Want to Build A Taxi Booking App? Get in-depth Details

Last Updated: 17th May, 2024

For the past few years, the taxi booking industry has been bound on an upward trajectory of growth. According to Allied Research the industry is expected to reach $120 bn, growing at a CAGR of 12%. This impressive growth of online taxi aggregators has seen many budding entrepreneurs looking for taxi booking app development. 

To help such entrepreneurs, analysts at FATbit technologies spent countless hours analyzing the functionality and growth drivers that power the business operations of the world’s most successful online cab aggregators. In this blog, we share those insights to help you with the most pertinent question: how to build a taxi booking app to get started with your business.

Table of Contents

• Top Players in Taxi Booking Industry
• Business Model For Taxi Booking App
• How do Taxi Booking Businesses Generate Revenue?
• Key Features of Taxi Booking Mobile App
• How Much Does it Cost to Build Taxi Booking Mobile App(s)?
• How can VivoCabs Help You in Your Business Journey
• Wrapping Up

Top Players in Taxi Booking Industry

Before starting to build your app, let’s have a look at which companies are leading in this industry. By analyzing these market leaders you can gain crucial insights into their business strategies that have driven success in this dynamic sector. These insights will empower you to identify opportunities for inspiration, differentiation, and eventually growth. The top 5 players in this industry are as follows.

• Uber:  Uber pioneered taxi services since its founding year of 2009, offering ridesharing, with a continually adaptive business model. 
• Lyft: Entering the market in 2012, Lyft has led with a sustained focus on user engagement, driver-friendly policies, and other transportation initiatives.
• Gett: This company has its roots in Israel. Starting in 2010, It has since then expanded operations globally. It focuses on corporate transportation solutions, offering cost-effective services for businesses.
• Grab: This Southeast Asian company has thrived on user-centric services such as driving with pets, carpooling, private cab booking, and others. 
• Arro: In operation since 2015, Arro offers integrations with an existing fleet of cabs. This helps the riders to rely on just one app as a solution to all their cab needs. 

Similarly, to differentiate your business from other cab booking platforms you can concentrate on the following: 

→ Your primary geographical area, governmental policies, and the overall mindset of the target audience.

→ Offer a wide array of booking methods like a mobile app, website, and phone call.

→ Availability of payment options. While digital payments are becoming a norm, cash is still the preferred mode of payment in some places.

Business Model For Taxi Booking App

Many disruptive businesses start from a personal experience. Mobile app-based ride-sharing is no different. Stuck without a taxi ride on a snowy Paris evening, the founders of Uber had their Eureka moment. Why not leverage mobile phones for booking taxi rides, they wondered. And hence, the idea of Uber was born. 

Effective business practices leveraged by technological advancements and have helped online ride-sharing platforms capture users’ attention. These online businesses are taxi aggregators that partner with private taxi operators to provide rides on request. The apps connect the taxi operators with the users.

To start a new online taxi booking business it is important to have a business model that assists you in creating an effective business model for your operations. The operational flow of an online taxi booking business is elaborated in the business model graphic below:

How do Taxi Booking Businesses Generate Revenue?

The revenue model of such platforms is based on pay-for-performance, and they charge a commission from taxi operators on each ride they complete. In addition, they also charge a nominal fee from operators for offering access to their technology platforms.

Key Features of Taxi Booking Mobile App

In the sections above, we observed how a taxi booking business works. With that you have an analysis of how to design your business idea. However, to make that business idea work, you will need tools i.e. features that allow you to execute your business idea. 

A taxi booking business typically has two separate apps, each for riders and the drivers. Let’s see some features key to building a successful taxi-sharing business for rider and driver apps respectively. 

Rider app features 

A satisfied ride experience for a customer sends out a ripple effect in terms of your business goals. With a positive experience, the riders are more likely to prefer your services in the future and will have the motivation to share positive feedback about your business with other potential customers. To achieve these goals, you need to give them certain must-haves in terms of the overall experiences. This is further achieved via features in your app. Hence, some pivotal features in a rider app are as follows: 

Faster & Effortless Login

In the current day and age of reduced attention spans, users want to get around their tasks quickly and efficiently. This is even more so for something as critical as calling a taxi to their destination. Faster log-in expedites the process and is key to user satisfaction. Here, OTP-based login and social media login are some ways in which users can quickly get started with using the app. 

User Centric Booking Process

After the completion of the registration process, the users should be taken to the main screen where they can easily pick a ride for themselves. Here are the most noticeable points in the taxi booking process:

• Search bar to enter a desired pickup location.
• GPS feature to detect current location.
• A detailed map to see their selected location.

Engaging User Experience 

The online taxi aggregator app needs to be intuitive and offer an impressive layout. All the features of the mobile app should be well defined and focus ought to be on immersive behavior. The overall interface should be specifically designed keeping in mind the targeted user base and ease of use.

Real-time Tracking 

It’s a proven fact in consumer psychology ― rather than actual waiting time to achieve a desired goal, it is the uncertainty that worries the consumers more. Add more predictability by offering real-time tracking on the rider apps. With a visual update on where their taxi is when they are waiting, or how far is their destination when the ride is operative, riders are more certain of the expected wait times and can plan that time more efficiently. 

Share Ride Details 

To add more predictability and foster better communication for the consumer, offer the capability to share ride details to their friends and family for the riders. With this option conveniently available on the rider app, the riders can allow others to stay connected with the trip. 

Car Selection 

For riders, the more tailored experience you offer, the better it will be. Give them a choice over one of the most pivotal determiners, i.e. the ride itself. Allow the riders the option to choose their car category according to their needs, and accordingly give them the choice to be flexible.  

Multiple payment options

Users can have varying preferences regarding the mode of payment they want to use, to pay for the services. Moreover, taxi services are an in-transit part of their journey. More often than not, riders will be in a hurry. Hence offering options like card payments, eWallets, bank transfer, and cash payment will lead to convenient transactions, eventually facilitating your business goals. 

Save your Location 

Users should be able to select and save their favorite locations to make their accessibility easier. This is particularly useful in cases where a user seeks a ride to or from a location regularly. Features related to frequently visited destinations and routes add up to app usability and make taxi booking easy for riders.

Taxi Confirmation Page 

If the user chooses to book a ride right away, then, they are shown a confirmation screen which also contains detailed information such as the rate card, car model and estimated arrival time. Users should be able to apply for valid discount/coupon codes, if any applicable

Advanced Booking

Riders can wish to opt for a scheduled ride for planned trip instead of booking on the spot. For such need the app can prompt for the information regarding time, place , and destination. This is beneficial in cases of expected rush-hour times when users sometimes find it difficult to find a taxi, or in the case of planned family or business trips. 

Give Your Riders Full Control 

Right from options to cancel a trip, to an OTP based trip commencement, to options like choosing between taking the ride right away or at a later time. Offer the convenience of choice to your riders, enhancing their overall experience of interacting with your business. 

Emergency Button

You can offer an emergency button in the application which sends the ride details as well as current location to a predefined contact in case of emergency. This is a highly vital security feature and can boost user confidence.

Ride Feedback

Social engagement is a key element in eCommerce. When users are prompted for the ride feedback, they feel more connected, and it gives them a channel to share their opinions, making them feel valued. This information also acts as social proof for other riders. Moreover, a business can get crucial information regarding the health of the business, the quality of the services, and regarding specific drivers. 

Driver App Features 

A ride-sharing business is a two-sided business model. Offering the taxi-service providers with the right set of features to carry out their activities efficiently and effectively is as important to your business, as the riders’ user satisfaction. To achieve this, some of the more important features in a driver app are as follows 

Route Navigation 

With the assistance of seamlessly integrated Google maps and other related maps, drivers should intuitively navigate to the destination using in-app features. Critical components like optimised route planning, passenger ETA updates, and more, further enhance drivers’ capabilities to offer better services. 

Stats and Rides’ log for Drivers 

Drivers, themselves will be running their business via your ride-hailing platform. A successful business needs insights to analyze business health for various perspectives. For drivers these insights come from stats like number of trips completed, total fare earned, and a well defined log of rides. 

Rider Rating and Review

Just like riders, the overall satisfactory business experience of the driver is equally important. Offer your drivers the capability add ratings for the riders. Let them share about the rider’s behavior, or any other special request entertained by them for the rider. This will help in transparency of operations. Moreover, you will be able to identify any potentially inappropriate rider that you need to consider. 

Initiate Payout 

Give drivers the freedom to initiate the payout of their successfully completed trips via a functionality included in the app for drivers. This further helps to manage their earnings. 

Features for Business/Marketplace Operator 

In a two sided business such as taxi-hailing services, your role is orchestrating the services, sustaining business health, and that various business goals are met. To streamline your respective operations, you will need features in the app. 

Profile Management

As an intermediary, it will be key for a marketplace operator to gauge users on the platform. Add the capability to manage pivotal parameters such as reviews, rating, ride history, and more. 

Manage Vehicle Categories 

Cab-hailing services typically cater to multiple needs i.e. shorter city getarounds, longer trips, premium services to get to an important occasion, business trips, and many others. Each of these services need varying car categories with their individual fare breakup. The capability to manage these will be important. 

Geo Fencing 

It will be important for you to define your operative area with respect to business feasibility, revenue generation potential, safety, and other factors. Ensure that the marketplace operator has the option to add/remove any region to define operations in a specified geographical region. 

Analytics Data 

Data gives pivotal insights for a business for a retrospective analysis of past decisions, understanding current business health, and ideate towards the future course of the business. These can include insights about transactions, number of riders, total revenue generated, traffic on the platform, and more. This data can be made available by reports and analytics. 

Fare Management

Give the marketplace operator the the rights to manage different fares for different cities based on the type of vehicle. This can also include dynamic pricing capabilities i.e. features like surge pricing with the option of setting it according to the day of the week and time of day.

We covered all the features in the above sections, and have to say that most of them are rather innovative. Additionally, our team of analysts and developers have discovered some areas that can help you in creating an advanced taxi booking solution. They’re as follows:

How Much Does it Cost to Build Taxi Booking Mobile App(s)?

The actual cost of developing taxi booking apps for your business depends upon the solutions you choose and the features your business requires You can either hire a development company to build apps from scratch or go for a ready-made white label taxi booking app for your taxi hire business.

While hiring a development company to build custom apps can cost a lot of money and can be time-consuming (6-12 months on average), readymade white-label apps can easily cater to your business requirements as they come at easy rates and allow you to start business operations right off the bat.

The charges for custom development vary depending upon the country where the development company is based and the expertise level of the team of developers. The average development charges can range anything between $30 – $300 per hour. As a ball park estimate, the development itself can range from 1000 to 3000 development hours. 

Contrary to this, a ready-made bundle of taxi booking apps will cost you around $2000-$5000 for a lifetime license. 

How can VivoCabs Help You in Your Business Journey 

One such solution is Vivocabs. It is a ready-made solution developed by FATbit Technologies ― to give entrepreneurs looking to start their online taxi-booking business, purpose-built turnkey solutions. The solution comes with mobile app bundles for both Android and iOS operating systems with advanced features for all business participants i.e. the marketplace operator, drivers, and riders. 

These apps have been ingrained with FATbit’s analysis of what has made taxi-operators like Uber successful. This means that all features that we have discussed and a lot more are available on the apps from the word go. Above that, the apps can be fully customized with respect to design and features as per business requirements. 

Key Highlights of VivoCabs apps: 

• 100% White-label
• GDPR Compliant
• Extensively Customizable
• Multi-Currency/Multilingual Capabilities
• One Time Investment i.e. No Recurring Charges
• Highly Scalable

To know how Vivocabs can help you manage your day-to-day, you can schedule a free demo.

Wrapping Up 

Popular players like Uber and Lyft have a laid a framework on how a taxi-haling business is conducted. Consumers are drivers offering their services have come to expect these features. So if you are planning to build a taxi booking apps, then you cannot afford to miss out on the features highlighted in this blog. Vivocabs by FATbit Technologies are built to give you a headstart with feature-rich robust solutions, at a fraction of the cost.

However, if you have very specific business requirements. For instance, if you need the apps to be built around some existing legacy framework that you already have, or you want to build taxi-hailing apps that vary in approach to popular business solution in the industry, you can consider taxi-booking app development.

Discuss your taxi booking mobile application requirements with a top taxi booking app development company to launch a successful online taxi booking venture. FATbit Technologies, with its 19+ year pedigree in custom eCommerce solutions has been listed in this coveted list.