Uber for Business: How to Find a Reliable Travel Supplier

Resilience has become a key concern for business owners around the world, particularly following the instability of the past few years.

While much of the disruption is beyond business leaders' control, responding quickly and mitigating further delays relies on a strong, transparent and integrated supplier network.

Here, Andrew Laughlan, Head of Enterprise at Uber for Business UK, explores why stakeholders must be considered in decision-making processes and how to spot a reliable business travel supplier.

What are the main considerations for procurement teams when it comes to choosing a business travel partner? 

We know from our own regular research into the priorities of business travel managers that reducing costs is currently the number-one priority for most organisations.

No surprise there – but it’s not as simple as that. Procurement teams need to take into account a range of stakeholders when it comes to selecting a mobility partner. Sustainability goals, employee productivity and duty of care all come into play in the context of ground transportation.

The IT and compliance team will also need to know that any new technology is compatible with existing systems and that it meets privacy standards. 

Aside from price, what does the finance team need?

Ground transportation – and taxis in particular – has historically been the least visible element of business travel spend. Finance and travel managers will be looking for a solution that allows them to gather and analyse data from every employee journey.

Only then is it possible to have a full view of spending, identify trends, improve cost efficiency and evaluate travel strategies. 

To deliver this, a solution must not only integrate smoothly with existing systems but also be super-easy for employees to use. If not, people will simply continue to organise their onward journey from a train station or an airport themselves, with the resulting late expense claims and lost receipts.

How crucial is it to consider sustainability?  

Our research shows that sustainability is consistently the second-highest priority for most travel managers – and sometimes ranks equally with cost.

There are a number of reasons for this, one of which is that emissions reporting on business travel – at trip, traveller and department level – is becoming mandatory at an increasing number of companies. 

Being able to track data such as miles travelled along with vehicle types and emissions can identify opportunities to reduce a company’s carbon footprint and verify Scope 3 data.

This allows sustainability teams to include ground transport in their corporate reporting and to set measurable goals for lower-emission rides.

Which other stakeholders should be concerned with business travel?

Perhaps surprisingly, the choice of travel partner is also relevant to the HR team – largely in terms of duty of care. If your supplier can provide real-time trip data, managers can monitor where employees are, confirm their safe arrivals and respond quickly to incidents or disruptions.

This data adds another layer of insight which can help organisations identify higher risk areas when certain routes might need to be reassessed and to protect employee safety and wellbeing.

Procurement teams should also be conscious of stakeholders in the legal team who will want to review data privacy and of IT teams who are responsible for managing security protocols.  

With the right solution, finance teams gain greater visibility and cost control, sustainability teams have more access to verified emissions data, and HR can set higher standards of employee care and wellbeing. And the procurement team can confidently monitor supplier performance.