When it comes to making the most of their driving time, Uber drivers are beating traditional taxis, writes Bloomberg’s Jordan Yadoo.

In economics, capacity utilization is jargon for how much of your available resources are being used at any given time. For taxi drivers, that means how often you have a passenger in your backseat. And when it comes to this metric, taxi-rival Uber Technologies Inc. is winning.

The ride-sharing company’s driver-passenger matching technology, flexible labor supply and exemption from licensing regulations that hurt efficiency are giving it a leg up when it comes to securing customers and keeping the meters ticking, according to a new National Bureau of Economic Research paper.

Measuring either the amount of time drivers have a passenger in the car, or the share of miles they drive with a rider — which were the two sets of data available in the five cities surveyed — Princeton University researchers Judd Cramer and Alan B. Krueger found that the capacity utilization rate is on average 38 percent higher for Uber drivers than for cabbies.