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As ridesharing platforms mature, they'll offer more options for getting around than just car rides. And they're hoping to capture more spending from business travelers, as well.
As ridesharing has become an indispensable mode of transportation for business travelers, providers have been tasked with making the experience more seamless for travelers. And it hasn't always worked.
With rideshare giants turning to scooters, bikes, and other ways to get around, choice will increase for business travelers. Lyft, in particular, is currently in the midst of developing its Motivate bikeshare program in addition to developing a variety of partnerships to build user loyalty when they travel.
Skift spoke to Amy Fox, Lyft's head of business development and strategic partnerships, about the company's aspirations in the business travel space and the ways that more robust mobility platforms can make like easier for business travelers.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Skift: I travel a lot for work, although I'm not really a road warrior or anything, and there are so many annoying little points of friction that travelers have to deal with all the time. How can a platform like Lyft make life easier for business travelers?
Amy Fox: These annoying little things become big friction points. When you think about how frequently people are dealing with them, it's basically like twice a day you're having to deal with business travel from a commuter perspective, and it can really make-or-break your happiness, your productivity, your output, all of that actually matters a lot and adds up relatively quickly over time.
I think we've definitely taken strides, like you had mentioned, around enabling people to request rides through their business profile, adding in and partnering with platforms like Concur within our app to allow for easy expensing, to save employees time and money. But then, it goes beyond that. I would consider those things now table stakes, and those are to be expected of corporate travel, corporate employees, business employees.
Where we're really fo
