As corporations move to right their wrongs in response to mass political unrest, UberEats has announced the waiving of all delivery charges for black-owned restaurants.
The policy will last for the entirety of 2020, the company announced in an email last Thursday, and the included businesses will be featured in a prominent list on the app. A prompt, imploring users to “support Black-owned restaurants,” will appear to direct the user towards the list anytime the app is opened.
“We know there is no easy solution to the problem we have faced for centuries,” wrote the company’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in said email, “We also know that we need to devote our time, energy, and resources toward making a difference.”
The email contained a list of other measures that the company will be enacting in support of these statements, including: a $1 million donation to the Equal Justice Initiative and Center for Policing Equity, discounted rides to black-owned businesses who have been affected by COVID-19, a policy tying Uber executive’s salaries to measurable progress in diversity goals, and the publishing of the company’s workforce data in hopes to be held accountable by the public.
It’s promising to see a corporation the size of Uber taking tangible steps towards helping the businesses and employees that haven’t received support in years past. One can only hope that other corporations, those who have remained silent or released empty statements, take note.
Khosrowshahi ended the email with a call of support to the cause, unminced and encapsulating of the company’s motives:
“Lastly, let me speak clearly and unequivocally: Black Lives Matter.”
While this is a positive start for giving awareness and a platform for Black-owned restaurants, the fact that UberEats is not lowering its core business of fees to the restaurant should be noted and still criticized. In a restaurant climate that's already been ravaged by the pandemic, charging 30% for service fees is still a glaring problem that UberEats, along with other third party delivery apps, need to address. In the grand scheme of things, the delivery fee is nominal.
