After a long run of sustained ridership growth among business travellers, data from travel management company Certify shows that one per cent fewer rides were booked with Uber in the third quarter of this year, while rival ride-sharing app Lyft gained ground.
Uber’s market share fell from 55 per cent to 54 per cent. Lyft’s share however rose three per cent, from eight per cent to 11 per cent.
The market share owned by taxis fell one per cent, to seven per cent overall, while car rental companies claimed 28 per cent of the market, down 1 per cent. Certify says: “Car rental and taxi appear to be bearing the brunt of losses in the business travellers’ trend toward ride hailing.”
Uber’s small drop-off comes in the face of a concerted push by the company to attract business travellers. The Certify analysis notes that Uber’s declining market share in major US metro areas like San Francisco was matched by corresponding gains by Lyft.
Certify also found that Lyft’s user review rankings hit an average of 4.76 stars, topping Uber’s 4.1 rating and and 3.59 for taxis.
Uber recently introduced the ability to tip drivers, but Certify found that only 3 per cent of app users gave a tip in the third quarter.
