Lyft Is Worth A Look In Corporate Travel

Travel and expense management firm Certify uncovered an industry first last year when it found, for the first time, ride-hailing apps like Uber surpassed traditional taxi use for business travelers (at least for those using Certify’s solutions).

Has the trend endured? Certify published today (April 21) the latest stats on ride-hailing performance in corporate travel via a special report.

“Ride-Hailing Continues to Rise” is the name of the Certify SpendSmart Report, and the title itself offers an answer to that question.

The Q1 2016 figures show “use of ride-hailing services among business travelers is at an all-time high and shows no signs of slowing,” Certify stated. Uber dominates, but rivals like Lyft are gaining ground, researchers found.

Ride-hailing services took up 46 percent of Q1 2016 ground transportation for corporate travelers, compared to 40 percent landing with car rentals and just 14 percent going to taxis.

That’s a big shift for the taxi business, which saw a high of 37 percent of ground transportation going to this traditional service in Q1 2014.

Uber is, by far, the leader in ride-hailing services for corporate users, with just 1 percent of this segment going to Lyft rides, the report said. But that doesn’t mean it should be ignored.

“Although a distant second place in the category, Lyft has also established momentum with the business travel trend, growing 44 percent from Q4 2015 to Q1 2016,” Certify wrote, “and now represents nearly 2.5 percent of all ground transportation transactions.”

Certify added that Lyft is expected to continue this growth in the corporate travel space.

Taxis are struggling, the report highlighted, but there are certain cities where taxis remain a strong go-to for corporate travelers. New York is the nation’s top city for taxi rides with this demographic, followed by Las Vegas and Chicago.

Uber, on the other hand, dominates in San Francisco. New York comes in at second place, followed by Chicago.

According to Certify, its research suggested Uber and Lyft’s dominance can be attributed to lower costs and greater satisfaction reported by corporate travelers.