New company, Get Me, to offer rides, deliveries in Las Vegas

By Daniel Rothberg

Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015 | 2:54 p.m.

Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft and courier PostMates could soon have a competitor nipping at their heels in Las Vegas.

Get Me, a Dallas-based company that offers on-demand deliveries and transportation through a mobile app, plans to launch today in the Las Vegas valley, its first entry into a market outside of Texas.

Although the company is expected to operate on a smaller scale than its competitors — it is looking to launch with 60 drivers — Get Me drivers will eventually offer both passenger rides and deliveries.

But when it launches at 5 p.m. in Las Vegas, it will focus exclusively on deliveries as it waits for regulatory approval for ride-sharing.

“We want to work with every regulator,” company co-founder Jonathan Laramy said. “We don’t want to bully ourselves in.”

In the meantime, users will be able to summon a Get Me driver — called a Go Getter — to pick up and deliver purchases from stores and restaurants.

If, for instance, you are in desperate need of a Slurpee from 7-Eleven and cannot get to the store, a Get Me driver can pick it up and deliver it to your doorstep.

Of course, there’s a price: the cost of the Slurpee and a delivery charge based on the distance the driver travels. A trip within a 5-mile radius will have a $15 delivery fee, and the cost increases with the distance.

Laramy said the service will be especially useful for groups of people who can share the delivery fee or individuals who are unable to leave their homes and need help shopping.

Within the last three months, the company has launched services in Dallas, Houston and Austin, Texas. Las Vegas was an attractive market, Laramy said, because it is “a city of convenience.”

The company already has filed an application with the Nevada Transportation Authority to provide passenger rides.

The rate for passenger rides will be determined by distance, time in the car and the time of day.

A basic car ride from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. will be $2.50 a mile and 27 cents a minute. Hailing the same car after 11 p.m. will cost $3.10 a mile and 50 cents a minute. There is no surge pricing at busy times.

Get Me’s launch of 60 drivers is small compared to the scope of Uber and Lyft’s operations. Lyft has permission to operate 2,500 cars in Nevada, and Uber can operate an unlimited fleet.

Laramy said Get Me always launches with 60 drivers, but he hopes the numbers increase. “In Houston, the floodgates flew open and we have 700 drivers-plus,” Laramy said.

Drivers earn 80 percent of every transaction and will be able to choose if they want to make deliveries or provide passenger rides.

During the holidays, the company plans to launch an initiative called Go Givers. The company, Laramy said, will pay drivers to deliver donations to food banks and homeless shelters.