Uber to focus on car rentals and shuttle buses as it eyes expansion

Uber is trying to stay away from making investments itself for additional cars, which it did up until 2017.
Uber to focus on car rentals and shuttle buses as it eyes expansion
Uber to focus on car rentals and shuttle buses as it eyes expansion
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In an effort to beef up its presence in the Indian market, Uber is planning to enter into fresh areas like self-driving car rentals and shuttle bus services, reported Mint. 

Uber opted out of its food delivery business in India by selling Uber Eats to Zomato in an all-stock deal worth $350 million. 

However, having offloading Uber Eats, the company is now focussing on newer areas, and reportedly now has partnerships with companies such as Drivezy, Zoomcar, Bounce and Revv. These will be partnerships where Uber drivers can approach them for vehicles for rent, and the rental period could be anywhere between 5 and 30 days.

“The platform (Zoomcar, Drivezy, Revv) earns revenue for each completed trip and pays off the Uber driver’s salary directly instead of Uber settling the pay," a source told Mint.

This way Uber is trying to stay away from making investments itself for additional cars, which it did up until 2017. Ola still uses a model where it leases vehicles and gives it to drivers.

The other plan of launching shuttle bus services between cities could be more exciting. Uber already has this model in some markets and in India too, it has been doing some pilot-scale activity on this. These buses can typically carry between 12 and 25 persons. A similar service, called Shuttl, is now present in New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune and Hyderabad.

The two-wheeler rental business is another area Uber is going to take a lot of interest in the coming days in the Indian market. The company is currently studying the regulations involved in the business. 

Research firm Frost and Sullivan has estimated that the ride-hailing app-based business could be worth $43 billion in India by 2025. The current lot of 2 million vehicles is expected to double to 4.2 million by then.

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