Taxi aggregator service, Uber, is exploring the possibility of leveraging its platform to provide value-added services such as courier facilities, food-delivery options or even home delivery of groceries in India. Such services will of course come at a cost.

According to Neeraj Singhal, Head Expansion – India and the Sub-Continent, Uber Technologies, the country has a huge potential that might help the aggregator tap the possibility of such value-added services.

He however, did not confirm the time frame or if Uber would immediately extend such services.

“We are in discussions,” he told reporters during a meeting. So far Uber’s foray into the additional service realm here include a one-off tie-up with an animal shelter in Pune to allow adoption of puppies; or a one-day delivery of Haagen Dazs’ ice-cream (on demand). Incidentally, providing such services is not new to Uber. It has value-added offerings (on a commercial basis) in 20 of the 270 cities where it operates globally.

For example in Los Angeles it has the Uber Fresh services, where food is delivered on-call. In New York, it offers messenger service or courier facility (on call) under the Uber Rush programme.

“In all these cases we have leveraged our IT and logistics platform for providing additional services,” Singhal said.

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