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Restaurants will no longer be able to use UberRush for food delivery as of May 8th

Restaurants will no longer be able to use UberRush for food delivery as of May 8th

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Uber is streamlining its delivery programs

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UberRUSH
UberRUSH

For a couple of years now, users in certain cities have been able to use Uber to order from restaurants through a program call UberRush. Now, the company has announced that restaurants will no longer able to use the platform, and is urging them to shift over to another program, UberEats, according to a report in Quartz.

Uber appears to be working to streamline its two programs, moving its food delivery services into UberEats, while using UberRush for other deliveries. The company told Quartz that UberEats has been designed “specifically meet the needs and support the growth of our individual restaurant partners.” The company also indicated that UberRush’s pricing will be restructured in May.

First launched in 2014 as a pilot program in Manhattan, UberRush was designed as a courier system that allowed users to hire someone to pick up an item and deliver it to another part of the city. The company later expanded the program to Chicago and San Francisco, with ambitions to work its way into the crowded market for delivery services alongside Amazon and Google. At the same time, the company launched UberEats, its food delivery service, and later expanded it to 10 cities across the United States.

In January 2016, the company expanded its application program interface (API) for UberRush to allow businesses to give shoppers the option to use Uber to deliver their purchases on the same day. It opened the system to developers later that year.

The new programs could mean some additional headaches for Uber, something that the company already has too many of. According to two former employees who spoke with Quartz, restaurant deliveries made up most orders on UberRush, and that the two programs can eat into the available supply of drivers, which can mean fewer drivers on the road for Uber’s core business: ride-sharing. A spokesperson for Uber noted that the company has “a broader available pool for the delivery partner base.”

Updated to include comments from Uber.