Uber Eats waiving delivery fees for local restaurants during the coronavirus outbreak

Uber Eats announced that it is waiving all delivery fees for local restaurants as of March 16. The announcement, which came in the form of an email to Uber Eats customers, also outlined the steps Uber Eats is taking to keep drivers and customers safe during the COVID-19 outbreak.

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The text of the email is below:

"As more people stay home, local restaurants need your business more than ever. That’s why we’re waiving the Delivery Fee for all orders from every independent restaurant on Uber Eats — more than 100,000 local restaurants on the app.

To support local restaurants and pay no Delivery Fee, look out for the EATLOCAL banner in the app. Delivery Fees will be automatically waived on all applicable orders, which we hope will make eating from your local favorites even easier.

Uber Eats is committed to supporting our community, and helping to keep you safe.

• Contactless deliveries: To help you feel confident about safe delivery, we’ve made it easier to have food left at your doorstep, and are working to provide delivery people with sanitization materials. As always, your food items aren’t touched once they’ve been packed by the restaurant.
• Helping affected delivery people: We continue to support Uber delivery people and drivers with financial assistance in the event of a COVID-19 diagnosis or exposure, preventing them from working.
• Supporting our community: We’re committing 300,000+ free meals on Uber Eats to healthcare workers and first responders in the U.S. and Canada. We know that the work of medical and crisis response teams can be tireless, and the hours long which is why we want to help even in a small way."

Related: The best credit cards for food delivery services

If you're one of the millions of people who are self-isolating or have been ordered to shelter in place, this is a good way to get some food to your home. Even better, this way you can continue to support your local businesses during the outbreak, as the impact on small businesses has been absolutely enormous. As a reminder, you can use the $15 monthly Uber credits (plus a $20 bonus in December) provided by The Platinum Card® from American Express for your U.S. Uber Eats order (for up to $200 in Uber cash per calendar year). Enrollment required.