In recent months, we’ve shared with you the legal war between ride-sharing service Uber and taxi regulators in Germany. Like people all over the world, consumers love the inexpensive UberPop service that lets people hire amateur taxi drivers in their personal vehicles. Now that fares have been lowered to barely cover drivers’ expenses, Uber has assigned some of its drivers a different task: fruit delivery.
No, this isn’t quite like UberKITTEN, the recent promotion where the company would, in certain cities, bring you a kitty to play with in exchange for a $30 donation to local shelters. Uber in Berlin promised its regular customers that they could get free boxes of fruit from delivery service HalloFresh and Uber brand swag by logging in this afternoon. (That’s 6 hours ago: sorry, Consumerist readers in Germany.) The Wall Street Journal’s reporters in Berlin weren’t able to get free fruit, but some people did.
Fruit delivery recipients have been asked to post photos to Twitter with a hashtag…not just for fun, but so they can win a $50 Uber credit. The apron doesn’t seem on-brand to us, but the recipients seem happy to get free fruit boxes.
This doesn’t really solve Uber’s legal problems in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, but at least it gives some drivers something to do…and, more importantly, encourages customers to keep the app on their phones for now and to open it up.
Uber Gets Juicy in Berlin [Wall Street Journal]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
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