When business travellers need a ride to the airport or office, they’re increasingly opening an app rather than hailing a cab or renting a car, according to an analysis of business-travel spending by Certify.
The 2017 SpendSmart report found that 68 per cent of ground transportation spending went to ride-sharing companies, led by Uber (56 per cent) and Lyft (12 per cent). In fact, Uber was expensed more than any other category, accounting for nine per cent of all business-travel charges, ahead of second-place Starbucks (six per cent).
Uber and Lyft continued to gain market share in 2017, while taxis accounted for just seven per cent of transportation spending (down from 11 per cent in 2016), and spending on rental cars fell from 33 per cent to 25 per cent in just a year. National Car Rental was the most expensed rental-car agency in 2017, as well as the top-rated, followed by Enterprise, Hertz, Avis, and Budget.
The rapid growth of ride-sharing was highlighted in the report with a comparison with Airbnb which, although it has gained similar attention, has captured only 0.5 per cent of total lodging spending among business travellers.
