Most people don’t actually have New Year’s Eve off, as it’s not a Federal holiday. But New Year’s Eve does generally mean an evening of fun and festivities anyway, since New Year’s Day actually is a Federal holiday! So for those interested, they may wonder is Uber Eats New Year’s Eve an option?
Uber Eats on New Year’s Eve is definitely an option. However, as evening progresses, be prepared to have limited restaurant choice and longer wait times due to high demand and lower supply. Depending on the area you live, restaurants may close early while others focus on holiday inhouse patrons.
Forget about leaving your house or abandoning good company to cook! When it comes to Uber Eats delivery, we may take comfort that it is accessible all year. Not only that, but there are deals to be found even on major holidays like New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day!
I’ll explain a brief overview of Uber Eats, provide some useful tips, and address the New Year’s Eve possibilities. Let’s go!
Contents
Uber Eats- A Brief Overview
So what is Uber Eats and how do you use it?
Uber Eats provides a food delivery service via an app or online platform, acting as a bridge or middleman between restaurants and customers. Uber drivers accept orders patrons place, picking them up at restaurants, then delivering to customers 365 days a year.
The app lets users view menus, reviews, and ratings in order to see their eating/delivery options. It has a wide variety of restaurants available. Once users place orders, it’s sent to the restaurants to prepare. Then an Uber driver gets a ‘ping’ of an order having been placed and can accept the pick-up (or not). If accepted, the driver gets the order and takes it to the patron.
Typically, patrons are expected to tip their driver, similar to tipping for your pizza delivery or direct from restaurant delivered order.
Many restaurants have opened up to Uber Eats, from ‘fancy’ to mom and pop to fast food chains.
In my area, here are some of the top listed Uber Eats restaurants available on the Uber Eats app: Mellow Mushroom; Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburger; Applebee’s; and yes, McDonald’s. But in fact, there are actually around 95 restaurants and retail participating in Uber Eats in my smallish city.
Similar to this article are these from Hopeful Holidays:
- Can You Order Uber Eats Christmas Eve? (The Scoop)
- Is Having to Work on New Year’s Eve Normal? (Answered)
- What If You Are Sick on New Year’s Eve?
Uber Eats comes in useful when individuals aren’t in the mood to cook. It also helps when you want to dine at your favorite restaurant but don’t want to get out of the home to get there. For times like these, even on New Year’s Eve, Uber Eats is quite handy!
Does Uber Eats Deliver On New Year’s Eve?
The availability of restaurants and eateries on New Year’s Eve will influence whether or not there will be Uber Eats delivery. Uber Eats works by collecting your orders from the numerous restaurants you have ordered meals and delivering them to your door.
Uber Eats is available technically 365 days a year, meaning it operates New Year’s Eve. In actuality, this isn’t always the case. Uber Eats depends upon restaurant availability, so if restaurants in your area aren’t open, then Uber Eats can’t deliver. It also depends on drivers accepting orders.
A problem I’ve learned that Uber Eats has with working holidays is it’s supply and demand relationship. If demand (i.e. ‘customers ordering) isn’t high, then drivers tend to turn off their Uber Eats app altogether or move on to other delivery servicing like Grubhub and DoorDash.
This is because it’s very common for Uber Eats drivers to work for multiple delivery companies in order to maximize their work load and maintain flexibility.
However, there are other reasons drivers don’t accept orders on New Year’s Eve, too. Often drivers turn down working New Year’s Eve due to it being a high risk working night and the pay-off doesn’t seem ‘worth it.’ They not wrong, either!
Risks driving and doing deliveries on New Year’s Eve include dealing with drunk/crazy drivers; long wait times at restaurants so their profits are low; not getting tips because of ‘crazy’ customers; and more!
Why use Uber Eats on New Year’s Eve?
There are some good reasons to use Uber Eats on New Year’s Eve, for sure!
Some of those are: safer for them to drive than you; saves you cooking time when you’d rather spend the last night of the year hanging out with friends and family; it’s a way to relax even if alone; and often restaurants and Uber Eats offer great coupons and discounts on holidays!
So even if you’re staying home to watch 2012’s rom com movie, New Year’s Eve, (available at Amazon) it doesn’t mean you have to cook! You can enjoy your fav meal on the last day of the year, having it delivered straight to your door!
Another reason for Uber Eats is to use it for your babysitter/children at home. This can be a lifesaver, if you’re going out and don’t want to cook beforehand. You can use Uber Eats to deliver food for your kids and/or their sitter while you and your spouse enjoy the holiday as a date night!
Most Popular Places and Eats on Uber Eats
Now you can certainly find variations in ‘most popular’ from Uber Eats from one place to the next, and most assuredly, local drivers will have a good idea too.
However, Uber Eats provides an annual report, called its ‘cravings report’, giving an overall look at most popular. They categorize many things like most ordered item to most frequent request to what two foods are most commonly combined.
So here are some tidbits I found interesting:
| ‘Most’ Category | Item or ‘Thing’ |
|---|---|
| Most Popular Food | Mexican |
| Most Popular Request | Hold the Onion |
| Most Ordered Item | French Fries |
| Most Frequently Paired Food & Alcohol | Beer and Wings |
| Most Ordered Grocery Item | Bananas |
| Most Repeated Order from A Single Customer | Zayka Indian Cuisine 904 time from someone in Raleigh, NC |
| Biggest Increase in a Side Item | cheese fries increased more than 1,234% from the previous year |
Using Uber Eats Pros and Cons
Now there are some definite pros and cons of using Uber Eats that’s good for any user to know, and this really goes for using any food delivery service app. Let’s look at that next!
Pros for Using Uber Eats (and others):
- It saves you time from cooking or driving.
- You can try something new without much effort.
- It’s convenient to comparison ‘shop’ by viewing menus from multiple restaurants.
- Uber Eats and participating restaurants often have deals and discounts to entice you and make ordering appealing to your wallet as well as stomach!
- It supports your local businesses, whether fast food, chains, or mom and pop run restaurants.
Cons for Using Uber Eats (and others):
- Your order can be easily messed up and it isn’t so easy to get it corrected. Uber Eats generally takes up to 24 hours to refund you if there’s a problem.
- It can take longer than actually driving there yourself or making fresh food at home.
- You’re likely to spend more money ordering restaurant food than preparing your food at home.
- It can be challenging to customize orders or to ensure your food doesn’t have ingredients you don’t want (i.e. for diet, allergies, religious restrictions and so on).
So it’s not to say don’t use Uber Eats or any of the other food delivery services, but keep in mind there are just as many cons and pros, so consider what makes it worth it to you!
Is Uber Eats Busy On New Year’s Eve?
Whether or not Uber Eats is busy on New Year’s Eve entirely depends on your geography. In some areas, especially large metropolitan cities, Uber Eats can have high demand, exceeding its supply of restaurants and drivers. In other areas, drivers are ready and waiting, but there is a lack of orders.
It’s good for you as a consumer to look ahead or simply call ahead to find out if your favorite restaurant will be available for Uber Eats orders or not. Then you will be prepared.
You can likely know by your area if Uber Eats will have many restaurant options on New Year’s Eve too. If you notice many restaurants posting early closing signs for the holiday, you’ll have the info you need about whether you can use Uber Eats or not.
For instance, in my area, many restaurants close early on New Year’s Eve. The few remaining open are by reservation only for the special night’s events, and thus, it’s unlikely to find many options for using Uber Eats on New Year’s Eve here. This also makes it difficult for Uber Eats drivers too, so most (here, that is) will simply plan to take the night off too, since they know they won’t make much.
So to reiterate, you’ll need to consider your area for the likelihood of Uber Eats being busy or not on New Year’s Eve. Usually local restaurants will post a week or so ahead if they plan to close or have restrictions on New Year’s Eve and so, you can use that info as a guide.
Wrapping Up Uber Eats on New Year’s Eve
To wrap it up, the simple answer about whether Uber Eats is open on New Year’s Eve is yes, it is. In fact, Uber Eats operates 365 days a year. However, this is actually a conditional statement, and the ‘condition’ depends on your area.
In some places, Uber Eats hardly works or runs at all on New Year’s Eve because there’s just no demand for it and/or restaurants aren’t available due to holiday modifications like closing or restricting to reservations only. In cases like this, it really doesn’t matter that Uber Eats is technically available since it doesn’t really mean it’s ‘operating’ in reality.
To know for sure, like with many things, check in your local area. It’s better to be safe than sorry!
I suggest these related articles next:
- Can You Order Uber Eats Christmas Eve? (The Scoop)
- Is Having to Work on New Year’s Eve Normal? (Answered)
- What If You Are Sick on New Year’s Eve?
Sources Uber People
