Study: Business Travelers Prefer Uber To Rental Cars
The majority of business travelers now prefer using Uber rather than renting a car, according to a new study conducted by Certify, a prominent North American travel and expense management software firm.
The new study found that Uber use accounted for around 43% of all business traveler ground-transportation transactions during the first quarter of 2016. This compares to a 40% share held by rental cars.
The new study notes at, while ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft first surpassed business traveler rental car use back during the fourth quarter of 2015, the market share held by such services has been growing rapidly even since then, with no end in sight.
Certify CEO Robert Neveu commented: “These ride-hailing services have perfected a model that allows employees to choose the kind of experience they want when traveling for business while also saving the company a great deal of money in the process.”
The Tampa Bay Times provides more:
That’s not the only signal of change in how people want to get around. The giant car rental company Hertz relocated to southwest Florida from New Jersey in 2013 with plans to expand in a lower-tax state. But Hertz is struggling with shifts in the glutted ground transportation industry, driven by Uber, Lyft and other new competitors. The company has issued recent earnings warnings and its stock, just under $30 a share in mid 2014, closed Thursday at just over $9 a share.
…The Certify study finds rental car transactions have fallen 15% in 2 years while taxis have dropped even more, by 23% over the same period. Taxis accounted for 14% of ground transportation transactions in the first quarter of 2016.
…Even automakers are paying attention to the rise of ride-hailing. In January, General Motors invested $500 million in Lyft. Why? “We think our business and personal mobility will change more in the next 5 years than the last 50,” GM president Dan Ammann said.
Neveu continued: “It really comes down to convenience. The ability to hail and pay efficiently — that convenience factor is huge, and we’re seeing it change the habits and behaviors of our users.”
That seems to be much of the truth of it — ride-hailing services are far simpler to make use of than taxis. And they are cheaper as well.
Image via Uber
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