Lyft has made another move to integrate itself more easily into the lives of business travelers.
The ridesharing company announced this week that it was adding “the #1 most-requested feature for business travelers.” That feature: automatic ride expensing, travel trade magazine Skift reports.
Users with business profiles can add their company’s expense management system, if available — Lyft has partnered with several including Concur, Expensify, ChromeRiver, Certify, and others — and rides taken under those profiles will be automatically sent for approval.
“Our goal is to provide reliable, easy-to-adopt, and cost-effective transportation solutions to make Lyft the preferred partner for businesses,” Kamil Rodoper, head of enterprise product, said in a statement. “Integrating with expense management systems saves time and creates a seamless experience for employees to do their expenses.”
Lyft is fairly late to the development. Uber, a much larger player in ridesharing, already made expenses automatic for business profiles last year. The moves by both companies show the importance of widespread business traveler adoption as the companies continue to grow.
Even though ridesharing has been moving toward the mainstream for years now, it’s still not universally accepted by travel policies and continues to be a subject of discussion for the corporate travel industry. And it’s one of the topics that will come up next week at the Global Business Travel Association Convention, which Skift senior writer Andrew Sheivachman will attend in Boston.
We also expect to see discussions about the way geopolitical disruption affects business travelers; alternative accommodations such as Airbnb; virtual payments; airline fares and fees; and the next wave of business travelers (yes, there is a generation after millennials).
• Automatic ride expensing with Lyft.