Now, 'Uber Central' will arrange commute for your clients and guests

Uber, which calls itself the world's largest ride-sharing app, has launched a new initiative for enterprises - Uber Central, built on top of the Uber for Business platform. With Uber Central, organisations can now provide on-demand transportation for their customers, clients, and guests. They can also request, manage, and pay for rides for others.

Customers who receive rides via Central do not need to have an Uber account; the organisation handles everything. Uber Central is Uber’s first global one-to-many ride product, allowing organisations to manage multiple rides at the same time from the same dashboard.

In a press statement, Arjun Nohwar, APAC Head - Uber for Business, said,

“We are always thinking of new approaches to enhance the Uber experience. Our technology makes it possible to create specialised solutions that help our users have access to reliable transportation options at affordable prices. Uber Central is a great example of such innovation. By using Uber Central, organisations can now provide on-demand rides to anyone from a central dashboard, even if the traveller doesn’t have a smartphone.”

Operators within companies booking riders for customers have to just enter the contact number, pickup and drop off point, and choose the ride category to request a ride. Operators can also track the real-time status of the ride as well as ETAs.

Uber claims that more than 8,000 companies participated in the pilot programme, which includes over 50 customers from India, including The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, IT firm Dell, and e-commerce majors like Groupon, among others.

Uber for Business was launched in India in December 2015, after a three-month pilot. It claims that 65,000 organisations across the globe, including Goldman Sachs, Dell, Wunderman, Bain & Company, Airtel, AT Kearney, Reliance ADA Group, and Tata Steel, rely on Uber for Business today.