New Service from Uber Allows Businesses to Manage Rides Without the App

SAN FRANCISCO (April 18, 2017) On April 18, 2017, Uber is announcing the new, enterprise-ready Uber Central, built on top of the Uber for Business platform. With Central, businesses can request, manage and pay for rides for others, at scale.

Uber Central is Uber’s first global one-to-many ride product, allowing organizations to manage multiple rides all at the same time and from the same dashboard. Customers who receive rides via Central do not need to have an Uber account or the app to take a ride—the organization handles everything.

More than 8,000 companies participated in the pilot program, proving demand in the market. The new Uber Central is built for businesses of any size and delivers the reporting, billing and management needs that Uber’s business customers have come to expect.

The new Central is:

• Business-ready: completely rebuilt on Uber for Business, Uber Central benefits from enterprise-grade billing, management and reporting.
• Intuitive: a new, easy-to-use dashboard interface lets users see and do everything from a single screen—from requesting new rides to monitoring ongoing requests and active trips.
• Efficient: share drafts, past trip history and final trip cost across multiple operators, so large organizations can seamlessly manage transportation logistics across multiple operators and shifts

With this news, Uber for Business is expanding beyond business travel and demonstrating how it can improve the way organizations operate. Uber for Business offers the billing, reporting and management technology that they need to increase efficiency and realize cost savings. Today 65,000 organizations across the globe including Goldman Sachs, Zillow Group, Dell, Wunderman and AdRoll rely on Uber for Business.

Customer Use Cases

In some cases, Uber Central can be used to replace old ways of doing things. For instance, a car dealership might use Central to reduce the overhead of owning a private shuttle that are used just a few times a day to give customers rides. In other instances, it can unlock completely new use cases. For instance, a nice restaurant or luxury retail shop can offer rides via Central as a differentiating perk to its customers.

And there are also more meaningful use cases—for instance, Central can provide reliable transportation to people that would otherwise be immobile. Many seniors or persons with disabilities such as Parkinson’s end up confined to their home or need to rely on friends and family for transportation. When organizations partner with Uber Central, they can provide those in need with a new sense of independence and mobility, even for those that don’t own a smartphone or know how to use the Uber app.

Visit uber.com for more information.