As if everyone didn't already need an excuse to stay indoors at the moment in Canberra.
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UberEats is launching in the nation's capital on Wednesday, with more than 70 restaurants available for home delivery through Uber's network of cars.
Restaurants available for delivery include Grease Monkey, Molto Italian, 10 Inch Custom Pizzeria Pâtissez, Bourbon Street Kitchen, Malaysian Chapter and Ostani Bar and Restaurant.
The delivery area stretches from Scullin and McKellar in the north-east, across to Watson and Hackett, and as far south as Mawson. Tuggeranong and Gungahlin aren't included in the initial coverage but the ACT's UberEats general manager Susan Anderson said don't expect it to stay that way for long.
"We're just at the beginning of what Canberra's going to see. We wanted to get it out there as of [Wednesday], but we're continuing to talk to new restaurant partners and as soon as we have enough restaurants in place then we will open up to all of those areas," she said.
"So we encourage any restaurants in those areas to please get in contact with us and we'll bring it to your area as soon as we have a good offering. We'll keep going until most of the urban population in Canberra is covered, as quickly as possible."
In Canberra, UberEats will operate seven days a week from 7am-11pm, including breakfast and coffee delivery options in the morning.
The UberEats launch also means additional opportunities for people looking for a flexible way to earn money, with less strict requirements for potential drivers.
"With UberEats you no longer have this requirement of needing a four-doored car. You can now deliver food and have this ability to access flexible earning opportunity on a bike, in a two-door car, in older cars that wouldn't necessarily meet the standards for the transport business," Ms Anderson said.
"But in addition, it means our current driver partners that are driving people around also have additional ways to earn by delivering food also."
The launch of digital food delivery services has also created opportunities for a new range of food ventures, without the need for a bricks and mortar venue.
Reuben Schoots and Matt Gartshore are launching Mejicana this week, a menu of traditional Mexican food, available only through UberEats.
With just two cooks operating out of a commercial kitchen based at the Kingston Foreshore, Mejicana has no physical restaurant.
"[Opening a restaurant] is not really a viable thing to do on a low budget. So we were really just looking at how we could get around that entire process. And then Uber is just the perfect facilitator for that," Mr Gartshore said.
The duo now hopes to help other people in Canberra start similar businesses.
"We'll be providing start up consultancy and business management where we provide a place for people to cook, and they do the cooking, and we take care of getting them through licensing, registrations, insurances, how to run software and automating the process, and Uber takes care of sales and marketing," Mr Schoots said.
