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Uber Tops Car Rental in Business Travel

For the first time, Uber finished ahead of car rental for total national ground transportation for business travelers in fourth quarter 2015, according to Certify’s SpendSmart Report.

by Staff
January 27, 2016
Uber Tops Car Rental in Business Travel

A customer requests a ride through Uber's mobile app. Photo courtesy of Uber.

2 min to read


A customer requests a ride through Uber's mobile app. Photo courtesy of Uber.

Certify, a travel and expense management software provider, has released the results of its third annual SpendSmart Report on business travel spending trends for the fourth quarter 2015 and full-year 2015.

For the first time, ride-sharing Uber finished ahead of car rental as a percent of total rides nationally in Q4 2015. According to the Certify report, 41% of business travelers picked Uber, 39% chose car rental while 20% picked a taxi.

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Prior to Q4 2015, only San Francisco and Boston reported Uber as having a greater percent of rides than car rental.

Lyft, the No. 2 ride-sharing service, accounts for a small part of the total rides, but the company has increased more than 700% in the last year, says the report.

“In the three years since the Certify SpendSmart Report was first released, we’ve seen the relative strength of the economy reflected in key sectors of the business travel market,” said Robert Neveu, CEO of Certify. “Prices have risen steadily along with demand for traditional travel services, and for the most part we haven’t seen a lot of fluctuation in expense amounts or the vendors preferred by most travelers. What we couldn’t have anticipated back in 2013 was the phenomenal growth of Uber and the impact it and other sharing economy services would have on corporate travel today. It’s a story that will continue to unfold for years to come.”

Additionally, the report ranked the top rated car rental services in fourth quarter. Out of five stars, Enterprise Rent-A-Car came in first place with 4.3 stars, followed by National Car Rental at 4.2 stars, Avis at 4 stars, Hertz at 3.9 stars and Budget Car Rental at 3.9 stars.

For full-year 2015, companies spend 5% of their travel and expense budgets on car rentals. The top percentages include 19% on meals, 17& on airlines and 14% on lodging, according to the report. For car rental, the average expense amount per individual transaction is $186.42.

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The Certify SpendSmart Report provides analysis of vendors, expense amounts and satisfaction rating data from corporate expense reports collected directly from its customer base, according to the company.

Click here to view the full Fourth Quarter and full-year 2015 SpendSmart reports: 

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