Lyft Details Corporate Travel Growth

Travel and expense management solutions providers are increasingly highlighting the shifting trends of corporate travel, like the rising use of ridesharing solutions. That development has led to a new field of competition between Uber and Lyft as both vie for greater share of the business travel market.

Uber undoubtedly reigns, but Lyft has released new statistics on its growth in the segment.

Details released Thursday (Aug. 9) said Lyft has experienced 221 percent year-over-year growth between Q2 2017 and Q2 2018 in the corporate travel arena; Q2 2018 alone saw 25 percent quarterly growth in this segment. One-quarter of Fortune 1000 companies use Lyft Business (including most of the Fortune 50 companies).

Lyft pointed to several initiatives that have helped to expand its corporate travel presence, including its recent partnership with American Express Global Business Travel as well as T&E firms like Concur and Expensify.

Lyft’s rewards program is also driving business adoption, and provided 25 percent of the segment’s quarterly growth. The program provides $5 in Lyft credit for every five rides taken under a Lyft Business profile.

Earlier this year, Lyft upgraded its Lyft Business platform to ease friction in the expense reporting process. In a blog post, the company said its interface will display expense codes to business users so they can more easily categorize their expenses. Lyft also enhanced controls for corporate travel managers that want to require employees to choose such codes or add additional notes to their expensed trips.

Data released from Certify last month found that Uber is still the undisputed leader in corporate use of ridesharing solutions. Nearly 75 percent of ground transportation expenses that flowed through the Certify platform in Q2 came from Uber — just 19 percent came from Lyft.

Lyft, however, is experiencing faster growth than its rival — it saw an 8 percent increase in market share during Q2, while Uber’s market share declined 3 percent.