Scores increased across all categories of the chauffeured and ride-hailing segments of the 2026 BTN Car Rental Survey & Ground Transportation Report for each ground transportation provider type, reversing last year’s downward trends.
The average chauffeured rating increased to 4.09 on an ascending five-point scale, up from 3.80 a year prior, with each of the 10 categories receiving a higher rating than in 2025.In addition, 25 percent of respondents said overall chauffeured transportation company customer service has improved in the past year, up from 14 percent in 2025.
“Last year, most clients had shifted away and pushed toward ride-hailing versus the chauffeured car service, except in certain circumstances,” KesselRun Corporate Travel Solutions VP of program management Krissy Herman said. “Is this increase indicating customers are going back to chauffeured rides? I don’t know. But it is nice to see that, overall, there’s a pretty big jump in these scores.”
GoldSpring Consulting partner Neil Hammond noted on the “significant improvement” that “they really seem to have addressed the weaker categories as well,” he said. “We’ve seen the improvement in their service offering, their ease of doing business, and everything about them has improved across the board.”
While slightly more respondents this year than last said they did not have active chauffeured contracts—43 percent compared with 41 percent—for those that do, the number of chauffeured providers per company looks to be on the rise.
About 25 percent said they had one or two chauffeured contracts, down from 31 percent in 2025, but 17 percent said they had three to five, up from 11 percent. Another 11 percent said they had more than five preferred partners, up from 7 percent.
“That’s a function of addressing different markets and completing the coverage and building out the programs,” Hammond said.
“To be successful in the corporate space, and most importantly to stay relevant, chauffeured car companies have realized that we need to perform,” National Limousine Association first vice president and RMA Worldwide Chauffeured Transportation president and CEO Robert Alexander said. “It’s more than just a ride. You have to provide a better experience, and that could come with frictionless booking to the in-car experience. … Because there’s plenty of other alternatives that the corporate traveler can go to.”
Those alternatives include ride-hailing companies and aggregator platforms.
One trend Alexander has seen is when a chauffeured car is delayed “for whatever reason, they cancel, and they say, ‘Don’t bill me. I’ll grab an Uber or another car,’ ” he said. “Back in the day, they used to be mad at you because the car was late, but you still got the ride. It’s a conundrum for us because, yes, we understand that we’re not exactly where we were supposed to be, but there are acts of God and our model is, ‘don’t argue with anybody.’ ”
Still, “there’s a consistency factor when I get a chauffeur driver through a preferred provider versus what I get when I hop into a Lyft or an Uber,” Herman said. “That consistency factor continues to make car service an attractive option for certain travelers.”
That may be changing. Ride-hailing companies not only have cut into corporate chauffeured rides but also are moving into the luxury space. Uber announced March 30 its agreement to acquire chauffeured transportation platform Blacklane, and Lyft in October 2025 acquired TBR Global Chauffeuring. Each company is based in Europe, adding to Uber’s and Lyft’s global offerings. In addition, the U.K.-based Wheely chauffeured transportation platform recently launched in New York.
Overall, TBR Global Chauffeuring global CEO Craig Chambers said he has seen a general shift over the years he’s been in the ground transportation business. “You can see the professionalism and the standards continuing to increase over time,” he said. “As technology advances and other players have come into the market and advanced, that connectivity around not just being a localized or regional player but being able to provide a more consistent service on a global basis all ties into that. It’s clear from corporate travel managers and the wider travel industry that they want that level of consistency across the board.”