Taxi App Development
Taxi app development makes a lot of intelligence for existing businesses, startups, and even convenience. Don’t you agree that taxi apps have started to overtake traditional taxi services? People have begun to switch from personally owned modes of transportation to Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) solutions.
To support this fact, it is worth noting that apps like Uber and Lyft completed almost 35 million more trips than standard taxis in New York in 2017. Apart from that, Statista predicts that the annual growth of the global trucking services market will reach 1,126,521 million by 2025.
How to Create an App to Order a Taxi in 3 Easy Steps?
Choose the perfect app design. Customize it for a better user experience.
Add your preferred features:
- Create a taxi app without coding.
- Publish your taxi booking app globally.
- Grow your taxi business with your mobile app.
Features you must have in your Application to Order Taxis
Creating an app to request a taxi is easy, and as you can see, it only takes three steps! However, whether your customers love using your app or not depends on the features you add to your taxi booking app.
Below are five features that you should add to your taxi ordering app if you want your target customers to get addicted to it.
1. Taxi
What would your taxi ordering app be without the taxi feature? The taxi feature allows you to configure the application’s version for the driver and the passenger so that passengers can book a trip on demand and drivers can choose which trips are comfortable for them.
2. Coupons
The coupon feature allows you to provide special offers or discounts to your customers while letting you post them on social media for various promotional events. Marketing aside, this feature is excellent for giving your sale a boost!
3. Map
The driver and passenger must know each other’s location at booking. The map function also allows them to reach the destination by offering turn-by-turn navigation.
4. One-Touch Function
The One-Touch function allows the driver and passenger to connect with ease. This means there would be no miscommunication, no guessing game, and you wouldn’t even have to leave the app to make a call and locate each other.
5. Check out
Your application must ensure that passengers are safe and happy with drivers and that passengers do not mistreat drivers. You should add the feedback feature to ensure that your app users can review and rate each other.
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Create the Perfect Application to Request Taxi with Apply Pie
Now you can get an advanced taxi ordering app with Apply Pie for Android and IOS. The app works in real-time and has an integrated mobile payment function, which ensures that the payment of registered drivers can be made automatically. Apply Pie’s taxi booking app creator allows you to take advantage of the taxi booking app, And also. The features of these apps are mentioned below:
Check-in: Passengers can check in directly from the mobile app to use the app.
Card registration: Passengers can register their cards directly from the application for the automatic payment function, And also. The Stripe application is used to process payments, and Appy Pie ensures that this application is PCI compliant.
Driver Tracking: The app gives its users the benefit of tracking driver availability and setting the pickup location after login.
Pickup Location: Riders can set their location by pinning the destination on the map or through Google Places.
Continue
Select the type of taxi: Passengers can select the type of taxi and explore other details such as the price per kilometre, the fee charged per minute and the minimum rate for each type of taxi.
Fare Calculator: The fare to reach a given place is established by calculating the distance between the pick-up point and the destination point using Google APIs.
Live Tracking: As the taxi is booked, the passenger can track the cab live on your app from the very beginning, including the start of the cab, the arrival of the taxi, the start and the end of the trip.
Your customers will use the passenger app, and naturally, your drivers will use the driver app, giving you the perfect system to make your taxi business a success.
Top Examples Taxi App Developers Should Consider
Let’s examine how the best taxi apps got started and what their unique features are to get started.
1. Uber
The history of this transportation company began with UberCab, which launch in 2009 by Garrett Camp. These days, Uber is available in 630 metropolises and continues to expand to new locations, And also. One of the ways this expansion occurs is through the acquisition of similar services. In 2019, Uber bought Careem, a taxi booking app that operates in the Middle East, for $3.1 billion.
2. Lyft
The Lyft app launched shortly after Uber in 2012. At first, it operates under Zimride, a long-distance ride-sharing service that connects drivers and riders through Facebook.
These days, Lyft’s taxi booking app is considered a direct competitor to Uber, with a presence in more than 200 cities in the US market. Lyft’s unique feature is its rating system and that they only keep the drivers with the best ratings. Also, the Lyft taxi app has 1 1 million liability insurance. Other than that, Lyft considering cheaper than Uber; you can expect to pay around $12, compare to Uber’s $16.
3. Curb
Curb is another US-based taxi booking app with a pool of over 50,000 taxis and some rental cars in 65 US cities. Passengers can select from three options during the travel booking process, namely “travel now”, “travel later”, and “match and pay”.
4. Grab
Grab well-like a taxi booking app that operates in Southeast Asia, particularly in countries like Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, And also. This mobile taxi application offers a wide range of travel options and payment possibilities (card, cash, grab credits), And also. The passenger can choose between GrabTaxi, GrabShare, GrabHitch, GrabBike or GrabFamily as their mobility service. On average, the user can expect to pay $5 per trip.
Detailed Process of Taxi Application Development
The taxi app development process can divide into four steps, and let’s review each in detail.
Step 1: Identify Your Goals When Creating a Taxi Booking App
First, define which taxi booking app you want to offer to the market. Taxi app development can involve not only building an Uber-like app and related app development services but also a transportation service, namely:
- A car-sharing app.
- A car rental service.
- A transportation service application.
- Bus reservation.
- Road transport & logistics solutions.
- Bike-sharing.
- An on-demand delivery app.
- A transportation app for employees.
Specialized taxi services (children’s care services, premium electric taxis, women’s ride-sharing services).
These taxi app solutions can create for existing businesses, local taxi services, and different startups.
BTW: Uber recently made its API public, which means you can connect to their software and extend the functionality of your existing business, And also. It is possible to start with on-demand taxi app development and offer the option of delivery, especially if you are a small local retailer, restaurant or bar.
Step 2: Understand the Market Situation
Once your app concept is finalized for future taxi app development, you need to consider the market and macro environment where the app will launch.
Note that the most significant contributor to the use of mobility solutions in China, which the United States closely follows. This means that competition is tough in these countries.
Top Ride-Sharing Markets
Completing a competitive analysis allows you to understand what other services offer in the market, And also. This analysis can use to define your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) before starting the taxi app development process.
Next, in addition to the analysis, And also. It makes sense to conduct surveys among your target audience and ask directly what experience they need and what features they want to see in a taxi app.
Meet the Challenges in Taxi Application Development
Like in any other business, there are a dozen challenges when it comes to taxi app development. They include but limit to:
This is the critical priority for taxi app development. There have a few cases of people harassing and even killing (a few incidents while using DiDi’s ride-sharing service Hitch in China), And also. It would help make your service safe for both the driver and the passenger.
This problem can have a couple of solutions, namely:
- Highly detailed driver background checks.
- And also, particular vehicle requirements.
- An emergency call button in taxi applications.
Conclusion
Building a native app is the recommended approach for beginners when developing taxi apps, And also. This enables creating a custom application for each operating system and ensures better performance, speed, security, and the ability to access built-in smartphone features such as geolocation and maps.