Business Travelers Now Prefer Uber, Lyft By a Healthy Margin

by Gabe Zaldivar
Last updated: 2:31 PM ET, Fri April 22, 2016

Photo courtesy of Thinkstock

Seeing as how you are reading this between Uber rides, you are already in the know. Ride-hailing services are gobbling up the industry.

Travel and expense website Certify unveiled a Q1 report on Thursday, outlining the state of business travel transportation.

The most immediate and obvious takeaway is that innovations like Uber and Lyft are doing very well, enjoying growth of use from corporate travelers on an amazing level.

What follows is an infographic that compiles some of the more intriguing aspects of Certify's report.

Certify compiled millions of receipts through its service from a period ranging from the start of January 2014 through March 31, 2016.

And what it found was quite remarkable.

As you can see from the first graphic, the first quarter of 2014, just a couple years ago, showed a vastly different story than what we are used to today.

Ride-hailing amounted to just eight percent of business travelers' means to get around their city of choice.

Fast forward to these past three months and you can see car rentals and taxi services taking a momentous hit.

Things have flopped with ride-hailing services taking 46 percent of the business. It's important to note that Uber remains the behemoth app, amounting to 43.4 percent of the overall service.

Certify president Robert Neveu had thoughts on the shift: "The world is quickly realizing this is more than a trend. It's an evolution of how business travel gets done, and the power of choice has tipped in favor of the individual."

Neveu continued, "Anything that saves time and money while providing real value is going to be a hit with business travelers."

The report seems to suggest just that as the reason for the rise of ride-hailing services. On average, taxi rides cost $39.68 with Uber clocking in at $26.41 and Lyft charging a relatively paltry $23.53.

For years taxi companies have been slow to innovate. There are now services available that are quick, reliable, stylish and inexpensive.

We have to wonder if we are watching the initial throes of the dying taxi. If nothing changes on the provider's side, the once ubiquitous taxi will become an endangered species.