush-ship... 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 10y ago
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
- laurabw 10y ago
  Valid question. General answer is that we and other companies in this space are fairly young companies and most of us haven't been able to tackle that problem yet. We are all working our way upstream. We have multi package shipments in beta. Here's the gist: https://gist.github.com/sbeidas/0c3e1364abc077543996f97f9aa7aec2 https://gist.github.com/sbeidas/0c3e1364abc077543996f97f9aa7... It's live and in prod but beta. Let me know if there's feedback
- sawyer 10y ago
  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
  - ecomm94098 10y ago
    That's awesome.
  - 47 10y ago
    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.html https://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/sri/glo_mlt_pc.h... [1]http://images.fedex.com/ca_english/businesstools/shipsoftware/FSM_Express_MPS_Processing.pdf http://images.fedex.com/ca_english/businesstools/shipsoftwar...

plandis 10y ago

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

supster 10y ago

What cities is this available in?

citizens 10y ago
SF, Chicago, NYC
mehabahaha 10y ago
SF NY CHI

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

timvdalen 10y ago

I just see an empty page with >docs-598c00d615.js:1 Uncaught RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded on the console

HNoonan 10y ago
This is a known bug that manifests in the newest versions of chrome. We are addressing this immediately.

delbel 10y ago

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 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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
- jdavis703 10y ago
  And remember marijuana is still illegal at the federal level. A RICO investigation is the last thing Uber or its investors want.
SilasX 10y ago
I think it would also be nice to have a general interface portal for 1099-economy gigs so you can list (and document) all your qualifications and you see results from Uber, Taskrabbit, Doordash, etc that you're qualified for. (Though naturally the bigger players there might not like sharing access to their platform like that.)

Bombthecat 10y ago

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

asimuvPR 10y ago

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 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    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 10y ago
      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/
      - 10y ago

Cyph0n 10y ago

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.

untilHellbanned 10y ago
Ad is from Oct14, 2015.
chrismessina 10y ago
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.

tombone12 10y ago

"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...

hayksaakian 10y ago

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 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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.

King-Aaron 10y ago

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.

Animats 10y ago

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"?

jakozaur 10y ago

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

jbmorgado 10y ago

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 10y ago
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.