Skift Take
The head of Uber for Business says his margins are better than the non-business side, so Uber wants to triple-down on investment.
Uber is launching a new black-car service for business travelers, the company told Skift Tuesday. The service, called Uber Business Black, will come with several features designed for busy business travelers.
It includes newer luxury vehicles, like Mercedes G-Class or Rivian R1S, along with more flexible booking options and a higher level of customer service, the company said.
Uber Business Black is the latest among a slew of upgrades Uber has made for business travelers — and those upgrades will continue, Josh Butler, head of Uber for Business, told Skift.
“Uber for Business customers are an extremely attractive target for Uber,” Butler said. “This is a part of the business that Dara [Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO] really wants to triple down on.”
Part of that is because more than half of Uber for Business riders opt for more expensive premium rides, and they take twice as many rides each month compared to non-business users, he said.
Uber launched its first business ride option in late 2022, called Business Comfort. That service will continue, meant for business travelers that want perks like priority pickup but don’t need a full high-end service.
Business Comfort bookings increased 92% from the second quarter of 2023 to the second quarter of 2024, Butler said.
“That’s massive for us. That was the inflection point that changed the way we were thinking about building this product,” Butler said.
Uber Business Black
Butler said that Uber created a customer advisory board as it looked to design a service for business travelers.
“We listened to the perceptions of where they saw our black product today, and they told us that they felt it was somewhat inconsistent, and the experience really didn’t measure up to a quality service of a black car,” Butler said.
That’s what led the company to designing a ride option meant to more closely emulate a traditional service, but with the higher-tech features that come with booking through Uber. Most corporate services are only bookable online and cannot be easily changed after purchase.
Only select drivers are allowed to accept Uber for Business rides: Those with luxury cars, high customer satisfaction ratings, and full (not partial) commercial insurance.
If a driver is behind schedule, riders with Uber Business Black get an Uber Cash credit. They also get more time to get to the car once it arrives, meant to accommodate tight schedules. There is also a 24/7 line to human customer service agents for up to 72 hours after a ride.
The customers also have access to business features that Uber has released previously. They include the option for executive assistants to book and change rides on someone’s behalf, the ability to reserve rides in advance, and connections to certain expense management software.
Users must belong to a company subscribed to Uber for Business to access the booking option, which would then be located among the other options within the normal Uber app.
Investing in Business Travel
Having better margins with Uber for Business means that the company can invest more resources in new products, Butler said.
The company has 500 employees working on business products, he said.
Uber says it has 200,000 clients, including more than half of the Fortune 500 companies.
As it looks to continue growing, Butler said the company is pushing more multi-product usage clients. That means baking in Uber One memberships into contracts and promoting Uber Eats, giving meals vouchers to employees, and using the courtesy ride service to book rides for customers.
“The multi-product usage is huge for Uber for Business and continues to grow really quickly. And as we know, multi-product users spend more than three times more than a single product user,” Butler said. “That’s why we continue to bake more products and build them in and bring them into the business offering, because of the fact that it makes these users much more sticky.”