As the black cab has suffered on London’s streets due to the march of online taxi ordering service Uber, so couriers need to worry about what international parcels broker ParcelHero describes as the ‘Uberification of deliveries’. In short, if you are a delivery company watch your back as Uber are eying up your patch.

The conclusion was reached in a report by ParcelHero called the Uberification of Deliveries that can be seen here. ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks MILT, says: “This report reveals UberRUSH has revolutionised local deliveries in a number of US cities already, forcing rivals such as Sidecar out of the market,  and Uber admits it is eager to develop its delivery proposition in London. With £7bn of Same Day courier revenue on the table, there’s no way Uber is going to ignore the UK market for long, which means existing local express couriers are going to have to be ready for them.”

Jinks asked, “Why would Uber want to move into logistics? The answer is simple: Uber is the most funded start-up in the world, valued at $50bn; but runs at a loss. The worldwide taxi industry is worth $22bn in revenue; but that is tiny compared to the domestic global courier and parcel sector, which generates around $246 billion in revenue, a far more lucrative market. Our analysis reveals Uber is likely to capture at least 10% of this market globally, earning it an extra $24.6bn annually. Uber needs to expand into these new markets to reach its potential.”

Where the taxi market is heavily regulated, the courier market is much less so and arguably easier to break into than the taxi market. It is just a question of time before Uber or a rival business starts trying to break the market, and that is a genuine threat to an already fiercely competitive industry.