How The ‘Consumerisation’ Of Tech Reduces Operational Strain At Busy Times
By Andrew Laughlan, Head of Enterprise at Uber for Business UK
The hospitality industry is used to ramping up operations to deal with peak activity throughout the year. Whether it’s to accommodate big events, exhibitions or seasonal surges, these uplifts are great for business, but they can put a strain on operations.
To maintain a high level of customer service at these times, there is often a need to augment workforces and put scalable solutions in place to negotiate the extra challenges created. One of the practical issues, sometimes overlooked, is the need to provide reliable transportation for both staff and customers.
For example, catering companies struggle when temporary personnel – often young and inexperienced – are required to arrive at unfamiliar locations on time. During busy periods it can also be difficult for hotels to secure transport for guests and ensure staff, who may be working late at night in towns and cities, are able to travel home safely.
To prevent transport becoming an issue, companies need a scalable solution that can provide reliable, convenient and cost-effective travel options. A major trend helping businesses tackle this specific problem is the ‘consumerisation’ of technology. This refers to the use of consumer apps to provide answers to business challenges.
Consumer apps
When it comes to consumer transport, most people will be familiar with ride-hailing apps like Uber. These apps are super simple to use and provide rides at the touch of a button. While they are typically associated with on-demand taxi bookings, businesses are also increasingly turning to them to solve their travel problems. To help with this, ride hailing companies now offer business specific services and support features.
For example, to avoid complications at busy times, corporate bookers can now reserve vehicles in advance. This will guarantee transportation at a set cost and help companies avoid surge pricing, which can happen when there is heavy demand. It’s also possible to order from a range of vehicles. So, if a catering company needs to transport temporary workers to a specific place, they can book an XXL-sized vehicle. And if a hotel guest wants a more luxurious vehicle to travel in this can also be easily ordered.
At the same time, companies can give their own workers the freedom to order transport as and when they need it. This provides staff with a convenient booking option, which they will be familiar with, and, if employers are covering the costs, they can access business features that allow them to track and manage expenses from trips taken.
Removing business headaches
For instance, when using ground transportation, employees are still typically asked to keep hold of receipts. These are often handwritten when it comes to taxi travel, and therefore need to be processed – with staff being asked to fill out and file expense forms. Our research shows that almost two-thirds of travel managers find these expense processes to be a significant challenge.
The consumerisation of tech is removing this admin headache, however, as when employers have a business account they can automate expense processes. This allows businesses to closely monitor how staff spend money, and ensure trips are always approved.
It also provides greater visibility over ground transport spend. It means managers can analyse patterns of behaviour at a company-wide level. This is helping businesses to keep costs under control and identify ways to reduce spending – whether that’s by checking expenses are appropriate or by encouraging greater use of features such as reserve bookings.
Managing priorities
The research also shows that cost savings and greater visibility over spending are two of the top three priorities for travel managers when it comes to ground transportation in 2026. The third priority is sustainability – and the consumerisation of tech is helping here too.
For example, if a company has sustainability targets and wants to reduce its environmental impact, ride-hailing apps allow business users to specify the use of EVs. If companies want to monitor progress against their sustainability targets, it’s also possible to access CO2 emissions data for each trip for reporting purposes.
During busy periods, it’s crucial that businesses have solutions they can rely upon but, increasingly, these solutions also need to meet a variety of other requirements. With transport this can be ready availability for customers, convenience of ordering for staff and the visibility of data for the back office. The consumerisation of technology is providing all this to companies in an easy to use, scalable solution that ensures they remain in control at peak times.