Uber and Lyft made up 52% of business travel transportation expenses in Q3

Another quarter has passed and Uber and Lyft have once again become the preferred method of transportation for business travelers. According to Q3 2016 numbers released by online travel and expense management service provider Certify, 52 percent of those using transit for work-related purposes opted to use a ride-hailing service. This is the first time that ride hailing has made up the majority of the ground transportation expenses for business travelers.

Last quarter, ride hailing made up 48.7 percent of business expenses.

While ride hailing has become quite popular, Uber continues to dominate market share with 75 percent of travelers over Lyft’s 6 percent, when taxis are factored in. Taxi ridership continues to decline, dropping more than 3 percentage points sequentially.

Above: Certify’s analysis of Uber usage versus Lyft and taxis in Q3 2016.

Image Credit: Screenshot

“Of all the disruptive technologies to come out of the sharing economy over the past several years, nothing has captured the interest of businesspeople or captured more headlines in the media than Uber and the global rise of ride hailing,” said Robert Neveu, Certify’s chief executive in a statement. “Tracking at 52 percent of the ground transportation total in the third quarter, it’s remarkable to see that ride hailing is now more frequently expensed by business travelers than taxi and car rental combined, and more popular than taxi at anytime during the three years Certify has been reporting on this data.”

For the most part, the average cost for business travelers also went down. Certify stated that it saw costs for Uber drop 10 percent to $22.91, while taxis fell 9.77 percent to $35.91 quarter over quarter. Lyft, however, saw the average cost rise nearly 5 percent to $21.80 during the same time period.

San Francisco was the top city for Uber and Lyft usage in Q3, while taxis were preferred in New York City.

Certify analyzed more than 10 million business traveler receipts and expenses to ascertain the preference of those traveling for work in North America.