Data indicates business travelers increasingly use ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft over taxis.
Analysis of more than 10 million business traveler receipts and expenses over the second quarter indicate ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft account for nearly half of overall ground transportation. The data was collected and analyzed by expense management company Certify. Trends show business travelers have been increasingly using ride-hailing services since the first quarter of 2014; however, 2015 was the first year ride-hailing service usage surpassed taxi usage.
Certify report that taxis accounted for only 14% of the ground transportation category, with car rentals accounting for 37%, and ride-hailing accounting for 49%.
“Our data shows the real-time transformation of the ground transportation category and how modern business travelers have wholly embraced ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft,” said Robert Neveu, CEO, Certify. “The market continues to grow at an incredible pace, and competition is getting sharper and more sophisticated. I think what we’re seeing now is really the emergence of the kind of market forces you find in more mature industries. Forces that will invariably drive downward pressure on pricing, as well as an increased demand for new and better services in the future. Ride-hailing was bent on disruption from the beginning, and by the looks of it there’s a lot more change to come.”
Cost is certainly a factor when it comes to choosing a taxi versus Lyft or Uber. The average cost per ride was nearly two times more for a taxi compared to Lyft. The average cost per ride for Lyft was $20.78, compared to $39.80 for a taxi. Uber’s average cost per ride was $25.48. With taxi prices rising 15% over the last year and usage dropping 51% over the past two years, the chance of taxis regaining a share of the business travel market seems slim.
Ride-hailing service provider Lyft experienced a faster growth rate than Uber over the 2nd quarter. In San Diego and Houston, Lyft had 25% percent of the ridesharing market. With the release of the new features in Uber for Business, it will be interesting to see growth patterns over the next quarter.
The Certify SpendSmart™ report tracks business travel expense spending across major categories such as meals, airlines, lodging and car rental. The report highlights top vendors and emerging trends through the analysis of data from millions of expenses and receipts processed by the Certify cloud-based expense reporting system. Reports are compiled each quarter as a tool to help controllers, accountants and business travelers make informed choices about company T&E expense spending.
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