Don't scream for ice cream today. Just pick up your smartphone.
Uber, the San Francisco startup known for letting people order private drivers in sleek black cars using a smartphone app, is offering an ice cream-on-demand service for one day only in nearly three dozen cities around the world, including Philadelphia.
From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (or until supplies last) there will be a handful of Mister Softee trucks on the streets of Philadelphia delivering ice cream to anyone who requests so with the Uber app and is willing to fork over some cash for the convenience of ice cream where you are.
Each $25 delivery will include five servings of ice cream including red, white and blue original Bomb Pops, vanilla ice cream sandwiches, Big Dipper ice cream cones, Turtle bars and Sponge Bob bars. Sorry, no traditional Mister Softee -- which on a side note was founded in Philly in 1956 -- soft serve.
The idea of bringing Uber Ice Cream Day to the City of Brotherly Love was a year in the making after a brainstorming session, Uber Philly General Manager Adria Hou told NBC10.com.
“This is a great summer treat, how do we make this Uber? Making it Uber meant making it on demand, using the app to allow people to request an ice cream truck.”
Friday's stunt, an expansion of last year's ice cream promotion, comes in the midst of a sticky heat wave in Philadelphia and elsewhere.
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Hou said it is pure coincidence that it’s ice cream weather outside.
There are no parameters to how many frozen treats one Uber user can request. So if you have 15 people you can make three orders or if you have just one….
“If one person wants five pieces of ice cream they are absolutely welcome to it,” Hou said with a laugh.
Last year, people in seven U.S. and Canadian cities could use the Uber app to summon an ice cream truck to their location, provided they purchased a minimum number of treats. But demand exceeded supply, and not everyone who wanted ice cream got it.
Hou said they hope to serve everyone who wants ice cream this year but there are no guarantees depending on demand and there are only a limited number of trucks.
The best way to get ice cream to your door is to follow the special ice cream truck logos on the Uber app.
“It’ll be blue and pink ice cream trucks,” Hou said.
