Uber Eats delivery is free from DC-area black-owned restaurants; sales have doubled

Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant
Dukem Ethiopia is one D.C. restaurant that has seen an increase in orders through Uber Eats. (Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Uber has waived delivery fees for customers ordering from D.C.-area black-owned restaurants, and it said those orders have more than doubled.

Uber began waiving the delivery fee May 30. It said, based on deliveries the weekends of May 30-31 and June 6-7, deliveries from black-owned restaurants rose 105%.

The top black-owned restaurants receiving Uber Eats delivery orders:

“We are committed to using Uber Eats to promote black-owned restaurants while making it easier for customers to support them,” said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

The waived customer delivery fees from D.C.-area black-owned restaurants will run through the end of 2020.

The Uber Eats app now prompts customers to navigate a list of available black-owned restaurants near them.

Uber Eats screen grab
Uber Eats saw a jump in support for black-owned businesses in D.C. (WTOP/Thomas Robertson)

Uber also said in the coming weeks it will offer free rides to black-owned small businesses that have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

This week, Uber also announced a $1 million donation to the Equal Justice Initiative‘s Center for Policing Equity, a think tank focused on identifying and reducing the causes of racial disparities in law enforcement.

Jeff Clabaugh

Jeff Clabaugh has spent 20 years covering the Washington region's economy and financial markets for WTOP as part of a partnership with the Washington Business Journal, and officially joined the WTOP newsroom staff in January 2016.

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