Just last night I was schooling a Limpopo-based game ranger on the ways of Uber. It was fantastic. I got to live through a newbie’s first Uber driver-watching experience and feel all the excitement once more.

And that’s kind of how I feel about the UberRUSH delivery system potentially coming to South Africa. It was first demoed in New York in last year April and soon moved across the states, venturing into other cities. Now, it might make it all the way across the Atlantic, hitting our shores at the end of this year.

An on-demand parcel delivery system, Uber SA GM, Alon Lits, says it will be a great fit for the country (but we already know that since we have been using Uber to pick up and drop off parcels since Uber first landed on our doorstep).

This was announced at an Uber-driver appreciation event last week where 400 of the top Uber drivers in Gauteng were invited to listen to the company’s plans for 2016. They were also given the opportunity to voice their concerns over the platform.

And how’s this: When asked, more than half the drivers responded saying they had informally had to deliver parcels.

UberRUSH is aimed at small businesses that want to cut down on courier costs or personal time on the road. The app allows users on both ends to track the delivery in real-time and only kilometres on the road are charged, as opposed to roundtrip delivery costs.

UberRUSH is part of the company’s plans to minimise drivers’ wait time between passengers. Parcels are typically delivered during the day, when Uber does not get a lot of requests for passengers. This means drivers will be able to fill their time in between the morning and afternoon rush, by delivering goods and therefore earning more money.

Makes sense, right?

Let’s keep our fingers crossed, but in the mean time, try it out, I promise, it won’t hurt you.

Get R150 off your first Uber ride with our 2OV code HERE.

[source: itweb]