Use of ride-hail apps such as Uber and Lyft, as well as other digital-based services, has grown significantly in recent years. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Digital-based services and retailers are surging to the top of business expense claims, according to a new report from Certify. Among them, driving-app services such as Uber and Lyft have become major sources of expense claims to employers.
The Portland, Maine-based-company announced the finding as part of its Q3 2018 SpendSmart report, which tracks the most popular travel and expense claims by businesses in North America.
According to the report, Uber was the vendor most claimed in 3Q expense reports (at 11 percent), followed by Starbucks (4.08 percent), and Amazon (4.05). Also in 3Q, the ride service Lyft cracked the top ten for the first time, coming in at sixth. Rounding out the top ten where were Delta (fourth), American Airlines (fifth), United Airlines (seventh), Walmart (eighth), Shell (ninth), and McDonald's (10th).
“It's fascinating to see the changing face of T&E in the most expensed vendors list this quarter,” Robert Neveu, CEO of Certify, said in a press release. “Uber's share of overall receipts has nearly doubled since Q3 2016, while Amazon has steadily grown its influence in all facets of corporate T&E. Digital technology is fundamentally changing how businesses operate and it will be interesting to see how the traditional heavyweights of T&E fare in coming years — and whether they're able to stay ahead of consumer expectations.”
The numbers support the trend of growth in use of ride-hail apps such as Uber and Lyft in recent years. Uber is still king, at 73 percent the rideshare category in the Certify report, with Lyft counting for 20 percent of receipts. Traditional taxi services had only 7 percent of claims. Industry website Paymentweek notes that there has been a small movement away from Uber, with the second quarter of 2018 quarter seeing an eight percent gain for Lyft versus 2Q 2017.
In addition, expense clams for app-based food delivery has rocketed in recent years. “Uber Eats boasted a 300 percent growth rate in the number of receipts submitted since Q3 2017, and in Q3 2018, it took 26 percent of all receipts in the category,” reports Pymnts.com. “However, Grubhub still tops the category with 36 percent of all receipts.”
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