A couple of years ago, you needed to do a lot to get from your home to a restaurant or work. You had to call a taxi service, wait for a car (you know that getting a cab is a big deal in cities like New York), and get in the cab and go to your destination.
Fortunately, Uber came to save the day and brought the taxi service to the next level. There is no need to explain what Uber is and how it works. Let’s better find out how to build an Uber-like app for taxi services 🔽
Table of contents
Why should you develop an on-demand taxi app? How to build an Uber-like app? Top three taxi booking apps on the market Essential features for your on-demand taxi app How much does it cost to make a taxi booking app? Summing up
Why should you develop an on-demand taxi app?
Uber changed the taxi game and made taxi services more affordable and accessible. During the first six months, Uber got 6k active users and performed over 20k rides . The numbers are impressive, right? Thanks to the powerful marketing campaigns, Uber was able to attract lots of customers and drivers.
In other words, Uber entered the game right when and where it was needed. Nowadays, you have to do a lot more than just develop an on-demand taxi app. When Uber was launched, there weren’t any apps for taxi booking, but today there are plenty of them - Uber, Lyft, Ola, GrabTaxi, etc.
Nevertheless, there is an ever-growing demand for Uber-like apps. And to win over users, you have to deliver exceptional services for drivers and users.
Source: Buildfire
Now Uber isn’t only the best taxi app in the US, it works in 900+ cities all round the clock and becomes an international taxi leader. Uber has a segmented approach to please all sections of the society. Uber Black for luxurious rides, and UberX for daily commuting.
And what’s the success formula standing behind Uber-like apps?
Build an app that aggregates the demand
Meet the demand of users thanks to proper management and planning
How to build an Uber-like app?
In most cases, when clients came with the idea of a taxi booking app, they want to develop an Uber-like app. And it’s a surprise!
Inspired by Uber's success, everyone is dreaming of following the path to 75+ million users and $11.5 in investments. Let’s find out what steps you have to follow while building an Uber-like app for taxi booking.
Study your market
It’s a primary stage of the app development - competitor analysis and market research. And your competitors have already researched their target audience. Just check the Uber-like app before developing your taxi booking app.
But still, you need a team of keen marketing professionals to make your app stand out from the crowd and load it with the right-to-market features.
Simple design
Keep your app as simple as possible. The time of “rich” designs are gone. Users will definitely give a five-star rating if your app is simple and easy to use.
Front-end and backend development
This is the most expensive and the longest stage of the whole app development process. For example, the backend development may take up to 400 hours to ensure the seamless performance of servers and your app.
QA tests
When developers are done with their work, it’s time for QA engineers to enter the game and find all the bugs and errors. After your QAs review the app, it’s time for alpha or beta tests in Google Store. While you can choose what type of testing to take for Android, there is only beta testing for iOS apps. And reviewing iOS apps always takes way longer, up to 4 months.
Starting an Uber-like app needs lots of promotion. It’s not enough just to upload your app to the Google Store or Apple Store, you have to make it widely known. Uber is using advanced AI-based algorithms to top the search results.
You need to facilitate users to download your app as many times as possible in the shortest time in order to get to Google’s or Bing’s top search results. Getting to the top search results without marketing is hardly possible. That’s why you definitely need a marketing team.
Tech support and maintenance
Even after dozens of QA tests, there still can be bugs and errors. Your primary task is to fix them as quickly as possible. State-of-the-art apps need updates. Developers have to fix bugs, add new features, and adapt to the new technologies.
Read also: How to make an app with mova.io
Top three taxi booking apps on the market
Uber
Uber is one of the best and fast-growing apps for taxi booking. It covers the largest number of cities and countries. Uber has got over 75 million active users taking over 14 million trips every day.
With Uber, riders can easily get from almost anywhere. Wherever you come, you can always book an Uber to get to the hotel. Uber makes all travel plans stress-free. Request a taxi on-demand or schedule ahead. The app helps to find users the ride they need - style, space, or affordability. Uber fits anyone!
What makes Uber so popular?
Easy-to-use interface
International on-demand taxi app
Lots of integrations
Built-in payment system
Scheduled drives and estimated arrival time
Lyft
Lyft is based in San Francisco, CA. It’s one of the most popular taxi booking apps in the US and Canada, delivering high-quality taxi services at fair and affordable prices.
Riders can easily book a ride and get picked up by a nearby Lyft driver in a few taps. So users don’t have to wait for the bus or shouting taxi in the city center, they need just to download Lyft and enjoy rides with Lyft drivers.
What makes Lyft so popular?
Easy-to-use app
Real-time tracking
Estimated arrival time
User can pay directly from the app
Gett
Gett is another taxi booking giant. The app has raised 813M in fundings. It’s so impressive, right? Gett focuses on corporate taxi transportation. WIth the Gett app, riders can easily book a cab, chauffeur, or even limousine services.
Gett has no rival except for your taxi app when it comes to delivering top-notch riding experiences. Users get exactly what they’re looking for. Moreover, users can schedule a ride for later and share reviews.
What makes Gett so popular?
Wide choice of riding types
Schedule a taxi ride for later
Real-time tracking and estimated time of arrival
Share reviews and ratings
Essential features for your on-demand taxi app
A taxi booking app like Uber stands upon three key pillars:
Driver app
Passenger app
Admin panel
The following apps need to work synchronously to allow users to book the cab whenever they need it. Thus, you need to be prepared that building an app like Uber will cost you a pretty penny. Let’s find out what features your taxi booking app cannot go without 🔽
Login
Login is essential for both passengers and drivers. Email or social media login will be enough for passengers, but drivers need to pass over a more thorough verification procedure. The following must include driving license, years of experience, car make, etc. Without registration, users cannot request cabs and drivers cannot give rides.
Location tracking
Uber keeps track of your location all the time. And even when you aren’t using the app to find the nearest drivers within a few seconds. As soon as a user requests Uber, there is a countdown of the arrival time. So riders don’t have to worry that a taxi won’t show up.
If you need to track location while the app isn’t working, don’t forget to notify your users and ask for permission to access their location data.
Built-in maps and navigation
Drivers will definitely thank you for the built-in map and navigation system to help find the shortest route to the destination point. Consider adding updates on the traffic ahead that can be extremely useful for urban navigation. Traffic is an unpredictable thing.
You can take advantage of the existing navigation services like Google places or Google maps. If you have more time as well as finances at your fingertips, you can go the extra mile and develop your own GPS technology. For sure, using a custom-developed GPS system is a win-win solution since you can tailor it up to your needs.
Fare calculator
Before requesting the ride, users need to understand how much it’ll cost them. And here’s where a fare calculator comes in handy. It can estimate the price per ride based on the distance, ride type, and type of the car. Note, Uber’s fare calculator takes into account the traffic as well as demand while calculating the fare.
Reports
Reports are vital for drivers. Here they can check how much they are earning, how much they’re working, and what customers say about their rides.
Ratings
The following feature allows for sharing feedback and rating rides as well as drivers. Collecting reviews is an important part of any business. Reviews help businesses become better and provide the services needed on the market.
Ratings and reviews can also help facilitate your drivers to provide better services. For example, the higher rating the lower commissions drivers need to pay.
Booking history
Some passengers need a detailed history of their rides. Consider adding a booking history where users can easily check the transaction details, rides, location, date, and time of their past rides.
Booking
A driver should have a choice whether to take or deny the upcoming ride. Try to make the booking screen easy to navigate.
Payment
You need to add an app wallet (that is connected to a credit card) to charge your riders. Also, consider adding an option to pay in cash for those who prefer cash to credit cards.
Then you need to send a receipt to your customers. Uber sends them via email. But there are more ways - via text, in-app notifications, and via any other messenger.
Support
If there are customers, there should be also a support. And when it comes to Uber-like app development, support should work with both parties - passengers and drivers.
Driver app
Passenger app
Registration
Login
Booking
Request a ride
Verification
Fare calculator
Navigation
Payments
Reports
Reviews and ratings
Support
Support
These are the basic features you need to add to your app. Of course, there are more features to think of, but the following functionality is more than enough to launch your taxi booking project. Let’s take a closer look at the Admin Panel .
An admin panel is like a command point where you can manage drivers, keep track of payments and orders, analyze reviews, etc. Also, an admin panel provides some useful statistic that you can use for decision making.
Fleet management
The following feature helps you understand how many free and busy cabs you have at your disposal.
Complaint management
Did you know that it’s better to address the complaints as soon as possible? The following feature will help you manage reviews and promptly address all the issues.
Real-time tracking
The administrator should have the ability to track vehicles in the real time. This will help to reduce idle time, unfair cost increment (when the driver choose a longer route on purpose), and avoid any hiccups with users.
Drivers’ payment system
Before drivers receive their wedges, you need to charge a commission. That’s why you need a payment system for your drivers where you can manage rates based on ratings, reviews, etc.
Reports
Without reports, you cannot check the statistics on total number of taxi rides, money earned, and other. Reports play an important role while planning.
How much does it cost to make a taxi booking app?
Time
Costs
App for Passengers
10 weeks
$11,000
App for Drivers
15 weeks
$20,000
Admin Panel
4 weeks
$4,000
Total
6 months
$35,000
Summing up
Building an app like Uber is definitely more time-consuming than building a dating app. It will take you around $35k to build three separate solutions. Note, if you need your driver’s app and passenger app to work on both iOS and Android, be prepared to double your budget and time.
At mova.io, we know how to build a successful taxi booking app and make it thrive 🎉
Have a question? Just write to us at:
📮 mail@mova.io
