[dZired]

Uber has launched a new service in India under its Uber for Business (U4B) platform. Called Uber Central, this new service provides businesses an option to rent cabs listed on the Uber platform to ferry their clients, customers and guests.

As an example, a hotel offering pickup and drop services from the nearest airport now doesn't need to maintain its own fleet of cars and drivers. Instead, it can book cabs for the guests through the Uber Central platform.

Uber Central is the company's first global one-to-many ride booking service which allows businesses to manage multiple rides at the same time, from a single user dashboard. To book a ride for any client, customer or guest, an operator just needs to enter the contact details, pickup and drop off points and ride category for the customers on the Uber Central dashboard. Once the booking is made, the operator can also track the ride on a real-time basis and see the expected time of arrival (ETA). Additionally, Uber Central also gives businesses the option to pay for the rides of their clients or customers.

Interestingly, customers who receive rides from the Uber Central platform don't need to have an Uber account or the company's smartphone app. They will receive details regarding the driver's name and contact number, licence plate number of the cab and vehicle make and model through an SMS. The customer will also receive a call from the driver once the cab reaches the pickup point.

Source: Economic Times

Link to Team-BHP News

[DuHasstMich]

Article does not mention whether there will be a separate set of cars for this service. Considering the sorry state of cabs(specially in NCR), this does not seem to be an enticing offer for 4-5 Star hotels.

[libranof1987]

I'm skeptical how this will pan out.

When businesses hire cabs to ferry their people or clients, they expect a high amount of accountability in terms of cab availability and a backup plan.

With Uber, since they are technically "just a platform", there will be a limitation on how they can ensure a particular level of service.

Uber will play the market on price, but as the popular saying goes, nobody wins a price war! The established corporate hire companies will watch this intently!

On a sidenote, wonder how vastly different this will end up being from Uber for Business.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

I'm skeptical how this will pan out.....


....On a sidenote, wonder how vastly different this will end up being from Uber for Business.

Unless there are specific cars earmarked for this (seems unrealistic without a certain volume of business available), I'm not really sure how this is going to work. Companies aren't going to trust a 'variable' experience when hosting customers/clients/partners etc. We even ask for car preferences when making arrangements, so I'm skeptical about this model.

I'm a frequent Uber for Business user, and the only advantage I get is my company-managed Uber profile is linked directly to both my corporate credit card and to our expense aggregator service, so I don't have the headache of managing commute expenses manually. It's convenient, but the drive experience is exactly the same as when I'm traveling personally.

This seems more like giving your company admin (or whoever is responsible for managing visitor logistics) a single platform to manage mobility real-time, instead of relying on multiple vendors. While corporations are also cost-conscious (who isnt?), cost is not top priority there esp. if it comes at the expense of customer experience. I'd rather not pinch pennies on a cab and potentially lose a lucrative prospect if/when Uber messes up.