You’ve probably heard it before: Uber and Lyft are killing old-school taxis. While it may be a tired trend to talk about, it is also true, according to data from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
This trend was put in stark relief in one chart from BAML’s monthly review of customer card usage. The bank looks at retail and credit card spending for all Bank of America customers and showed that while the total use of taxi/limo services has spiked, the amount spent on traditional car services has tanked.
“After controlling for these companies, we see a decline in credit/debit card spending on the standard taxi and limo companies, implying that the disruptors have taken market share,” Michelle Meyer, a US economist at BAML, wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday.
Uber, founded in 2009, and Lyft, founded in 2012, have been around for a while, but it appears the shift away from taxis and to these newer services has recently accelerated.
Additionally, the disruption from Uber, Lyft, and other ride-hailing services has changed the method that people are using to pay for car services from cash to card, according to BAML’s data.
"Moreover, it is likely that these disruptors also intensified the broader industry shift from using cash on these services to credit cards, explaining the dramatic sales growth in this category," Meyer wrote.
