This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.
Manvi Singh, a marketing executive in her early 20s, commutes over 20 kilometres to her office on the outskirts of Delhi every day. Until six months ago, this commute would take an hour and 15 minutes and include four switchovers: an auto rickshaw to the metro station, a train for half the distance, and a transfer to another line before catching another auto for the final stretch.
“Where I live, the metro is almost nine to 10 kilometres away,” she explains. “Plus, the traffic is terrible on the entire route from my house to the office.”
Lately, Singh has found a solution to this exhausting daily ordeal: Uber Shuttle, a shared bus service that allows users to book seats through the ride-hailing company’s app.
Singh now travels in an air-conditioned bus that picks her up near her house and drops her off at the office. Although the bus is only marginally cheaper and faster than her earlier commute, Singh says, it’s significantly more comfortable, less crowded, and safer.
Uber Shuttle was developed by the San Francisco-based company’s tech teams in Bengaluru and Hyderabad in 2019 as a service that complements public transportation and helps fill transit gaps. The offering was first piloted in Cairo. For the service, Uber partners with private fleet operators who run buses on set lines and schedules, operating in a manner somewhat similar to how Uber collaborates with individual drivers for its cab services.
A “passion project” for Uber’s president of India and South Asia, Prabhjeet Singh, Shuttle is currently available in Delhi and Kolkata. The company is now looking to launch Uber Shuttle in new cities: It is currently running pilots in Hyderabad and Mumbai and has applied for regulatory approvals in India’s tech hub Bengaluru, Uber’s Singh told Rest of World.
“There are so many large employers in Bengaluru who can make use of these shuttle services,” Ashish Verma, a professor of transportation systems engineering at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru and convenor of the institute’s Sustainable Transportation Lab. “They are shared services, so all the benefits of a public transport system that we generally understand – whether it is space economy, reduction in emissions per passenger carried, or energy consumed per passenger carried – would also apply to these shuttle services.”
Besides India, Uber Shuttle has been rolled out to more than 20 cities worldwide, including New York City, Miami, Mexico City, and Cairo. Since its launch, Uber Shuttle has completed nearly 30 million trips globally, according to the company. This year, the company partnered with the organisers of some sporting events and concerts in the US to provide bus shuttles for attendees.
Uber did not share details on the commission it charges bus operators for this service. “We are not commenting on financial details related to the offering,” a company spokesperson told Rest of World.
Much of Uber’s expansion and growth in India and South Asia is led by division president Singh, who has spearheaded operations since 2020 and moved from Delhi to Bengaluru in 2022. His leadership was particularly tested during the Covid-19 pandemic, which Singh described as “one of the toughest phases” of his career.
“Suddenly, we had earners who couldn’t access their livelihood opportunities,” Singh told Rest of World. “There were certain riders, particularly in emergency services, who wanted to travel but didn’t have options available. Internally, it was a period where the business had to reset in a material way. Then, as the pandemic receded, [the question became] how do you win back the confidence of drivers and riders so that they start coming back and know that Uber is safe to use?”
Singh sees Shuttle as a way to rebuild trust among drivers and commuters.
Indian cities rank among the worst in terms of traffic congestion. Calling a service like Shuttle “very important”, Ashok Jhunjhunwala, a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology–Madras and an expert in sustainable mobility, told Rest of World that India’s traffic problem is a direct threat to India’s stated goal of becoming a developed nation by 2047.
“Both in the morning and evening, home to office and office to home, it is taking two hours. Two hours of your time every day is spent on transport – this is not India’s future,” Jhunjhunwala said. “I think innovative India … [would] require very innovative solutions for transport and mobility solutions, particularly for urban transport.”
Uber Shuttle is operational on 300 routes in Delhi, the company said. The growth in Delhi is partially thanks to the company’s collaboration with the municipal government. In September, Uber became the first ride-hailing aggregator to receive a licence under the Delhi Motor Vehicles Licensing of Aggregator (Premium Buses) Scheme, 2023. As part of the announcement, former Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot drove a Shuttle bus himself.
Uber hopes to get similar support from the Karnataka government as it eyes launch into the southern state’s capital, Bengaluru. “This requires a regulatory handshake,” Singh said. “So we are in constant dialogue. And I’m hoping that the Karnataka government is also open to ideas, taking inspiration from Delhi on this.”
While the service is an improvement from her previous commute, Manvi Singh says it isn’t perfect. Sometimes buses bypass pickup points entirely. One time, she was stranded in Noida because a vehicle ran out of fuel. Singh rates her experience with Uber Shuttle as a “60-40” toss-up
Anisha Sircar is an Indian journalist.
This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.
