Saturday, January 10, 2015

Uber's newest service helps users move house only in HK

Uber already offers several options in the US, including quirky seasonal ones like ice cream-on-demand. But the company's Hong Kong division has something not available anywhere else: an experimental service (like UberFresh in California) that transports big items, bulk goods, or even huge pets. That option, called UberCargo, has been in beta for a while, but it's now open to anyone in Hong Kong. It provides customers with big vans they can fill with their clothes, produce, merchandise, furniture or whatever they want -- they can even ride with their goods or track the van via the app.

Since loading cargo usually takes time, customers are charged HK$1.60 (20 cents) per minute while the van isn't moving on top of the HK$20 ($2.60) base fare. It then shifts to HK$4.50 (60 cents) per kilometer once the vehicle's on its way. It's not entirely surprising that the company has launched its cargo service in Hong Kong, seeing as it announced in December that the $1.2 billion it raised from the latest funding round will be used for its Asian expasion. The company didn't mention whether it will make UberCargo available outside Hong Kong

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