Westfield and Uber partner to modernise the car park

BJConsumers looking to catch Ubers to and from select Westfield centres will no longer have to awkwardly look around the car park for their driver.

The retail landlord has inked a deal with Uber to roll out designated pick-up zones in its Bondi Junction, Warringah Mall and Whitford City centres as part of a pilot program from 23 April.

20 additional zones are slated to be implemented by the end of the year, enabled by an update to Uber’s app that will drop pick-up pins automatically in designated areas.

The partnership will also extend to Uber Eats, providing participating restaurants located in Bondi Junction and Whitford City with designated pick-up processes.

The move is reflective of how much the traditional car park experience has changed in recent years, with hundreds of thousands of Uber requests from Westfield centres across Australia and New Zealand now being made annually.

Other landlords, such as Mirvac, are conducting their own reviews into centre car parks with an eye on emerging technologies such as electric and self-driving vehicles.

It also underscores the increasing ubiquity of order aggregation businesses, with giants like McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme headlining a group almost 20 food retailers that will benefit from streamlined pick-up processes.

As landlords look to increase their exposure to food retailers the presence of delivery drivers in centres is becoming more frequent.

The exclusivity of the partnership ticks boxes for Uber, who will benefit from staving off incoming ride sharing competition while also, at least for the moment, providing customers, restaurants and drivers with a better order aggregation offer in proximity to participating centres.

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