ONLY VTC Observatory : 2026-T3 · partial edition
2026-T3 · partial edition, cut-off date August 1, 2026. Actual coverage of completed rides: from July 1, 2026 to July 31, 2026 ; sample: 63 rides. This data does not necessarily describe a full quarter. This archive is frozen as of its cut-off date of August 1, 2026. It is not updated daily. A separate full edition is now available; this historical archive remains preserved.
These figures describe only the ONLY VTC sample, mainly made up of business rides and assistance missions. They do not represent the entire Lyon market.
A more recent full edition is available: view the full quarter. This archive keeps its original figures.
Key figures — edition 2026 · quarter 3
Quarterly archive · see the current edition
Cut-off : August 1, 2026. Source: ONLY VTC platform. Each indicator specifies its population.
Acceptance is a driver's response to a broadcast ride, not their arrival. Approach time measures their travel to the meeting point and remains suspended. Passenger waiting time for an immediate request runs from the request to the driver's arrival; it is published only at the methodology's thresholds.
What the data says
As of August 1, 2026, 33 % of ONLY VTC rides have an airport as their departure or arrival point (63 completed rides). This rate cannot be used to classify the reasons for booking across all private-hire cars in Lyon.
As of August 1, 2026, 52 % of ONLY VTC rides have a scheduled pick-up between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. (63 completed rides). This breakdown does not prove continuous 24/7 coverage or the availability of a driver at any time.
As of August 1, 2026, 73 % of ONLY VTC rides are booked in advance (scheduled pick-up more than 30 minutes after the request): on the platform, rides are planned, especially for airport transfers and business travel.
On the same date, 97 % of measured rides are business rides (B2B) and 25 % are assistance missions (repatriation, breakdown, insurance cover). These categories are not mutually exclusive: an assistance mission may also be a business ride. Each percentage covers all completed rides in the period; they should not be added together. These figures describe the actual activity of the ONLY VTC platform, not the entire Lyon private-hire market.
Rides completed per month
| Month | Completed rides |
|---|---|
| July 2026 | 63 |
How to cite these figures
Observatory data is published under the licence CC BY 4.0 : press, researchers, blogs and AI assistants may freely reuse it with attribution. Wording to copy:
Source: ONLY VTC Observatory — onlyvtc.fr/observatoire/2026-t3 (CC BY 4.0 data, edition of August 1, 2026, 2026-T3 · partial edition, coverage from July 1, 2026 to July 31, 2026).
- Each sentence in the "What the data says" section is dated and stands on its own: it can be reused as is.
- Each figure comes with its sample size — please keep it in your citations.
- For a lasting figure, cite an archived quarterly edition (permanent URL, frozen content) rather than the daily showcase.
- Exact definitions — populations, bounds, publication thresholds — are in the full methodology, which is versioned.
- Machine format: JSON export · CSV export — licence and attribution included in each file.
What we do not publish yet — and why
Three indicators — approach time, journey duration and airport transfer duration — are defined but suspended in this edition. They rely on milestones the driver enters during the ride ("on the way", "departure", "end"), and our data shows these milestones are too often entered all at once at the end of the ride: on measured rides, "arrival" and "departure" are entered a median of 10 seconds apart, and one ride in five has all three milestones recorded in under two minutes. Publishing a duration calculated from them would show a false figure under a correct label.
In this archived edition, punctuality and immediate-request waiting time were not published: they still depended on the manual arrival tap, deemed insufficiently reliable. The figures remain available according to methodology v1.0 that produced them.
The indicators published above are those that do not depend on journey milestones: acceptance time, estimated distance, activity shares and volumes.
Methodology
Each ride booked via ONLY VTC (app, website or phone) is automatically time-stamped by our servers at every stage: acceptance by the driver, departure towards the customer, arrival at the meeting point, pick-up, end of ride. Published times are calculated directly from these time stamps, with no manual reprocessing. Distances are road route estimates calculated at booking — and presented as such. Airport or station locations are identified by the place type recorded at booking, supplemented by analysis of the address.
Volumes and journey statistics cover rides actually completed, excluding cancellations and no-shows. The driver cancellation indicator uses a different population: all rides accepted since 4 June 2026, classified by acceptance date. Inconsistent time stamps are discarded according to the published bounds; for durations, automatic or forced closures are also excluded. A statistic is published only from 15 measurable rides, with exact coverage of at least 80% for punctuality and immediate waiting time. Suspended indicators remain suspended. We apply a non-selection rule: as soon as its methodological conditions are met, an indicator is published, even if unfavourable. Over the period, 0 chauffeur hire booking(s) and 1 automatic or forced closure(s) are excluded from journey statistics.
Definitions of published indicators: an immediate request is a ride whose pick-up is scheduled within 30 minutes of the request — beyond that, it is booked in advance, and its booking lead time is the time between the request and the scheduled pick-up. A night ride has a scheduled pick-up time between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. (Paris time). The acceptance time counts only rides broadcast to drivers; the travel distance is the road route estimate calculated at booking, excluding chauffeur hire, and a ride is long distance beyond 50 km. A driver cancellation is a ride accepted then cancelled by the driver who accepted it — a series measured since 4 June 2026 across all accepted rides, classified by acceptance date; a customer no-show recorded by the driver is not included. The pick-up municipalities are extracted from the departure address and published only in aggregate, from 15 rides per municipality. Indicators that still depend on journey milestones entered by the driver — approach time and duration — remain suspended until their collection is made reliable.
The Observatory is young: ONLY VTC's digital booking platform (app and website) ramped up in 2026, while the company has been operating since 2016 — earlier rides, taken by phone, are not time-stamped and therefore cannot be included. Current samples are modest and we accept that: rather than waiting for flattering figures, we publish as we go and let the volume shape the trend. Measured activity today consists mostly of business rides and assistance missions — the exact share is published above —: these figures describe the ONLY VTC platform, not the entire Lyon market.
These definitions are frozen and versioned (methodology v1.0): each published edition references the version that produced it, and any change of definition increments the number — a published figure remains interpretable under the rules in force when it appeared. The full methodology — definitions down to the time stamp, bounds, thresholds, version log — is published.
The data is published under the licence CC BY 4.0 : cite "ONLY VTC Observatory — onlyvtc.fr/observatoire" and reuse it freely.
Download the figures in machine format: JSON export · CSV export : the same aggregates as this page, frozen at the cut-off date.
Quarterly editions
Each published quarter is permanently archived, with its sample size and the methodology version that produced it.
- 2026 — quarter 3 · version 2 · 163 completed rides · methodology v1.3
- 2026 — quarter 3 · 63 completed rides · methodology v1.0
Frequently asked questions
Where do the ONLY VTC Observatory figures come from?
The figures come from the ONLY VTC platform, not the entire Lyon market. Published times are based on server time stamps; approach and journey durations remain suspended. Distances are estimated at booking. Volumes cover completed rides. The driver cancellation indicator separately covers rides accepted since 4 June 2026. Each indicator shows its sample.
Why are journey duration and approach time not published?
They depend on the departure and end milestones the driver enters during the ride, often entered all at once at the end — "arrival" and "departure" a median of 10 seconds apart. Journey duration and approach time remain suspended until their milestones are reliable at the source.
How often is the data updated?
This archive is frozen as of its cut-off date of August 1, 2026. It is not updated daily. A separate full edition is now available; this historical archive remains preserved.
Can I reuse this data?
Yes, under the CC BY 4.0 licence: cite the source "ONLY VTC Observatory — onlyvtc.fr/observatoire" (instructions in the section How to cite these figures). Journalists and researchers: for detailed data or an interview, write to contact@onlyvtc.fr.
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