Uber Offers 10M Rides, Food Delivery To Healthcare Workers, Seniors, Needy

Uber has a new goal to provide 10 million free meals and rides for healthcare workers, seniors and other people in need in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a press release.

The world seems to have turned upside down in just a matter of weeks, the release stated, noting that while Uber was regularly giving rides to people just weeks ago, now it is urging riders to stay home and practice social distancing.

The company has already begun providing some of the aforementioned meals and rides, given free to health care workers to help them get to work and stay sustained while doing that work.

But according to the release, Uber wants to pledge to be a good global citizen, so it is open to working with other organizations and people in need to help everyone get through the pandemic. Uber invites those looking for help with services based around rides or food to email the company.

Uber has had the advantage over competitor Lyft in the ride-hailing industry during the pandemic, namely because of Uber’s larger pool of options, such as food delivery and like Uber Freight. Uber also has the ability to shift employees from its now-crippled rideshare unit to the food delivery program that has seen more use as of late, thereby avoiding having to lose employees who would be out of work.

Lyft, by comparison, has been struggling during the pandemic. It has begun rolling out its own program for food delivery, as well as another to deliver medical supplies. Those programs will debut in California’s San Francisco Bay Area and then expand elsewhere in the U.S.

Lyft also made headlines earlier in March when it asked workers to apply with Amazon to work with grocery and package deliveries as a way to make up for the lost income from less rideshare calls with Lyft.