Uber Expands Focus to India’s $13 Billion Corporate Mobility Market

Uber is targeting a business transportation market in India that it believes may grow to $13 billion by 2030, going beyond just individual riders. The massive ride-hailing company is wagering that transporting office workers to factories, IT parks, and global capability centres will provide the size and steady demand that few mobility segments provide.

Nikolaas Van de Loock, general manager of Uber Shuttle for EMEA and India, stated, "It's a very, very large opportunity—not just for India, but even for Uber globally," pointing out that the effort represents expansion in the nation's corporate ecosystem. Large corporations, IT parks, manufacturing hubs, and GCCs are all expanding quickly in India, which is driving up the need for organised staff mobility. By 2030, the Indian corporate transportation market is expected to grow to a value of over $13 billion, according to industry projections.

From Egypt to India, Uber’s Large Commute Patterns

According to Van de Loock, seven or eight years ago, the organisation started experimenting with major commute patterns. Due to the size of the market, the difficulties with traffic, and the well-defined commuting patterns in places like Delhi, what started out as a pilot in Egypt swiftly shifted to India. According to him, those elements demonstrated Uber Shuttle's good product-market fit. Uber learnt how to develop technology to accommodate several passengers in a single car from the experience. Uber was well-positioned to compete in the market, according to Van de Loock, who cited the company's position as India's largest fleet supplier and its access to vehicles at scale and across regions.

The second advantage of the company was its technology, which was developed over a period of 10 to 15 years of fitting several passengers into a single vehicle and included insights from Uber Shuttle's business-to-consumer operations. Uber made the decision to establish its own employee transit system for India almost three years ago, employing local engineers and operations personnel to do so. According to Van de Loock, Uber tested the technology for almost a year and a half at its own headquarters in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, with very encouraging outcomes.

Since then, the business has begun implementing it outside, and the market and customers are responding favourably. Based on where employees reside and who needs to be transported on a particular day, Uber's employee transportation service uses technology to dynamically generate routes. This method enables dependable commutes, high vehicle utilisation, and effective route optimisation.

What is Uber Shuttle?

Uber's employee transport services (ETS) is a B2B offering that mostly uses four- and six-seaters, while its B2C business, Uber Shuttle, uses large-format vehicles. According to Van de Loock, policy pressure regarding pollution has accelerated Uber's introduction of shuttles into ETS for specific customers.

When asked if this business category would help Uber develop significantly, Van de Loock responded that it would, citing a $6 billion opportunity already being spent with offline suppliers in a technologically advanced industry. Although the product is being developed for India first, it may eventually expand to areas like the Middle East or Latin America, where support facilities are also situated, he said, adding that the possibility would be significant for India and possibly worldwide.