UberEats, the fast-growing app that allows riders to order and pay for their food, is set to launch in Melbourne, with the company promising to bring a new kind of restaurant experience to the city.
Launched by former Uber driver Anthony Kneyer in August, UberEAT aims to bring the experience of restaurant dining to the mobile app.
Users can order food from a wide range of restaurants from around Melbourne, including the popular KFC and Burger King franchises, as well as popular casual spots like Pappas and Burger Burger.
UberEats will allow users to book their food with a credit card, which can then be used to pay for delivery.
A ‘food delivery’ is a way to get your food delivered to your door, whether you’re at home, on the go or travelling on public transport.
Kneyer says that the app’s app-based food ordering process is very similar to the way that food is delivered in the restaurant.
He said that while UberEaters ‘app is designed to work in tandem with your restaurant’ and it’s ‘not about having your food ordered in advance’ it has ‘a great mix of features that allow us to deliver fast, efficient food delivery’.
Kneyers family has been working on UberEates for three years, after launching the app in 2015.
While UberEater initially aimed to compete with food delivery services such as Deliveroo and Grab, the company later pivoted to offering a ‘food and beverage’ app.
In the company’s initial launch, Uber was the only restaurant delivery company offering delivery to Melbourne, but it was later expanded to include some of the suburbs in the state.
Since then, Uber has expanded into Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the north-west and some suburbs in NSW.
The company has been criticised for its high price, but in recent months, Uber also announced a partnership with Australian supermarket chain Coles and grocery giant Woolworths to offer UberEATER food delivery.
“Our team is very excited about the opportunity to bring food delivery to the community, as we continue to build the UberEATING experience and continue to grow,” Kneyers CEO Andrew Lee said in a statement.
“This partnership will allow us and our partners to expand into other major metropolitan areas across the country.”
In an interview with ABC Radio Melbourne, Uber’s general manager of customer experience, Scott Waugh, said the new partnership with Woolworth’s was a ‘great example of the partnership between a retailer and a delivery service’.
“We’re excited about working with Woolies to deliver our food delivery and have some of our biggest customers coming to Woolies,” he said.
The partnership with Coles comes as a result of a deal in the early days of UberEATES that allowed the company to add Coles’ brand and customer service to its app.KNEYER SAYS: ‘We can’t wait for the community to get their hands on Uber food’Kneyering said that the Uber app would be used for all sorts of things, from ordering groceries to ordering a takeaway meal.
“We can not wait for our community to be able to use UberEATE for all of their daily needs,” he told AM.
Uber’s UberFood service has been in Melbourne since January.