Speaker 1: Free snacks in the backseat of your next Uber. What's
Speaker 1: going on. I'm rich Dmiro. This is rich on tech.
Speaker 1: Uber is partnering with a startup named Cargo to offer
Speaker 1: free and paid snacks in the backseat of cars. Cargo
Speaker 1: has been providing ride share drivers clear little boxes filled
Speaker 1: with all kinds of products that they strapped to their
Speaker 1: center consoles. They've been doing this for about a year now,
Speaker 1: but this new partnership is a big deal because it
Speaker 1: will expand their reach. Passengers use their phones to scan
Speaker 1: a QR code on the box and shop for stuff inside.
Speaker 1: The driver then hands them their goods when it's safe.
Speaker 1: Recently I talked to Cargo co founder Jeff Kreipe. He
Speaker 1: explained how he came up with the idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the idea behind it was, you know, twenty fifteen,
Speaker 2: Uber was really starting to boom. Everybody was taking more
Speaker 2: ride chair vehicles. I personally was spending so much time
Speaker 2: in ride chair vehicles, and it just occurred to us
Speaker 2: that like, there, you know, that we hadn't really sort
Speaker 2: of innovated much on the experience of being in a car.
Speaker 2: Uber made it incredibly easy to hail a car, but
Speaker 2: the you know, the side of the you know, of
Speaker 2: the car. The cabin of the car hadn't really changed much.
Speaker 2: So we said, what can we do to sort of
Speaker 2: provide a better experience to passengers, bring them arms length
Speaker 2: convenience and put things that they need on a daily
Speaker 2: basis at their fingertips while they're in transit, but do
Speaker 2: it in a way that actually drives incremental earnings for
Speaker 2: drivers as well. So it's you know, it's essentially sort
Speaker 2: of like a mini like two sided marketplace inside the car,
Speaker 2: and it's away for passengers to get what they need,
Speaker 2: you know, easily affordably on the go, and for drivers
Speaker 2: to make you know, anywhere from uh, you know, I
Speaker 2: think one hundred dollars on average to our top drivers
Speaker 2: earning about three hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 1: Each cargo box averages about ten different items, about seven
Speaker 1: or paid, three are free. I tried purchasing a few
Speaker 1: items and I love the selection. It's all very simple.
Speaker 1: There's no app to download, there's no sign up or
Speaker 1: log in. You use your mobile browser and mobile payment
Speaker 1: something like Apple pay, Google Pay, PayPal or Venmo to
Speaker 1: check out in seconds.
Speaker 2: So we do have those daily essentials breath fresheners if
Speaker 2: you're going on a date, charge you know, if you've
Speaker 2: been out all day and your phone is dying. You know,
Speaker 2: energy energy drinks and things like that. If if you
Speaker 2: need sort of a pick up, we have all those things.
Speaker 2: But we also have early premium like electronics like earbuds
Speaker 2: if you're headed to the airport and forgot your earbuds.
Speaker 2: We have really cool beauty products in the car at now.
Speaker 2: We actually have Patrology face masks for your face and
Speaker 2: lips so that you can actually like turn your Uber
Speaker 2: experience into a spaw experience while you're on the go.
Speaker 2: We have fun beauty products we have. We have other
Speaker 2: new sort of like snacking innovations that big companies like
Speaker 2: Mars regular Kelloggs will launch and hopefully get into your
Speaker 2: hands and have you fall in love with, as well
Speaker 2: as things from sort of like cool emerging snack companies
Speaker 2: like our x bar.
Speaker 1: So what does this new partnership between Uber and Cargo
Speaker 1: mean for the company.
Speaker 2: You know, we launched the business about thirteen months ago,
Speaker 2: and over the past thirteen months, we now have about
Speaker 2: seven thousand drivers on the platform. A little over we've
Speaker 2: distributed over a million products to passengers, and we've paid
Speaker 2: out our drivers over a million dollars and this is
Speaker 2: totally risk free and cost free for drivers. If you
Speaker 2: sign up, it doesn't cost you a thing. You don't
Speaker 2: buy products. So we've made that like a really nice
Speaker 2: experience for drivers. And Uber, who we've been in contact
Speaker 2: with for the past couple of years, I think, has
Speaker 2: seen us to build the fleet, get into you know,
Speaker 2: seven of the top ten ride share markets in the country,
Speaker 2: and realize that this is really like an innovation that
Speaker 2: benefits both of their key customers, you know, writers who
Speaker 2: get better convenience and an upgraded in car experience and
Speaker 2: drivers who are obviously earning more money with us. And
Speaker 2: you know, we kind of put our heads together and
Speaker 2: that said, you know, we feel like this is really
Speaker 2: the right time to launch a partnership, you know. So
Speaker 2: so today we're announcing a partnership with Uber, which is
Speaker 2: really exciting it, you know for me as you know,
Speaker 2: as a founder thinking about sort of the next stage
Speaker 2: of growth for our business. Obviously, Uber has access to
Speaker 2: tremendous you know amounts of drivers not only throughout the US,
Speaker 2: but throughout the world. So this is a global exclusive
Speaker 2: deal with them, so you know are we're launching LA
Speaker 2: in San Francisco today with them UH. These boxes and
Speaker 2: sign up for drivers will now also be available in
Speaker 2: their green light hubs in San Francisco UH and in
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, which are areas where drivers can go in
Speaker 2: for support, for rest, bit, to pick up some coffee,
Speaker 2: and now to sign up for cargo.
Speaker 1: I wondered about safety because these products are inside a
Speaker 1: box that only the driver can access. The driver has
Speaker 1: to open the box, retrieve the goods, and then hand
Speaker 1: them to the passengers. They're supposed to be stopped when
Speaker 1: they do this, but what if the passengers get the
Speaker 1: munchies and try to reach in and grab something themselves.
Speaker 2: Take you know, precautions at every stage of our interaction
Speaker 2: with a driver, from the moment they sign up to
Speaker 2: you know, frequent communications we have with them, to communications
Speaker 2: in the text messages. That product should only be distributed
Speaker 2: when the car is safely parked. And I'm very proud
Speaker 2: to say that we've we've processed over five hundred thousand
Speaker 2: transactions and we've never literally had a single complaint from
Speaker 2: a passenger about safety, which is terrific. But also you know,
Speaker 2: we have made this device really easy to take in
Speaker 2: and out of the car. All you have to do
Speaker 2: is strap it down to the center of the center
Speaker 2: console with you know, strong straps that we provide and
Speaker 2: buckles that we provide that are attached to the box,
Speaker 2: so you can actually, you know, at night, if if
Speaker 2: you live in an area and you don't think you'd
Speaker 2: you know, you'd like to keep this in the car
Speaker 2: because there are headphones and other things people might want.
Speaker 2: You can just toss this in your trunk or you know,
Speaker 2: bring it in at night and you know, put it
Speaker 2: back in the morning and twenty seconds or less.
Speaker 1: There you have it. Expect to see some more snackage
Speaker 1: on your next Uber ride. And the free sample aspect
Speaker 1: is just brilliant because that makes people curious. They want
Speaker 1: to know what they can get for free, and that
Speaker 1: gets them comfortable interacting with the boxes. Because even to
Speaker 1: get the free stuff, you still have to scan the
Speaker 1: QR code and check out on the mobile browser. If
Speaker 1: you've ever been on Virgin America, it's kind of the
Speaker 1: same thing. Even if you want to order something on
Speaker 1: the touch screen, even if it's free, you still have
Speaker 1: to order it and then the flight attendant brings it
Speaker 1: to you, and keep in mind this program is optional.
Speaker 1: Drivers are not required to sign up for it, so
Speaker 1: if they're worried about people making a mess in their car,
Speaker 1: they can just avoid it all together. Thanks so much
Speaker 1: for listening. I'd love it if you could spread the
Speaker 1: word about my podcast. Just take a screenshot of you
Speaker 1: listening on your phone and then post it to your
Speaker 1: Instagram stories. That's a great way for other people to
Speaker 1: discover it, and be sure to tag me. I'm at
Speaker 1: rich on tech on Instagram. And by the way, if
Speaker 1: you're interested in seeing what the world's largest chevron looks
Speaker 1: like with ninety six pumps and a fifty thousand square
Speaker 1: foot convenience store, well it just opened outside Las Vegas
Speaker 1: and I did a road trip there to check it out.
Speaker 1: You can see my blog post and video on my website.
Speaker 1: Just go to richon tech dot tv. I'm Richdemiro. I'll
Speaker 1: talk to you real soon.
Speaker 2: M