Uber to offer world-first ‘rental’ option

Brisbane Uber users will be the first globally to trial the new functionality.

Uber head of strategy for A/NZ Dominic Taylor. Source: Supplied.

Ridesharing giant Uber has launched what it says is a world-first in Australia, offering car rentals via the Uber app.

The technology firm, which announced last month it would cut thousands of jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic, will this week let its Brisbane users rent vehicles in a new trial.

The trial will come to the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide, but only 50 per cent of users will have access to the 'rent' option.

"While many Australians will drive to a wine region, down the coast or explore the mountains in their own car – not everyone has access to their own private vehicle," Uber's Australia and New Zealand boss Dom Taylor said in a statement.

"At Uber we believe you should always be able to get around, even if you don’t own your own car, and Uber Rent is one more way of helping people do just that."

The functionality was built through a partnership with rental search engineer CarTrawler.

To see if you have the ‘rent’ option, first update your Uber app to the latest version to see if it’s available. If it is, select ‘Rentals’ and you’ll see Cartrawler’s search engine to enter your pick-up location and rental date. You can then s elect and book the car that suits you best.

The trial is one of a number of changes from Uber in the past few weeks.

As The Australian first reported last month, Uber caved to pressure to trim the fee it charges restaurants, cutting the maximum rate from 35 per cent to 30 per cent as the local hospitality industry struggles to survive amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Uber Eats Asia Pacific boss Jodie Auster told The Australian that the commission fees had been a key concern for restaurants, and that pressure to reduce them had intensified since the onset of COVID-19.

She said the fee cut from 35 per cent to 30 per cent would be a permanent change, and was an effort to help relieve pressure on restaurants’ bottom lines.

“We’re going to charge different levels of commission depending on the package that a restaurant goes for,” Ms Auster said. “If they take the full package, which is the standard delivery option that has been in market for some time, we’re introducing a 30 per cent cap for that, which is a 5 per cent reduction from the 35 per cent fee we were charging.

“We don’t have a business if restaurants don’t want to come online and partner with us every day.”