It’s been another incredibly busy year for Australians on the Uber platform – with trends nobody could have forecast this time 12 months ago.

Rather than trying to predict what the next year might deliver – we’re focusing on 20 of the most uplifting stats that show how humanity soared – and sometimes how we muddled through – in 2020.

  1. This year Australians shared the love on Uber Eats (or maybe there was a lot of apologising) with flowers becoming the most popular breakthrough item across everyday commerce, more than doubling in volume in the last six months.
  2. Love was also in the air when it came to rideshare, with Sydney’s Mardi Gras the busiest day of the year for Uber trips nationally. Perhaps not so coincidentally, Perth and Brisbane’s busiest days for trips coincided with WA’s PrideFEST and Brisbane’s Pride Festival. 
  3. As families spent more time around the dinner table together it was Queenslanders consistently the most likely to order family meals. Brisbane and Gold Coast clocked the highest percentage of family orders, just ahead of Perth.
  4. Generosity has been on the rise in the last 12 months, with a 30% increase in the number of Aussies tipping their driver. Horsham residents earning the mantle of the most generous in the nation. 
  5. Positivity was pumping in 2020, with one Uber rider giving 571 compliments to drivers.
  6. Excellent service was appreciated with Australia’s most complimented driver averaging 11 five star-ratings a day! 
  7. There was gratitude on the Eats platform too, the most celebrated delivery partner hailed from Sydney and clocked in an equally astonishing 10 five-star ratings a day.
  8. With less reason to venture into the office, many Australians enjoyed a temporary migration, and with that we noticed new trends in trendy areas. Byron Bay experienced the single greatest shift in tipping, with a more than 60 percent year on year increase in tipping on Uber Eats, and Cairns, Adelaide and the Sunshine Coast all experiencing a similar spurt of generosity.
  9. Healthy food continued to breakthrough in popularity – quinoa, kale, bowls, brussel sprouts, edamame, acai, kombucha, hummus, poke and brown rice all coming into vogue since June.
  10. While we were socially distanced, we still connected with loved ones who were far away using the Share My Delivery feature. People used Uber Eats to send their loved ones a meal no matter where they were on the planet. A Perth local sent a meal to New York (18,690 kms), a Sydney-sider ordered to Lisbon (18,166km), someone on the Apple Isle ordered a meal from Hobart to the United Kingdom’s South Coast (17,650 km) and there was an order originating in Brisbane that went to Madrid (17,432km). 
  11. We couldn’t fly, but we travelled with our taste-buds. North American cuisine emerged supreme, ahead of European heavy-weight Italian. But Asian flavours dominated our favourites – Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Indian and Vietnamese all entrenched in the top 10 most popular cuisines nationally.
  12. With more virtual meetings, the country stayed connected with contactless caffeine delivery. With an increase in people working from home we noticed a sharp incline in the consumption of coffee on the platform, with nearly fifty percent more orders than the year prior.
  13. Regional areas flexed their coffee credentials this year. Ballarat, Bunbury and Mackay the most perked up nationally with the highest percentage of coffee orders for 2020. 
  14. While there was limited office gossip, we still kept things juicy. Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, edging out Adelaide as the cities fondest for green juice.
  15. Queensland led the early riser index with Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Toowoomba and Townsville in the top seven cities nationally for the highest percentage of Uber Eats orders between 5am and 10am.
  16. Across the country people were also burning the midnight oil. Newcastle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart and Wollongong were the five cities with the highest percentage of orders placed between 10pm and 2am on Uber Eats.
  17. February 29 was Adelaide’s busiest day, lining up with their AFLW grand final re-match against Carlton. Meanwhile Melbourne’s busiest day was a week earlier on February 22 – perhaps just a coincidence that it was also World Margarita Day. 
  18. In paw-some news companionship was made easier this year with the launch of Uber Pet. The top Uber Pet rider hails from Sydney and has taken more than 133 Pet trips with their furry friend since March.
  19. Aussies had frontline workers front of mind. We donated more than 25,000 meals to workers in the medical field over winter through a homegrown partnership with Front Liners, and in summer provided half a million dollars to support people impacted by the bushfires and the volunteer firefighters responding to the blazes.
  20. Through our partnership with Dettol, more than 330,000 units of hand sanitiser, disinfectant wipes and car disinfectant were provided to over tens of thousands of partners across Australia.