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Uber’s Latest Experiment Is Uber Cargo, a Logistics Service in Hong Kong

20 points by dthal 12y ago

aetherson 12y ago
Have any of Uber's "experiments" of this sort been successful? Anyone know if the bike couriers in NYC (almost a year old) have gotten any traction? Has the service expanded? How did their limited-time experiment of delivering toothbrushes in DC go? That was six months or so ago. How about food delivery in LA?
- jnks 12y ago
  For a certain definition of "success", yes definitely. Uber's sky-high valuation (and the accompanying deluge of investment dollars) hinges on their ability to address a market larger than US taxicabs. So press about them doing something other than driving around people in a market other than this one is worth a lot. Are these experiments dollars-and-cents profitable? Almost certainly not.
- dthal 12y ago
  OTOH, how much does it really cost them? They make some software modification, and they get to try out a new market. Maybe it works, in which case they just found a new long-term, possibly world-wide, revenue stream. Maybe it doesn't, in which case they have a bit of code to throw away.
  - aetherson 12y ago
    I'm not asking if they're going to bleed out money or anything, I'm asking if there is any sign that this whole concept that there is a logistics company hiding inside Uber has any evidence for it.
Someone1234 12y ago
I want a version of this for large items which are going to the dump (e.g. old washing machines, furniture, etc). We own a sedan and some items physically won't fit in there, the city's trash company doesn't do item pickups (either paid or free), and I'm yet to find private companies which do either (we're outside of their service area). So you're left either finding a friend with a truck or renting something from e.g. U-Haul. However even U-Haul won't work for older or disabled people or those items which need two pairs of hands to load/unload. It is surprisingly difficult to have these items removed. Maybe I should just buy a truck...
- math0ne 12y ago
  i've always found craiglist free section very handy for this.
- timjahn 12y ago
  In Chicago, we have junk pickers who scour the alleys daily for exactly this sort of stuff. They load it in the back of their pickup and it's gone. All you have to do is put it in the alley.
lnflefnffewfw 12y ago
It's interesting how Uber's business model bears similarity to sharecropping. Food for thought. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharecropping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharecropping

20 points by dthal 12y ago

Have any of Uber's "experiments" of this sort been successful? Anyone know if the bike couriers in NYC (almost a year old) have gotten any traction? Has the service expanded? How did their limited-time experiment of delivering toothbrushes in DC go? That was six months or so ago. How about food delivery in LA?

jnks 12y ago
For a certain definition of "success", yes definitely. Uber's sky-high valuation (and the accompanying deluge of investment dollars) hinges on their ability to address a market larger than US taxicabs. So press about them doing something other than driving around people in a market other than this one is worth a lot. Are these experiments dollars-and-cents profitable? Almost certainly not.
dthal 12y ago
OTOH, how much does it really cost them? They make some software modification, and they get to try out a new market. Maybe it works, in which case they just found a new long-term, possibly world-wide, revenue stream. Maybe it doesn't, in which case they have a bit of code to throw away.
- aetherson 12y ago
  I'm not asking if they're going to bleed out money or anything, I'm asking if there is any sign that this whole concept that there is a logistics company hiding inside Uber has any evidence for it.

Someone1234 12y ago

I want a version of this for large items which are going to the dump (e.g. old washing machines, furniture, etc). We own a sedan and some items physically won't fit in there, the city's trash company doesn't do item pickups (either paid or free), and I'm yet to find private companies which do either (we're outside of their service area). So you're left either finding a friend with a truck or renting something from e.g. U-Haul. However even U-Haul won't work for older or disabled people or those items which need two pairs of hands to load/unload. It is surprisingly difficult to have these items removed. Maybe I should just buy a truck...

math0ne 12y ago
i've always found craiglist free section very handy for this.
timjahn 12y ago
In Chicago, we have junk pickers who scour the alleys daily for exactly this sort of stuff. They load it in the back of their pickup and it's gone. All you have to do is put it in the alley.

lnflefnffewfw 12y ago

It's interesting how Uber's business model bears similarity to sharecropping. Food for thought. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharecropping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharecropping