Certify produces a quarterly report on business travel spending trends and in recent months has tracked the impact of new entrants such as Airbnb, Uber and Lyft.
It’s not a big story as we know, from various reports, that these companies are making their presence felt.
But, it is interesting to keep an eye on the gradual rise of the likes of Uber and Lyft versus the decline in more established taxi companies as well as car rental.
The latest findings show taxi apps, referred to as ride hailing services, have overtaken both taxi and car rental as a percent of total ground transportation transactions.
In Q4 2014, for example, taxis were 30% of transportation transactions, car rental 48% and ride-hailing 22% but, jumping to Q4 2015 shows taxis at 20%, car rental down to 38% and ride-hailing at 42%.
The share for ride-hailing has increased further in the first quarter of 2016 at 46% with taxis now at 14%.
The price difference is also marked and no doubt a reason for the tip in favour of the likes of Uber and Lyft on top of the convenience aspects often highlighted.
Certify’s numbers are just for the US, and it would be interesting to see if there are similar patterns in Europe and Asia.
What should also be noted is the recent trend for the travel management community to build more ground transportation options into the booking process.
Certify announced its own partnership with Uber in January and, in February, Egencia announced a tie-up with Uber, KDS integrated Addison Lee, while Concur made Gett available via its App Center.
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