This Week: Uber Asks CDC to Prioritize Drivers For The Vaccine

Welcome back to This Week in Rideshare news! This Weeks Headlines:

• Uber asks U.S. CDC to consider ride-hail drivers essential for Covid vaccine distribution
• Uber Stock Hits All-Time High After Closing Postmates Deal
• Doordash Self Delivery

Do you think that the rideshare industry, food delivery industry, should make it mandatory for drivers to take the vaccine before turning on their app? Welcome back to this week in rideshare and food delivery news. My name is Cecily Jamelia, and this is this week’s headlines. Uber asked the CDC to consider rideshare drivers as essential for the COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Uber asked the CDC on Thursday, in a letter, to designate rideshare and delivery drivers as non-health essential workers entitled to the early COVID-19 vaccine distribution. They also said that rideshare drivers provide critical transportation for essential workers and allow others to stay home to order food. Well, the CAC is drafting recommendations for who should be prioritized for distribution. And on Tuesday, they did mention that healthcare personnel and residents of long-term care facilities should be among the first to receive the vaccine. Now, many States already have listed rideshare and delivery drivers as essential. So, let’s see if the CDC will follow suit.

Uber’s acquisition of Postmates was finally completed this week, which further extends their already massive reach with Uber eats and Postmates. It’s going to be crazy. This deal wasn’t expected to go through until the close of the first quarter of 2021, but the Justice Department decided to let it go through after Prop 22 was passed. So, very interested to see how Uber is going to do in the market in the coming weeks. Now, DoorDash has let restaurants add their own delivery drivers to the platform. The first restaurant to take advantage of this service is Jimmy John’s. Now, the product is called DoorDash self-delivery, allowing restaurants to add their own fleet on both the DoorDash and Caviar platforms. The restaurants that use this will be able to offer takeout services, if they don’t have them already. They’ll be able to use their own fleet to fulfill their orders.

They’ll have exposure on the DoorDash platform. There’s lower commission rates for restaurants that fulfill their own deliveries, and they keep all their delivery fees and tips. I think it’s a really creative idea, and quite honestly, a cool way to extend the opportunity to restaurants that have their own delivery drivers, that, kind of, do things the old school way, but still benefiting from being on the app. And to be honest with you, once they learn the app and how convenient it is, they might even consider just getting rid of their drivers. I think it might have that effect, and I think that, that’s what DoorDash is probably counting on. But we’ll see how well these drivers do, because they’ll have to learn a new platform. Heck, they just might as well become DoorDash drivers, but then again, they probably wouldn’t get paid as much.

And now, for my favorite segment, what would you do? Should vaccines be mandatory, to drive for Uber or Lyft? Or, so, should Uber or Lyft cover the cost? I’m going to start with my answer. Personally, I would say no, I don’t believe that anyone should have to take the vaccine if they don’t want to. And number two, if, for some reason, any company makes it mandatory, I absolutely believe that the company should pay for it. I also believe that the company should be liable, should anything happen to you if you take said vaccine, which is probably not going to happen. What are your answers to that question? Do you think that the rideshare industry, food delivery industry, should make it mandatory for drivers to take the vaccine before turning on their app? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks so much for watching. If you liked this video and you appreciate what I do here every week, please give me a thumbs up. I love to see it. If you aren’t subscribed to this channel, please subscribe right away and turn your notifications on. I’m wishing you all good health, and see you next Saturday. Bye.