UberEATS, McDonald’s team up for delivery
McDonald’s teams up with UberEATS to offer food delivery services in Montgomery and Chester counties
For anyone who has ever thought and wished that McDonald’s should deliver, consider your wish partially granted.
McDonald’s and UberEATS , a branch service from Uber, have teamed up to offer “McDelivery” services through the free to download UberEATS app and are expanding throughout the Philadelphia area, including some locations in Montgomery and Chester counties.
“I think the trend in the market is convenience and simplicity,” said Tom Cristino, account executive at the Tierney Agency, an advertising firm representing McDonald’s. “The reason Uber certainly came into the McDonald’s partnership was because there was this opportunity to get into the app and, with your thumb, make an order.”
The service is only available right now at participating McDonald’s locations, including a selection of Norristown, Audubon and Valley Forge locations in Montgomery County as well as Phoenixville in Chester County.
Customers can visit the UberEATS website, www.ubereats.com/stores/ to see if the service is provided in their area.
The app allows potential customers to pick any food on the menu except for soft-serve ice cream products and have it delivered, as if you were ordering an Uber driver, with a $5 base delivery fee.
Once an order is placed, the McDonald’s is notified on an iPad, and a request is put out to Uber drivers in the area for pickup and delivery.
The McDonald’s does not start to put together the food order until the Uber driver is within three minutes of arrival, which the restaurant can also track using the iPad. Once the driver arrives, the food is
“As people want convenience, they want to use it on their phone and get it immediately. This is just another way that we can offer McDonald’s food quickly at their convenience.” — Marsha Graham, Audubon McDonald’s owner and operator
Marsha Graham, owner and operator of the McDonald’s on Trooper Road in Audubon, said that this specific timed out system is put in place to ensure freshness.
“The way we have the alert system set up, we’re not even making the food until the driver is on his way,” Graham said. “That way, we can deliver a really fresh product. I think that’s our biggest advantage (over other food delivery services).”
UberEATS has been delivering to larger cities since 2015, with origins in Toronto, Ontario and have since expanded into 30 countries on six continents — delivering from hundreds of different restaurants. Craig Ewer, Uber representative for the Pennsylvania region, explained that Uber was looking to expand further into food delivery, and that the partnership with McDonald’s puts them over the edge with possible consumers.
“Uber has completely changed the way we move around cities, and we wanted to expand that into food delivery,” Ewer said. “It’s great to have such a beloved chain as McDonald’s with us.”
McDonald’s and UberEATS launched a successful test market in Florida in May 2017; McDonald’s being the highest searched location for delivery. The service was expanded into the Philadelphia area in midJune.
Ewer said that in Philadelphia proper, the most popular order times were between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m., with Ewer saying these numbers may relate to college students in the city.
Graham said that at the Audubon location, they receive about 40 UberEATS orders a week, particularly around lunch time, which she accredits to people possibly getting lunch delivered at work.
“As people want convenience, they want to use it on their phone and get it immediately,” Graham said. “This is just another way that we can offer McDonald’s food quickly at their convenience.”
Ewer said that there are tentative plans to expand further from the Philadelphia area into more locations in Montgomery and Chester counties, as well as into Berks County.
For more information, visit: https://goo. gl/0t4mch.