Uber to Test Courier Service in New York City

Image: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Uber isn't just for rides anymore - at least if you live in New York.

The ride-sharing startup plans to begin testing an on-demand delivery service in New York City on Tuesday, according to multiple reports. The new service will be called UberRUSH, according to CNBC, and charges between $15 and $30 for couriers to deliver objects for users by foot or bicycle.

Uber teased the announcement in a tweet over the weekend, which showed a picture of a bicycle:

We're rolling out some big news on Tuesday... http://ift.tt/1kyRLDE

- Uber NYC (@Uber_NYC) April 5, 2014

Travis Kalanick, Uber's CEO, hinted last year during a conference that same-day deliveries would be a natural extension of Uber's existing car service.

'We're in the business, today, of delivering cars in five minutes. But once you're delivering cars in five minutes, there's a lot of things you can deliver in five minutes,' Kalanick said at the LeWeb conference in December, according to TheNextWeb. 'If someone is doing 'Uber for X', whatever it is, and it matches that lifestyle and logistics thing, you can count on Uber doing it.'

There are a number of same-day delivery services available already in New York and other U.S. cities, including eBay Now, WunWun and Instacart. TechCrunch reports that UberRUSH will take a different approach from these services by assigning delivery personnel to pick up items from users and transport them to specific destinations.

Uber raised a $258 million round of funding in August, which reportedly valued the company at around $3 billion.

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