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Uber Was the Most-Expensed Service, With 6% of all Business Receipts in 2016 (venturebeat.com)
Uber continues to be the transportation service of choice for business travelers, making up 52 percent of all expenses in Q4, according to a study by Certify. From a report: The online travel and expense management service provider today claimed Uber received the majority share of ground transportation, compared to 40 percent the same quarter in 2015. Additionally, the private on-demand ride hailing service was the most expensed service in 2016.
We all know what the real answer would be, but most companies won't reimburse for hookers and blow.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Both statistics make sense. Fly to a meeting and stay in a hotel that's only two receipts, but both are relatively big (usually hundreds of dollars). Go to a restaurant, that's two rides; go to a meeting that's two more rides - but the rides are relatively small expenses so the total is small compared to flights and hotel.
Despite all the Uber-hate on Slashdot, the fact remains that the average business traveler doesn't care about labor controversies where Uber is concerned. All they care about is getting from point A to point B with a minimum of expense and hassle.
With Uber, I know when a car is going to show up after I press the button on my phone. I know in advance approximately how much the ride will cost. I won't have the driver take me on the "scenic route" just to pump up the fare. The car will be clean and in good shape. The driver and I can view the same route on our smartphones. And if I have any issues with the driver or the ride, I will have a name and an electronic record of the trip.
And best of all, I don't have a driver tell me, "Cash only, credit card machine is broken." I get a real receipt by email, not a blank piece of paper handed to me so that I can put in whatever amount I please, and thereby cheat on my expenses.
So, yes, I use Uber (and Lyft) and will continue to do so whenever I can. I can tell you a dozen different stories of bad experiences I've had with taxis on business trips. Uber and Lyft have never been anything but a pleasure to use.
I imagine that they mean Uber as a company, not "Transportation" as a category. The article seems to imply that it's Ground Transportation specifically in which Uber is capturing 52% of receipts. So food, drink, and lodging aren't even in that particular figure.
The 6% figure might seem high but you should think about the fact that Uber is the giant in this space so there's little competition. It's not that it had more expense receipts than all of food and lodging, but it had more than any single other company. Therefore it's not that Uber was expensed more than lodging, food, etc...but that folks are not using one service provider more; the rest of the spaces available have too much competition. I also wasn't clear whether they were looking at "most" to mean net sales or number of transactions. The study doesn't make that clear.