Uber outpaces rental cars, taxis for business travelers

UberX driver John Sollars on Valencia Street waiting to pick up passengers in San Francisco. According to Certify, which makes expense-management software, U.S. business travelers used Uber more often than either rental cars or taxis in the fourth quarter, the first time the ride-hailing service eclipsed traditional rivals for corporate use. less UberX driver John Sollars on Valencia Street waiting to pick up passengers in San Francisco. According to Certify, which makes expense-management software, U.S. business travelers used Uber more often than ... more Photo: Paul Chinn / Paul Chinn / The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Paul Chinn / Paul Chinn / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Uber outpaces rental cars, taxis for business travelers 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

U.S. business travelers used Uber more often than either rental cars or taxis in the fourth quarter, according to Certify, which makes expense-management software. It was the first time the ride-hailing service eclipsed traditional rivals for corporate use, Certify said.

“We’re seeing a tipping point now,” said Bob Neveu, CEO of Certify, which tracks over $1 billion in expense accounts per quarter. In the third quarter, Uber outpaced rental cars and taxis in San Francisco and Boston, but that trend had spread nationwide by the end of the year.

“It’s pretty telling about the success of Uber in the business enterprise market.”

MBA BY THE BAY: See how an MBA could change your life with SFGATE's interactive directory of Bay Area programs.

Cracking that market is a major road to future expansion. Business travel is a $310 billion market in the U.S. and $1.2 trillion worldwide, according to the Global Business Travel Association.

Corporations now are adding Uber, Lyft, Airbnb and other new options to their lists of approved vendors, Neveu said. That’s huge, because many companies restrict employees’ travel and entertainment expenses to certain suppliers as way to meet their “duty of care” to ensure travelers’ safety, he said. Once those options are approved by employers, many travelers who opt for Uber, Airbnb and other services in their personal lives start using them for business.

Certify’s numbers come with some major caveats. Uber had 41 percent of trips, compared with 39 percent for car rentals and 20 percent for taxis. But a traveler generally rents a car for several days. One who instead used Uber might end up with multiple rides during the same time frame — meaning it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. While the report didn’t track dollar amounts, renting a car is a much bigger expense than taking an Uber ride.

Certify didn’t factor Lyft into the percentages. It said the No. 2 ride-hailing company saw eightfold growth — but started from a very small base. In the third quarter, “Lyft was about one-half of 1 percent, almost a rounding error,” Neveu said. “Its transactions among business travelers are much, much lower than those of Uber, but are growing a lot.”

Certify’s software allows business travelers to rate vendors on a scale of 0 to 5 stars. It said Uber enjoyed the best ground transit rating: 4.46 stars, closely matched by Lyft at 4.43. Car rentals had 4.01 stars, while taxis had 3.68.

Airbnb also saw hefty growth, with its use rising 259 percent, Certify said. However, it declined to break out how Airbnb’s penetration compared to that of hotels. Reports by Concur, another company that makes expense-account software, have showed Airbnb starting to register on expense reports as a hotel alternative, albeit one used much less frequently.

Certify found that many travelers were quite frugal, even on the company’s dime. The most-expensed restaurants were Starbucks, McDonald’s, Panera Bread, Subway and Dunkin’ Donuts. The most-expensed lunch was a $7.65 meal at McDonald’s, and the most-expensed dinner was $8.08, also at McDonald’s.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid

Uber is most-used form of ground transit for business travelers

Uber was used more often by business travelers than either taxis and car rentals in the fourth quarter, according to Certify, which makes software for expense accounts. But the company looked only at total number of expenses reported, not dollar volume. Car rentals are more expensive and generally last for several days.

Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015 Uber 29% 31% 34% 41% Taxis 35% 24% 22% 20% Car rentals 36% 45% 44% 39%