Eaze, the Uber of Cannabis Delivery

Although Eaze is widely recognized as the “Uber for pot,” there are some major differences between the two companies. According to Keith McCarty the CEO and founder, Eaze is “growing 2x faster than Uber in 2/3 the time.” Another huge difference is that, while Uber hires their employees and independent contractors to work for them directly, Eaze does not hire drivers to work for them. They assist partner dispensaries in hiring drivers who deliver medicine to leads generated by Eaze.

In an interview with CannaInsider, Keith was very clear that Eaze is a lead generation service, not a delivery service, and that “the drivers work for the dispensary” not for Eaze. As a lead generation service, a major selling point to Eaze is the accuracy of their algorithm. When I asked an Eaze driver, who will be referred to as Eazy Driver, about the accuracy of the algorithm they replied, “their mobile app worked perfectly to provide me with the quickest route to my destination” and it integrated smoothly with GPS apps.

Eazy Driver only worked for the company for a little over a month and is no longer currently working for Eaze. When hired, they were “told in person and on paper” that they were “being hired as an independent contractor and not an employee of Eaze.” While Eazy Driver was informed that they were “technically not working for Eaze,” and instead worked for a Bay Area dispensary, as a driver, Eazy “only ever dealt with Eaze associates in regards pickup/drop offs of my inventory.” It seems that, while on paper Eaze does not employ drivers, in practice the drivers only interact with Eaze associates, rather than employees of the dispensary that they supposedly work for.

While one of my Uber drivers had been assaulted on the job and found the response from Uber to be lacking, safety is something that Eaze is really taking seriously and has even partnered with KROLL security consulting to further improve driver safety. A major safety concern in the cannabis industry is the need to rely on cash, which opens businesses up to robbery and endangers workers. To mitigate this risk, Keith told me that Eaze is “working on transitioning from a cash model to a card/debit model.” When I asked Eaze driver if they were ever intimidated or assaulted on the job they replied “never, every client I have dealt with was courteous and respectful.”

Do you use a cannabis delivery service? Tell us in the comments below.