Uber Eats Promotes Black-Owned Restaurants in Major Canadian, US Cities

Ride-hailing service Uber is reaching out to potential customers of its Uber Eats food delivery service in a bid to connect them with local black-owned restaurants.

A new report from Reuters explains that the Uber Eats app and web pages now highlight such restaurants in the US and Canada, and customers who order from one of them will pay no delivery fees from now until the end of the year.

Customers who open the Uber Eats app in major US and Canadian cities will now see a banner reading: “Support Black-owned restaurants.” Clicking the banner will bring users to a list of Black-owned restaurants.

Uber employees had compiled the restaurant list based on publicly available sources and with input from local organizations and business associations. The company said the new food-delivery feature is a response to requests from customers.

“The feature comes in response to U.S.-wide protests over the death of a black man, George Floyd, while in police custody in Minneapolis, which has become the latest flashpoint for rage over police brutality against African Americans and prompted calls to support black communities and businesses in solidarity,” explains the report.

Separately, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, himself an Iranian immigrant, announced plans to make Uber — the largest US ride-hailing service — more diverse internally.