The latest quarterly report on business travelers’ spending habits from expense tracking giant Certify came with a separate supplement that spells out the boom in business for ride-sharing apps at the expense of traditional ground transportation services.
While Uber continues to dominate the new ride-sharing business, the report sees Lyft moving into a stronger second place in the months ahead.
Certify said its Q1 2016 numbers on business traveler spending show that “use of ride-hailing services among business travelers is at an all-time high and shows no signs of slowing.”
In just two years, Certify said, the new ride-sharing segment’s portion of business travelers’ ground transportation spending has soared from just 8 percent in Q1 of 2014 to 46 percent in the most recent quarter. Over the same two-year period, the share for traditional taxis has fallen from 37 to 14 percent, while rental cars’ share declined from 55 to 40 percent.
In the first quarter of this year, Certify said, Uber captured 43 percent of all ground service rides, but it noted that Lyft is showing signs of a surge. From Q4 of 2015 to Q1 of this year, Certify said, Lyft showed a 44 percent jump in business travel transactions.
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“We anticipate Lyft will become a bigger player in the business travel market in 2016,” Certify said, citing its recent closing of $1 billion in new investment capital, which included $500 million from General Motors.
Eliminating the spending numbers for rental cars and looking only at taxis and ride-hailing, Certify said, Uber commanded a 69 percent share of all transactions in Q1 2016, making it “the dominant provider for business travelers in every U.S. city.”

Check out how much more Delta earns per traveler compared to other carriers (Image: Certify)
Other data from the report, which looked at more than 9 million business travel receipts in the first quarter, found that the three most-expensed restaurants were – in order – Starbucks, McDonald’s and Panera Bread; the most-expensed airlines were Delta, American and Southwest; most-expensed hotel brands were Hampton Inn, Marriott and Homewood Suites; and most-expensed car rental companies were National, Enterprise and Hertz. See the charts below:
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