Uber Enters Shuttle Business In India As Pandemic Hits Mobility Startups

As the pandemic left India’s mobility, travel and hospitality sectors shattered, leading to Gurugram-based bus aggregator Shuttl shuttering its business and exploring merger and acquisition opportunities this year, ride-hailing platform Uber has now brought its Corporate Shuttle to India that aims to help employees get to and from work, safely and affordably in the new normal.

India is opening up amid the third Covid wave scare and Metros have once again started to witness traffic jams, air pollution, travel stress and parking woes. To lessen the travel pain for businesses including startups, Uber Corporate Shuttle aims to help employees get to and from work, safely and affordably in the new normal.

Launched in 2014, the Uber for Business platform claims to have elevated customer experiences for more than 1.5 Lakh organisations around the world to date. The new Uber Corporate Shuttle, for which most of the technology has been developed by its technology team based out of Bengaluru, will be available across Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Currently, the service is operational in Ukraine, Egypt and Mexico, and will expand to several other countries in the future.

“At Uber, we are focussed on meeting the changing needs of our customers. Uber Corporate Shuttle helps companies put their employees first. They get to and from work safely, without the stress of traffic jams, the expense of parking, and car maintenance,” said Uber for Business Head India and South Asia Abhinav Mittoo.

What Is Inside The Shuttle

The Corporate Shuttle is a customised commute service for companies, offering seating capacity for anywhere between 10-50 employees in a single-vehicle. It includes a comprehensive set of safety measures, including a Go Online Checklist, a mandatory mask policy for both riders and drivers, pre-trip mask verification selfies for drivers and mandatory driver education on safety standard operating procedures (SOPs).

The service is fully integrated into the Uber app with an automated booking option. The team will be able to manage and track the full journey through the app. Uber said that it can offer buses in different sizes and tailored to their needs.

How Pandemic Hit India’s Mobility Sector

In the wake of the pandemic, India’s mobility segment went through its worst nightmare with most of the country under lockdown in the first wave as well as in the second wave.

With the sudden decline and the loss in revenue, many mobility startups partnered with delivery startups such as Zomato, Swiggy and more to explore the B2B side. Not only did this help mobility startups to increase revenue and growth, but also reduced layoffs, while adding new verticals to the business.

The mobility sector clocked around 78 million rides in March this year, 69% of what it had recorded in pre-Covid-19 months last year, a report by Bengaluru-based market research firm RedSeer said in May this year. The sector (which includes cabs, auto-rickshaws and bike taxis) was badly hit by the pandemic. It was expected to see a further drop of 30-40% in the coming months.

However, mobility startups Like Yulu, Rapido and IntrCity are revving up to tap into the $165 Bn market volume projected by 2025. According to Statista, between 2021 and 2025, the sector’s revenue is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.94% to cross $165 Bn by 2025.