Uber has just added a new business segment for itself in India, by launching a comprehensive daily transport management platform for businesses. By setting up a corporate Uber account, companies can arrange for daily transport of its employees thus dramatically reducing its costs.
Following are the offerings from app-based aggregators to businesses:
Account management: It not only allows easy monitoring of trip activities but also allows the employees to use a central payment account to pay for their rides or send reimbursement slips directly to the employer.
Expense memo: This contains all the trip tags including expense codes and the reason for travel.
Customized ride policies: Employers can customize the service and set where and when employees can take a ride.
Trip tracking and reporting: For all recording and accounting purposes, rides details can be accessed at any time.
Automation: Account automation allows businesses to list their employees to make sure that it is only them who use the services.
Banking on the current generation of workaholics, Uber has launched this service in India. Various MNC’s have a separate transport department that handles the travels of the employees to and from work, but the smaller companies now have a cheaper solution. Even for the ones who can afford it, Uber claims that their services can cut down costs by up to 60 percent. To be precise, the companies can save up to Rs. 5,000 per employee.
Since the transport of employees is usually not the primary business of a company, outsourcing the department might seem like a viable option.
The price-war between Uber and Ola in the commercial sector is not over, yet. But, Uber has taken a huge leap ahead by stepping into the B2B sector. With the imminent arrival of Reliance, Uber may have done the smartest thing, yet, by securing a new sector for itself.