Uber has launched an employee transportation service in India, marking its entry into the corporate commute segment with operations already live in Mumbai, Pune, and Chennai. The company’s initial focus will be to expand the service to other tier-1 cities where GCCs, BPOs, and IT firms are concentrated, with tier-2 cities to follow.
The service, which Uber calls Employee Transportation Services (ETS), offers fixed-route, fixed-timing commutes for corporate employees, distinct from its on-demand consumer ride-hailing business. For this, Uber has set up a dedicated engineering team in Bengaluru, which will build and service local and international operations, marking an India-first approach for the segment. “India’s corporate transportation market is $6 billion and it’s expected to grow by 30% by 2030. That outperforms any other market globally,” Nikolaas Van de Loock, Director and General Manager of Uber Shuttle for EMEA and India, told Financial Express.
Dedicated Fleet and Driver Agreements
The service will be operated by a dedicated fleet, separate from Uber’s consumer ride-hailing supply. Drivers will be engaged on fixed-distance or time-based packages, and can switch to Uber’s consumer platform during low-demand periods for additional earnings depending on the agreement with the enterprise client. The fleet will comprise 4 and 6-seaters, including both internal combustion engine and electric vehicles. The company is also planning to expand into larger form factors such as 19-seater tempo travellers as a cost-effective and environmentally conscious alternative.
Corporate clients will pay Uber on a per-trip basis, which Van de Loock said aligns incentives. “If Uber’s matching is efficient, trip count falls and so does client cost,” he added. Clients will also be able to configure utilisation to specifications. “If you want an average utilisation of 3-pax in a 4-seater, we can do that. If they want 2-pax utilisation, cost goes up. But employee inconvenience goes down. We can simulate this to the dot,” he added.
The service is built on route-matching technology Uber developed for Shuttle, its fixed-route bus service that it first launched in the Middle East 7 years ago. The B2C bus service is operational in India in Delhi NCR and Kolkata, though it has been discontinued in Mumbai and Hyderabad due to regulatory hurdles and low demand. It is also yet to receive regulatory clarity on launching the consumer facing service in Bengaluru.
Efficiency Gains and Regulatory Advantages
Meanwhile, Uber has been piloting the same route-matching technology on cars within its office campuses in Bengaluru and Hyderabad for the past 18 months, and claims 10% better passenger matching efficiency than competitors. “What existing solutions struggle with is not matching 4 or 6 riders, but in making sure travel time is almost the same as individuals travelling directly. That’s where our differentiation comes in,” Van de Loock said. “Regulations have also been easier to navigate on the B2B side as it doesn’t touch public space.”
The ETS launch is part of Uber’s broader push into B2B services in India. Last month, the company launched Uber Direct, a B2B logistics service, starting with 2-wheelers and plans to expand to other form factors, in partnership with the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), where merchants can use Uber’s driver network for last-mile delivery.