Last Friday, Uber, a San Francisco-based technology startup and developer of the Summon-a-Car application, offered an ice cream-on-demand service for one day only Friday in New York City and more than three dozen other cities around the world.
How it works:
* Download the Uber app for iPhone or Android
* Request the “Ice Cream”option via your app
* If a truck is available, it could reach you within minutes
Friday’s promotion allowed people to use the Uber app to rally an ice cream truck hired by Uber to their location, provided people order more than one cone.
Each city partnered with local ice cream trucks to offer bundles of five or six treats with friends. Depending on the city, six ice creams will cost $20 to $35. The trucks were out until 5 p.m.
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said that although there is no way to meet all the demand for ice cream, “there is going to be crisp communication”that it is a very limited supply.
This is the second one-day promotion from Uber this summer. CBS News reports that on July 3, the company offered to shuttle people to the Hamptons in a chopper at a cost of $3,000 for five people.
Additional cities participating in the promotion were Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Ore., Sacramento, Calif., San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
Uber also did this in Toronto; Sydney and Melbourne, Australia; Amsterdam; Berlin and Munich, Germany; London; Lyon and Paris, France; Milan and Rome, Italy; Stockholm and Singapore.
Last year, Uber tested the same service in seven cities in North America.
New York is famous for roving food trucks with Twitter accounts. The Treat Truck offers freshly baked cookies, brownies and a daily variety of baked goods.
The Treats Truck has regular spots all around New York City. For location updates follow them on Twitter or call: 212-691-5226