In the near future, employees of government ministries, departments, agencies, and public sector organisations will be able to reserve cars from cab aggregator Uber for business reasons thanks to a partnership between the firm and public procurement web GeM.
It'll be a kind of business service. We are now launching the service as a trial, and over time, all government ministries, departments, agencies, and public sector units (PSUs) will be able to use it. We want to proceed in stages, an official said. With no cancellation fees and no surge pricing, the corporation would provide the service at a set price.
In order to increase openness in government procurement, the firm has registered on the government e-marketplace (GeM) platform, which was established in 2016 by the commerce ministry. GeM allows central ministries and departments to purchase products and services.
The government has an increasing need for taxi services, and all the departments spend a lot of money on them. However, by employing this service, they would be able to save a lot of money. The GeM portal's second most popular category of services is cab and taxi services, which are in demand by government departments and ministries.
The official went on to explain that an approved individual in each ministry or department may add riders or officials, who would then be able to book the service using the Uber app on their mobile devices.
“The designated official may add or remove the names of riders as necessary. The charge will be sent directly to the department when the service is used, the source said. The official's trip will be cashless and cardless; more vehicle types for government riders have been introduced; they include the GeM Yatraa Hatch and the GeM Yatraa Sedan; and multiple-stop hourly rentals will be available.
A corporate representative who was contacted acknowledged the collaboration. GeM includes more than 62 lakh vendors and service providers, over 63,000 government purchasing entities, and a broad variety of goods and services.
Currently, this site may be used for transactions by state governments, central armed police forces, government departments, ministries, and public sector organisations. The site offers a broad variety of goods, from autos to office supplies.
Among the most important product categories are those for cars, computers, and office furnishings. The platform also lists services for online casting, analytics, trash management, logistics, and transportation.
In 2022–2023, the electricity ministry ranked first among central government departments in terms of platform purchases. The ministry spent Rs 30,572.9 crore on goods and services. The ministry of military came next with spending of Rs. 28,741.2 crore, followed by the ministry of petroleum and natural gas with Rs. 28,157.2 crore, the ministry of steel with Rs. 12,527.3 crore, and the ministry of health and family welfare with Rs. 7,158.3 crore.
The biggest such platform worldwide is KONEPS, which is based in South Korea. GeM is now in third place, after GeBIZ from Singapore.
