Survey: Business travelers switching from taxis to Uber, Lyft

With a growing number of companies giving the green light to ride-hailing services, corporate travelers are increasingly choosing Uber or Lyft over hopping in a cab.

Among all the business trips taken that involved some form of ground transportation, 49% used ride-hailing services in the second quarter, according to expense management company Certify, which analyzed more than 10 million receipts.

Meanwhile, cab rides continued to plummet, down to 14% of trips, compared with 37% just two years ago.  Car rentals fared better at 37%, but that was still a steep drop from the 55% of trips business trekkers took in the second quarter of 2014.

More business travelers are ditching rental cars and turning to Uber and Lyft

“The business traveler is seeing ride hailing as a viable alternative,’’ Certify CEO Bob Neveu says. He noted the ability to hail and track a car via a smartphone app, as well as pay with a credit card on file, boosts such services' appeal. “The users are preferring the experience of ride hailing over taxis just in terms of quality and satisfaction," he added.

The shift is a vivid example of how a younger, more tech-savvy workforce is changing the workplace, some executives say.

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AGC Partners, a Boston-based investment banking firm, has long allowed its staff, made up mostly of people in their 20s, to use Uber and Lyft on business trips and to get home after working late.

“It was really (their) demand ... that drove us to use Uber, which we probably wouldn’t have moved to as quickly if they had not done it," CEO Benjamin Howe says. They're "a significant influence in the workplace today, and it’s a good thing because we’re adopting more efficient practices because of it."

Pricing, cleanliness and reliability are some of the key reasons several members of USA TODAY's panel of Road Warriors say they prefer ride-hailing services to local taxis.

"I travel regularly for business and have not used a taxi in over three years because of Uber and Lyft,'' says business traveler John Shaski, 37, a government affairs officer who lives in Lansing, Mich. "They are game changers when it comes to ease and access.''