Want To Send Christmas Packages, Treats To Loved Ones? Uber Could Have The Secret Santa Solution

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a surge in online purchasing — and the need to use logistics companies to ship COVID-19 vaccines during the holiday season and the surge in online orders is causing a perfect storm.

What Happened: Logistics companies United Parcel Service UPS and FedEx Corporation FDX are both part of the U.S. operation to deliver the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc PFE and BioNTech BNTX.

UPS will deliver to the western states and UPS to the eastern states, according to FreightWaves.

Rideshare company Uber Technologies UBER is now seeking to be part of the holiday shopping surge by offering package delivery for its users.

Uber rolled out its Uber Connect platform to more than 2,400 cities, after a test that started in April.

Related Link: How UPS Could Be Winner In COVID-19 Vaccine Logistics 

Why It’s Important: The surge in online shopping caused UPS to delay package pickup for several prominent retailers on Cyber Monday.

Users on the Uber platform can use the company as a cost-effective option for same-day options like package delivery.

In the same manner of hailing for a ride, a user can get on the app and request a package pickup. The Uber driver then picks up the item with a contactless experience and delivers to the recipient. The delivery can be tracked on the App.

Uber is calling the end-to-end experience a “seamless Secret Santa gifting” option.

Benzinga’s Take: It could become likely that FedEx and UPS set hard deadlines for shipping items in time for Christmas delivery.

Uber could see strong demand for this service in the two weeks leading up to Christmas.

The third quarter from Uber saw overall revenue fall 18% year-over-year. Delivery revenue up 125% year-over-year was not enough to make up for the mobility segment that fell 53% year-over-year.

Uber has continued to expand into areas like grocery delivery and package delivery to offset its declining ride-hailing service during the pandemic.

This could become a positive for Uber during the fourth quarter and also help some people in the United States get packages to loved ones that may not have arrived before Christmas otherwise.

Photo courtesy of Uber.