For business travelers expensing meal deliveries, Grubhub captured the highest share of all third-party providers, with Caviar nabbing the highest average rating with an impressive five stars—head and shoulders above next closest Uber Eats and Seamless.
Maine-based research firm Certify’s Q1 2019 North American Business Travel & Expense Report looks at what corporate travelers are expensing. Beyond third-party restaurant delivery, it also delves into ride hailing versus traditional taxis, as well as car rental and e-scooter services.
On the meal delivery side—one of the most rewarding of all work-travel expenses—Grubhub continues to dominate the delivery market with 29 percent of all receipts in the category. Uber Eats was second at 20.95 percent, followed by DoorDash close behind in third place. Beyond that, Postmates, Caviar and Seamless rounded out the top six in terms of volume.
Diving into the user ratings of these delivered meals, Caviar was far and away the leader with an average satisfaction rating of five stars. Uber Eats was second with a 4.6 rating, followed by Seamless at 4.5 and Grubhub, DoorDash and Postmates tied at 4.1.
Ride hailing, scooter trends
While it’s technically delivering people not food, the on-demand ride and scooter category of the data was also interesting.
Analyzing more than 10 million receipts and expenses submitted in the first quarter of 2019, on-demand car rides were another popular expense during the year. Lyft maintained its position as the highest-ranked service at a 4.9 rating followed by Uber at 4.6 Traditional taxis garnered a rating of 4.
Comparing top-tier cities, ride-hailing is unsurprisingly most popular in San Francisco, followed by Dallas and Los Angeles close behind. Traditional taxis remain very popular in the New York and Chicago metro areas.
For e-scooters, Bird and Lime took the majority of receipts in the category with Bird capturing 45.83 percent of expenses in the category, followed by Lime at 42.01 percent. Average costs were lowest with Bird, at $5.01, and followed by Lime at an average scoot cost of $5.86. No word on how many emergency room copays were expensed.
For more information on the study, visit certify.com/CertifySpendSmartReport.aspx.
