Uber Technologies Inc is based in San Francisco, USA, and operates across the globe in around 72 countries. Initially founded in 2009 as Uber Cabs, it marked an epoch in the way people in the world traveled and went to become the top ride-hailing giant. It then branched into various delivery services with subsidiaries like Jump, Uber Eats, Postmates, Otto, Cornershop Inc, Careem, etc. The food delivery service also began as Uberfresh in 2014 and then went to become Uber Eats with an independent ordering software in 2015. Know more about Will Uber Deliver Cigarettes
No! Uber services do not deliver any tobacco products including cigarettes because of the hassles of different regulations on selling tobacco products. The complex legal requirements in different countries as well as different cities within a country compelled Uber to take this stance.
An Overview of Uber and its Different Subsidiary Services
The name itself reflects the intention behind this venture. Uber in German means – ‘above all the rest.
A small experience and the zeal to capitalize on a need into a ground-breaking business idea is the mark of a successful entrepreneur. Similarly, two businessmen converted a tiring experience of getting a cab after a conference in Paris, into an entrepreneur’s idea of providing convenient and affordable cab services. Their onus point was the intention to provide a hassle-free traveling experience for people from every stratum of society.
Thus, Travis Kalanick got a domain named UberCab.com while contemplating this idea and then in 2009 created the prototype of UberCab along with his friends Conrad Whelan and Oscar Salazar.
Klanick then collaborated with Garrett Camp in 2010 to first test the prototype in New York with 3 cars and then officially launched the UberCab services in San Francisco. And then it heralded another epoch in the history of the world’s most flourishing ad oldest business which is the traveling business.
The venture was such a success that in 2015, Uber began the acquisition of smaller enterprises like deCarta then Otto and Geometric Intelligence in 2016. Over the years the acquisitions have added around 10 companies to their credits like Jump Bikes, Postmates, Drizly, etc.
Founders of Uber
Garrett Camp is the billionaire chairman and co-founder of Uber. He is known as the Canadian serial entrepreneur who has helped co-found and founded companies like StumbleUpon, Expa, and then Uber.
Oscar Salazar is the founder of Citivox, Pager, and RIDE apart from being the architect and CTO of Uber. He is one of the world’s leading personalities in the Tech-industry.
Travis Kalanick the first CEO of Uber played a huge role in converting the taxi app into the world’s leading traveling service provider. But, a series of scandals led to his resignation in 2017.
Current CEO of Uber
The current CEO of Uber is Dara Khosrowshahi, whose name was on Glassdoor as one of the highest-rated CEO and had earlier taken Expedia to the heights of the world’s largest travel company.
Khosrowshahi joined Uber in 2017 and now leads more than 22,000 employees associated with the global team of Uber.
To know more in detail about Uber, check out here.
Uber Eats
With the need to improve the traveling experience of the people, the founding members went to experiment with different services to add value and provide easy access to the different needs of the riders.
Uber Eats is one such experiment that began in 2014 as a fixed-price menu offered to the travelers of Santa Monica as California’s testing area. The services later spread to West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. It went on to expand its American food delivery services in Chicago, New York, and Barcelona. The annual revenue of Uber Eats in 2021 stands at $8.3 billion.
Package Delivery Services with Uber Connect
Along with easy transportation and food delivery, Uber recently ventured into package delivery services. Uber Connect helps to deliver goods, online items, gifts, food, heavy packages, and even documents within the same day.
- How does it work?
- Prepare the package to be delivered
- Click on Connect in the Uber app
- Agree to the terms and conditions that the package does not contain any prohibited goods
- Request delivery and add the recipient’s name/address or any special gift service
- Wait for the Uber transport on the nearest curbside
- Load your package or goods into the vehicle of the driver
- Intimate the recipient to receive the package on arrival at the curbside.
Why Uber does not deliver Cigarettes?
Uber does not accept any delivery for tobacco products, though it delivers alcoholic beverages. The reason behind not accepting deliveries of cigarettes are –
- The regulations for selling tobacco products vary from country to country
- In the USA, tobacco sale is surrounded by controversies
- D.C along with 49other states has imposed laws restricting smoking in public places
- There are specific rules in many other states and cities apart from the federal regulations.
- For example, New York City has prohibited the delivery of even electronic cigarettes
Owing to these complex jargon of regulations and prohibitions Uber had two options to proceed.
- To navigate the deliveries as per the norms of the locations to add a little more revenue, or
- To completely avoid the cumbersome services by not accepting any tobacco product deliveries.
Uber opted for the second easy and simple option.
Conclusion
On the whole, we can say that Uber delivery packages cannot cater to orders containing tobacco products like cigarettes. But, Uber Connect launched in 2010 has grown into a business that has generated a revenue of $17.4 billion in 2021.
