Uber plans to test Uber Tasks, a TaskRabbit-like service that lets users hire people to complete household tasks, in Fort Myers and Edmonton in the coming weeks
7 jobs the app can do X: Ana Milicevic / @aexm : Today in: every app is becoming every other app @jason : Predict Uber Tasks will be as big as transportation and food delivery. Nathan Resnick / @naterez94 : I've used this before. Somehow I drove my car up to Park City without my key. Called a Uber to my house, called the driver and remotely let them in to grab my key by the door. Driver drove my missing car key to me. Pretty amazing experience tbh Mark C. Webster / @markcwebster : Local services on demand? *drags cigarette* I haven't heard that name in years. Scott Belsky / @scottbelsky : most good ideas are the wrong idea until they're the right idea. that being said, we shall see how this pans out Ashley Werhun / @awerhun : Interesting to test this out in Edmonton? I wonder what the logic is there one such a small population compared to other hubs. LinkedIn: Natalie Lung : Uber is launching a mini-pilot — “Uber Tasks”— for its TaskRabbit-like feature. Drivers and couriers can opt-in to help customers on chores …
Context & Ripple Effects
The pilot moves Uber Tasks from an earlier app-code indication of a TaskRabbit-like product into a defined market test. It extends Uber's prior pattern of adding services around its core marketplace, including group-trip and event tools.
First-order effects
- Drivers and couriers who opt in gain a new category of work, while customers in Fort Myers and Edmonton can request household help through Uber Tasks.
- Uber gets live-market evidence on whether its existing app, dispatch systems and worker base can support chores rather than trips or deliveries.
Second-order effects
- TaskRabbit and local task providers may face a more familiar consumer entry point in the two pilot markets, particularly if Uber can bundle task discovery with its existing app usage.
- The test makes worker availability a central constraint: Uber must assess whether adding chores creates incremental earning opportunities rather than pulling supply from rides and deliveries.
Third-order effects
- If such pilots scale, large on-demand platforms could increasingly compete on a broader pool of local labor, not just transportation and food delivery.
- The longer-term question is whether one consumer app can reliably coordinate very different job types; success would favor marketplaces with both demand distribution and flexible worker supply.
The trend: Uber Tasks is one data point in the expansion of gig marketplaces from single-purpose services toward broader on-demand local work platforms.