Airtel, L&T, Reliance ADAG to ride Ola platform for staff travel

Ola is rolling out new features for companies, targetting large firms for their local business travel requirements

India’s largest taxi aggregator Ola has built a mechanism for managers to track and approve rides taken by employees on its platform, as it looks to woo more corporate customers.

It is quickly rolling out new features for Ola Corporate, which targets large companies for their local business travel requirements. Ola Corporate allows employees of corporate firms to pay for rides from a pre-paid account maintained by their employers. Airtel, Reliance ADAG, Larsen & Toubro and Godrej are among the companies that have adopted the service, with Ola offering a 60 per cent reduction in their business travel expenses.

The company says it has already fulfilled rides for about 200,000 employees across 100 cities since it launched the service in January.

“With the addition of a host of exclusive features, we are confident that our service will bring immense value to hundreds of thousands of working professionals and enable seamless mobility experience for their business travel,” said Ankit Jain, head of Ola Corporate.

With its proposition to make the process of applying for reimbursements and travel planning redundant, Ola believes corporate customers can become a steady vertical for it. The company currently utilises its existing 450,000-strong cab fleet to carry out corporate rides as well, but says users of this segment would get access to cabs in under five minutes.

“With over 18,000 employees spread across over 100 cities and towns in India, our transportation needs for business travel are extremely varied. Ola understands our unique needs and has tailored its solutions to serve a wide range of use cases,” said Ram Kuppuswamy, global chief sourcing officer at Bharti Airtel.

Ola offers its corporate users access to all categories — Micro, Mini, Prime, Rentals, Lux and Share.

Meanwhile, Ola’s rival Uber said it has a similar offering for corporate customers in India, called Uber for Business. “Uber for Business has been growing at an incredible pace worldwide and we’re delighted to have some of the largest Indian corporates adopt it for their employees. We have over 50,000 businesses worldwide that use Uber for Business for their mobility solutions and it has proved to be a more affordable and efficient transport option for them,” said Arjun Nohwar, Asia-Pacific head, Uber for Business.