Report: Uber plans retail delivery service

San Francisco – Uber is reportedly planning to launch a same-day online retail delivery service. According to TechCrunch, Uber has already issued training documents for drivers and couriers who want to participate in the service.



About 400 retailers including Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany’s, Cohen’s Fashion Optical and Hugo Boss are said to be considering participating in what will be called the Uber Merchant Delivery Program. Training documents reference retailers Hugo Boss and Cohen’s Fashion Optical as examples.



In addition, the Spring mobile shopping app has offered a test of a combination of the Uber delivery service with Spring’s shopping functionality to specialty retailers including illesteva, Bing Bang Jewelry, Phyllis + Rosie, Mack Weldon, Jinsoon, Industry Standard, Outdoor Voices and Negative Underwear.



“Experimenting and finding new, creative ways for the Uber app to provide even greater value to our riders and driver partners is a way of life at Uber,” an Uber spokesperson said. “We have been piloting UberRush (courier service) with multiple retailers for the last year.”



Eventually, Uber wants to enable drivers to transport passengers and retail deliveries at the same time, using intelligent routing from a single app.