Lyft, Uber, Amazon: Employees’ Top Expense

Lyft cracked the Top 10 of most frequently expensed U.S. business costs for the first time, reaching number six.

According to data from Certify, the most used vendor in Q3 of this year was Uber, which held 11 percent of all transactions. Coming in second was Starbucks with 4.08 percent of receipts and expenses, while Amazon is in third place with 4.05 percent — marking the first time Amazon has appeared in the top three.

Rounding out the top 10 were Delta (fourth), American Airlines (fifth), United Airlines (seventh), Walmart (eighth), Shell (ninth), and McDonald’s (10th).

“It’s fascinating to see the changing face of T&E in the most expensed vendors list this quarter,” Robert Neveu, CEO of Certify, said in a press release. “Uber’s share of overall receipts has nearly doubled since Q3 2016, while Amazon has steadily grown its influence in all facets of corporate T&E. Digital technology is fundamentally changing how businesses operate and it will be interesting to see how the traditional heavyweights of T&E fare in coming years — and whether they’re able to stay ahead of consumer expectations.”

Uber easily dominated the rideshare category, with 73 percent of all rides. Lyft had 20 percent of receipts, a slight boost from 19 percent last quarter. And the data revealed some good news for taxis, which saw 7 percent of receipts in Q3 after a slight dip in Q2.

And while Starbucks remained the leading vendor for meals with 5 percent of all receipts and an average meal cost of $12.67, McDonald’s had 3 percent and an average cost of $9.51, and Panera Bread held 2 percent and a cost of $49.33.

The report also found that digital disruption is having an impact on the food delivery market. Uber Eats boasted a 300 percent growth rate in the number of receipts submitted since Q3 2017, and in Q3 2018, it took 26 percent of all receipts in the category. However, Grubhub still tops the category with 36 percent of all receipts.