Surprising? 63% of Business Travelers Tip Uber and Lyft Drivers

Surprising that so many tip - or so few - given that most business travelers are reimbursed for such expenses?  JL

Chris McGinnis reports in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Business travelers spend more per ride on Uber than Lyft -- $26 vs. $22.37 in the second quarter of this year. And when they DO tip the driver, the Uber riders gave more – an average of $4.24 vs $3.46 for Lyft.

Ever since the two companies started operating, Uber has been the 500-pound gorilla among ride-sharing services, and Lyft has been a distant second. But that’s starting to change – among business travelers, at least. Uber might have jumped the shark, as its market share is dropping while Lyft’s is posting strong gains.

In the second quarter of 2018, Certify reported, Uber still dominated ground transportation spending with 74 percent of the market among North American business travelers. But that was a three-point drop from its share a year earlier – a sharp reversal from years of double-digit growth. Over the same 12 months, Lyft’s market share rose from 11 percent to 19 percent, while the market share of traditional taxis fell five points to 7 percent.

By comparison, just four years ago (in 2014), taxis still commanded 74 percent of business travelers’ ground transportation spending, while Uber was at 26 percent and Lyft at less than 1 percent.

Digging into the numbers, the company found that business travelers are still spending more per ride on Uber than Lyft -- $26 vs. $22.37 in the second quarter of this year. And when they DO tip the driver, the Uber riders gave more – an average of $4.24 vs $3.46 for Lyft.

On July 26, Certify issued a press release and report including data about business travelers' use of Lyft and Uber, and the frequency with which business travelers tipped drivers when using these services. Upon further review, we have found that the tipping data shared in the release and report were inaccurate. Certify believes that earning and keeping the trust and confidence of its customers and partners is paramount, and as such we understand the severity of this mistake. We sincerely apologize to Lyft and Uber for this error and regret the problems it caused. To be clear, Certify began a review of the situation immediately after the error was brought to our attention. We have updated and re-issued the press release and report, and are in the process of sharing these new materials with media. For the time being, Certify will not be providing tipping data in conjunction with its SpendSmart reports. We will also be conducting a thorough review of our data analysis processes with the goal of ensuring that all data used in future press releases and reports is held to a more rigorous review standard.
(UPDATE #1: Lyft contacted us to state that according to its internal data 63% of business travelers tip Lyft drivers. We are investigating Certify's claim and will update this post accordingly.)