New report finds Uber & Airbnb are on the rise for business use
A new report by Certify has highlighted the rise of sharing economy services in the American corporate sector. It would seem the rise of Uber among business travellers has come at the expense of the rental car industry: In the first half of 2015, car rentals accounted for 45% of transportation expenses, as opposed to 55% the previous year, according to the report, which also showed that Uber use for business purposes rose from 8% to 31% over the past year. Taxis also lost roughly 10% of their market share during the most recent quarter, falling to 22% of business travellers claims, from 37% in the previous quarter. Airbnb made similar gains over traditional hotels, as the report shows that use of Airbnb for business travel increased 143% during the first half of 2015.

There's more evidence that so-called ride-hailing services are gaining ground against traditional taxis.

Thirty-one percent of business travelers now use Uber for ground transportation, topping taxi trips every month since April, a study said Thursday.

Just 22 percent of business trippers use taxis when hailing rides, down from 37 percent in the first quarter of 2014, according to a Certify, which makes online travel and expense management software. Certify surveyed quarterly data from 8.5 million receipts and submitted expense reports from July to September 2015, to help set benchmark prices for corporate clients that use its service to process expense reports.

The soaring influence of Uber among corporate clients also highlighted how sharing economy start-ups as a whole are gaining dominance, including the likes of Airbnb, said Certify CEO Bob Neveu. Employees of small to midsized firms in IT, financial services, food, medical devices and retail are driving much of the growth in the sharing economy, the report said.

"I think the biggest piece with ride sharing is class of service and convenience," Neveu said. "A bottle of water, a pack of gum are pretty standard for services like Uber, really caring for the customer is a big deal for business customers. If you can use a corporate credit card, it's infinitely easier than cash. And small to mid-size firms don't have the same preferred vendor lists, so they adopt new technologies faster."

