Advice on the taxi booking app development in 2022

In big cities with heavy traffic and few parking spaces, it is becoming extremely popular to rely on public transport, taxis and bicycles. Services like Uber allow people to benefit from the convenience of driving while eliminating all the hassles of parking and maintenance. Therefore, developing a taxi booking app is the right choice for your transportation business.

A step-by-step guide to taxi app development

In case you’re thinking about developing a mobile solution but wondering where to start building a taxi booking app, keep reading. We have tried to clarify the issue for you.

Established business or startup

The type of mobile solution that will suit your needs depends on several factors. The first of these is whether you already have an established taxi company and you simply want to supplement it with the development of an application, or you are a start-up entrepreneur who plans to hire drivers.

Business model

The next step is to define the business model to use: whether you start a company that hires and pays drivers, or you run a business like Uber. The latter receives fees from drivers for rides that they realize from the normal base of taxi orders. Passengers then pay the drivers directly.

The payment model depends on the type of business chosen and choosing the right one can be a challenge.

Understanding the market

It is essential to know the market you are going to enter: whether you create a taxi booking app in your city or country and expand it later, or you dare to create a global service. Depending on your plan, choose the payment system that best suits your chosen model. Each country has its preferred payment systems and global platforms also have their peculiarities. The authorization process can also be implemented through the local payment system. All these factors affect the complexity of the integration process and sometimes testing, especially in the case of local systems. With this information in mind, your taxi booking app developers will be able to estimate the work and time required.

Financing

Every business requires funds to make it happen, so you need to know where your funding will come from. It can be a loan, own funds, or investment. The latter option is actually the best for breaking any new ground in business.

Marketing strategy

Once you know what product you are going to market, you should consider the marketing strategy you will use.

You should first know how to attract drivers and then market your solution, what passenger problems to address and solve to get new and returning customers.

Possible scenarios

Before developing a taxi mobile app, it is important to consider all possible user stories, identify the ones that matter and ignore the less important ones.

You can then create a minimum viable product (MVP), get feedback, make the necessary improvements, and proceed iteratively to get to market as planned.

Taxi booking app development process challenges

No development process is possible without difficulties to be overcome. The key challenges we have faced as a taxi booking app development company are as follows.

How to manage stops at the request of the client and forced by traffic

How to handle stops at the passenger’s request when, for example, they want to smoke. On the one hand, the driver can indicate this. However, our client prefers to automate this option.

Then we face the problem that the GPS does not stop when the car stops. It shows it as a movement around a certain point.

On the other hand, we also need to solve this in traffic jams, so that the sensor does not consider slow movement in a traffic jam as a stop and does not charge the passenger for it.

Geolocation inaccuracy

Google Maps is not an accurate enough technology to integrate into taxi apps. Taxi drivers in Ukraine use City Guide because it provides more accurate coordinates, locations and addresses. For other countries, their local geolocation systems should also be considered and compared to Google Maps to choose the best.

GPS testing

Since the taxi business is about driving according to some route, testing should be done to make it accurate. You should either simulate it or take a real car and test it live. Calculation of travel costs

Automating the cost of a ride can be tricky, especially when it’s a long distance, with multiple stops, or to another city. A step-by-step guide to taxi booking app development

In case you’re thinking about developing a mobile solution but wondering where to start building a taxi app, keep reading. We have tried to clarify the issue for you.

Established business or startup

The type of mobile solution that will suit your needs depends on several factors. The first of these is whether you already have an established taxi company and you simply want to supplement it with the development of an application, or you are a start-up entrepreneur who plans to hire drivers.

Business model

The next step is to define the business model to use: whether you start a company that hires and pays drivers, or you run a business like Uber. The latter receives fees from drivers for rides that they realize from the normal base of taxi orders. Passengers then pay the drivers directly.

The payment model depends on the type of business chosen and choosing the right one can be a challenge.

Understanding the market

It is essential to know the market you are going to enter: whether you create a taxi app in your city or country and expand it later, or you dare to create a global service. Depending on your plan, choose the payment system that best suits your chosen model. Each country has its preferred payment systems and global platforms also have their peculiarities. The authorization process can also be implemented through the local payment system. All these factors affect the complexity of the integration process and sometimes testing, especially in the case of local systems. With this information in mind, your taxi app developers will be able to estimate the work and time required.

Financing

Every business requires funds to make it happen, so you need to know where your funding will come from. It can be a loan, own funds, or investment. The latter option is actually the best for breaking any new ground in business.

Marketing strategy

Once you know what product you are going to market, you should consider the marketing strategy you will use.

You should first know how to attract drivers and then market your solution, what passenger problems to address and solve to get new and returning customers.

Possible scenarios

Before developing a taxi mobile app, it is important to consider all possible user stories, identify the ones that matter and ignore the less important ones.

You can then create a minimum viable product (MVP), get feedback, make the necessary improvements, and proceed iteratively to get to market as planned.

Description of the parking lot

Depending on the business model you choose, the driver app should be developed accordingly. If you have your own parking lot, there is no need to approve the cars, but if you are going to follow an Uber-like model, the vehicles should be inspected, their photos provided, and the drivers should deposit some money into their accounts.

How all these challenges are handled and what features are implemented into the created solution will ultimately determine the total cost of developing a taxi app. Let’s take a closer look at the features of the taxi app.

Essential features for any taxi app

Taxi mobile app development should include the following features:

1. API
2. Registration
3. Maps, GPS and routing
4. Communication and notifications
5. Payments
6. Profiles and rating

Most companies prefer separate apps for drivers and passengers. So let’s see how to make a taxi booking app for taxi users and auto drivers.

Examples of the best taxi booking apps

Undoubtedly, the first service that comes to mind when you hear about the best taxi booking app is Uber, which has truly revolutionized the taxi industry and beyond. The term Uberisation has entered our language and the phenomenon of the Uber service has affected various spheres of life.

Uber

In the world of taxi booking apps, Uber dominates, available in around 70 countries and nearly half a million cities.

The Uber app allows users to:

• Set pickup location,
• Choose one of the available car types,
• See the estimated time of arrival and track your car as it approaches,
• Add your credit or debit card and it will automatically be used to pay for your ride.

Bolt

Bolt follows Uber in popularity. It is a well-known taxi app based in Estonia and operates in more than 25 countries, including Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

The total number of passengers exceeds 10 million and a half million drivers who serve them. The bolt solution allows:

• set a goal
• Know the price of the ride in advance,
• Rate the driving experience and the driver,
• Pay in the app.

Lyft

Lyft is the most popular app in the US operating in nearly 650 cities, 9 of which are in Canada. The service is known for its affordable prices.

Some of the best features of this taxi app are that the user can

• Book a ride by tapping your finger on the screen,
• Track his car in real-time and see the estimated time of arrival,
• Pay directly from the app,
• Share rides with professional, highly rated drivers.

How much does it cost to build an app like Bolt, Lyft and Uber?

Budget and time frames are the key aspects that taxi business owners deal with when they turn to taxi booking app development services.

To create a taxi booking app that is user-friendly and efficient, you need to develop at least two mobile solutions (one for drivers and one for clients calling taxis) and an admin panel to manage the work of your booking service.

At Stfalcon, we usually divide our development process into 5 phases, and the development of an online taxi booking application will go through all of them:

• Discovery Phase,
• UI/UX design,
• Frontend and
• Backend development,
• QA

Final thoughts

Nowadays, everyone has a smartphone or tablet, and developing an on-demand taxi booking app for your business or startup will get you closer to your users and get a lot of new clients.

Moon Technolabs has experience in app development solutions for the transport industry. We are happy to create Android and iOS apps for your business. View our portfolio or contact us to discuss your project. Let us know what product you need and we will find the best way to make it for you.