Slashdot Mirror
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.
Uber is still losing money by the metric ton and has been for a very long time, though some banks apparently don't care and are willing to lend them billions more.
How long can this bubble last?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I switched exclusively to Uber simply because of these factors when travelling to unfamiliar destination. One less thing to worry about in business travel is a huge plus.
I don't have to pull out my wallet, worry about tips or even talk to the driver. The receipts are conveniently accessible at the end of the month.
I think the reason is similar to why people simply drive to McDonald's instead of exploring local restaurants.
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.
I find it very hard to believe that Uber takes up more receipts than food and drink and lodging. I also find it very hard to believe that the top receipt is only 6% of total receipts. That seems like a small number.
captcha: treasury - no really are the captchas really random?
It's the top VENDOR not category. They are looking at specific companies. There are lots of car rental companies, airlines, and hotel brands, but Uber is the 500lb gorilla in ride sharing these days. In the transport category their numbers show Uber had 40%, Lyft 2%, Taxis 20%, and rentals 38%. The others in the top 5 vendor list were Starbucks, Delta, American Airlines, and Amazon.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
I live in a small town. Uber does not exist. Stop posting stories about non-existing crap.
I want to hear more about what Apple is going to ditch next. It takes courage to ditch things that people still use.
If they're really brave, the next iPhone (or Samsung Galaxy) will ditch the ability to make phone calls- because no one uses phones to make voice calls anymore. (or very few people do). Imagine how thin they can make the phone if they take the phone part out.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
So if I get this straight, it means nobody wants to pay for an Uber?
When at a hotel getting an uber is a 10min wait max so I can request one when settling up at breakfast and by the time i get to the door it's there. One of the airports i frequent doesn't allow Uber so i have to take a cab which means a paper receipt which is a pain when it comes to expense reporting. Plus, for some reason the cabs do not have a GPS so I have to give the driver directions which isn't a big deal but after using Uber just doesn't make sense to me.
For the emailed receipts I wish the date and amount was in the file name, that makes it easier for expense reporting in my case.
I came to the datacenter drunk with a fake ID, don't you want to be just like me?
looking at "most" to mean net sales or number of transactions
The 6% figure seems to be counting "receipts" which would lead me to believe "number of transactions."
I can see it, 6% of a three day trip to a medium sized city makes sense.
Figure food $150, hotel, $400, flight $300, client dinner $150, that's $1000, so $60 on uber would be 6%, that's less than the airport alone (there are of course non travel related things that get expensed though).
The more interesting thing to me is that this shows Uber is crushing taxi companies not because if price (it's expensed after all), but because of quality of service.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Certify is a management software for employee expense report and expense management. Such reporting system is generally used by larger corporation and and the sample used in the study may be biased.
Also because of the nature of the software, some travel data, for examples, trips using public transit (which do not always have receipts), might not be captured by the software. I sometimes take public transit during trips and my company would just take my word for it (based on reasonableness, of course. It is a small amount compared to others)
In addition, larger companies might have corporate account with hotel chains which sometimes invoices the company directly so this will not be captured with the software.
Thats just an iPod Touch. It already exists. And its very convenient to give to you kids as a toy when you dont want to give them a phone.
**Life is too short to be serious**
Just go with the base storage of either 16GB or 32GB because people stream their music and store their pictures in the cloud. /s
I live in small to medium sized city (Wilmington, de) and the taxi service is worthless.
I've seen people wait for hours when an uber was ten minutes away, they complain about rides too close or too far (NYC is like that too, they hate gonna be passed Williamsburg in Brooklyn).
When I was in Philly it was even worse. They cried and lied when they were forced to get GPS and credit card machines (way too late for not having credit card or GPS to be a thing). Hour for pick up in city limits.
For me not only is Uber about a 20% saving Vs a cab, it also would be worth a surcharge.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
You don't go on many business trips, do you? Rides (Uber or taxi) are usually shared, one person pays and expenses it. Breakfast usually at the hotel, so no ride, etc.
Really - Taxi companies can't get together and provide an uber like service ? I don't get that.
There does seem to be a fundamentally unfair playing field here where Taxis have to abide by city/state regulations and uber doesn't.
I really don't understand why this isn't a big issue or why municipalities are so eager to keep it that way.
Absolute statements are never true
I live in a small town. Uber does not exist.
If you sign up to drive for them then you can monopolize the local market.
Because there are a lot of areas where older phone services are available, but straight data is iffy.
not because if price (it's expensed after all), but because of quality of service.
If Uber keeps promoting Pool, the quality of service is going to decline dramatically. Experienced drivers won't take Pool rides, even in the face of being deactivated. That means the best cars and best drivers are the most likely to go do something else rather than be forced into competing with mass transit with bottom feeder rates. Uber had a great business model but Pool is corrupting the entire industry.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
How?
I suspect every time I use uber it's using more gasoline.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg