While the fight over whether to open brick and mortar stores rages across the United States, Uber is adapting rapidly to the new reality by introducing two delivery services. The first, called Direct, would handle the delivery of retail packages, while the second would create a platform for peer-to-peer packages deliveries that families and friends could use to sent items to each other. It’s a major step forward for the company, whose first delivery services were centered around food. The company is also adapting its services in different ways depending on the individual city it’s doing business in. TechCrunch writes that whereas in New York City, the company is helping to deliver commonly available medications, it’s providing a comparable type of service to the country’s public post office in the delivery of packages. What appears to drive each new line is to work out ways to use the drivers it has in each market more efficiently. The coronavirus crisis has had such a profound impact on the way consumers do their shopping that the established parcel delivery companies have been unable to match demand. Uber appears to be making a play to exploit the structural change that looks to be on the verge of taking place.
