From ride hailing to food hailing: Understanding on-demand food delivery through platform urbanism and urban policy in Canadian cities

This paper examines the pivot that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic from ride hailing to food hailing. In 2020, the global spread of COVID-19 challenged urban life, raising questions about the prospects for digital mobility platforms. Pandemic restrictions resulted in dramatic changes in mobility patterns globally, including significant declines in demand for ride hailing. Concurrently, with restaurants closed to indoor and outdoor dining for extended periods in many cities around the world, restaurateurs worked diligently to adjust their business models. During the early days of the COVID-19 lockdown, ride hailing firms such as Uber shifted their efforts from moving people to moving food and other goods. With a particular focus on Canada, we document this pivot and analyze its significance using evidence from case studies and interviews with multiple actors involved in the food and platform delivery ecosystem in major North American cities. We discovered both mutually beneficial and friction-filled relationships in the business, social and organizational logistics of digital food delivery. These results have implications for theories of platform urbanism and urban policy including highlighting new forms of competition that prioritize the role of urban infrastructure for creating value for platform firms.