Taxi (cab) Booking App Development – Everything You Need to Know In 2023!

There is an opinion that if you have a fleet of cars and a modern digital solution for providing transportation services, then you have everything you need to develop a successful business. This theory is quite reasonable because, according to statistics, the Taxi Market will exceed $369 billion by 2026, and the number of cab users will be almost 1,500 million people. 

Are you ready to take your place in the rapidly developing industry? Then it's time to order a high-quality app for a taxi. In this article, we will discuss what an ideal software product for this field should be and what it will bring to you as a business owner.

Taxi Booking App is a type of software that helps passengers book on-demand taxis online. Thanks to a modern digital product, your customers no longer have to wait for an operator to respond or to hail a car on the go. All they have to do is log into the app and enter their location and destination. Some services allow you to adjust the trip cost and choose the type of taxi depending on the car's class. 

There are separate driver apps. They allow you to track the orders coming into the service and choose the one that is more convenient to perform, depending on the localization. Also, with their help, the driver sees all the information about the order: the place of car pickup, dropping off the passenger, and much more. 

The third type is an admin panel. In this program, you can control drivers, study customer feedback, solve problems when complaints come in, view reports and analytics, and perform other management functions. 

Key Reasons to Build Taxi Booking App for Your Business

• Growth of brand awareness
  

Agree, the black and white Uber logo or the yellow triangle from Uklon cars are familiar to users all over the world. These companies created really cool apps with convenient functionality, thanks to which their rating has grown significantly. For example, in 2020 alone, Uber was installed 11.6 million times. Along with the popularity of digital solutions, the company's popularity has grown.

• Increasing customer loyalty

As a rule, cab ordering apps collect some data about their users. At least the customer's name can be used in correspondence. Don't neglect this opportunity. According to recent studies, personalized communications are important to 76% of consumers. Plus, passengers leave their phone numbers to contact the driver. Send an offer with a discount or other bonus to it; it will help retain regular customers and attract new ones through word of mouth.

• Increasing driver productivity

One of the features that a quality Taxi Booking App should include is tracking drivers' work. Thanks to this feature, a business owner can control how many orders each employee completes, how much distance they drive per shift, and what their rating is based on user feedback. Based on these indicators, it is possible to determine the bonus amount for a particular driver or develop a motivation system. For example, to reduce the fee for renting a car when a certain number of orders are fulfilled.

The result of all the above is an increase in the profitability of your business. After all, the more loyal customers you have and the more interested your drivers are in work, the more profit you will get.

On the one hand, the convenience of customers and drivers is the most obvious goal of cab booking app development. On the other hand, it doesn't show clearly all the benefits that the digitization of transport services offers you. Let's take a closer look at what progressive software will bring to your company.

Taxi App Development Cost

The next question that all software customers are sure to worry about is the cost of the relevant service provider. This question is entirely reasonable because customers want to understand whether their investment in the company's digital future is justified. 

Taxi booking app development cost is discussed with the Project manager from your dedicated development team. It depends on a number of factors:

1. Number of implemented functions. The more complex the app, the more expensive it will cost to develop. For example, it is possible to create a simple digital solution where customers can only call a cab. Adding other features, such as a callback system, tracking vehicle geolocation, and more, will require an additional monetary investment.

2. Time spent on development. The cost of creating a high-quality app depends directly on the number of hours spent on each stage of work. You should not save money here. Without a user-friendly UI/UX design, clients will not accept the app. Back-end development is just as important as front-end development, although this part of the app is not visible to users. The importance of well-organized QA processes is completely out of the question – if you don't test an app before release, fixing bugs after it will cost many times more.

3. Country of residence of employed developers. The cost of the same services of developers from different regions can vary dramatically. For example, the work of a programmer from the United States is estimated at $150-250 per hour. In Eastern Europe, the hourly rate of a developer is significantly lower – $40-150. Moreover, this does not mean that a specialist from Poland or Ukraine will create software worse than their colleague from the United States. Therefore this is precisely the pricing factor on which it is possible to play to an advantage.  

Including all the conditions discussed above, cab app development can cost anywhere from $40,000 to $50,000. Not ready to pay for a full-fledged app right away? Start with MVP development. Creating a digital solution with a minimal set of features will cost less and, at the same time, allow you to test your idea on real users.

Who Needs to Create a Taxi Booking App?

Before ordering taxi application development, you need to decide on the business model you plan to use for work. The choice of a digital solution will depend on what type of business your company is.

Taxi Service Providers

If you already have a business in the taxi industry with your own fleet and staff of drivers, the Taxi Service Providers app is the right choice for you. In this case, the driver of your service and the passenger will communicate directly: the passenger specifies the desired parameters of the trip (car class, route, cost, time of vehicle delivery), and the driver executes the appropriate order. 

Transport Services

If you don't have your own cab service, consider the second type of application: on-demand transport services. These platforms act as a kind of intermediary between the driver and the passenger and can also be of two types:

1. An app where private drivers or cab owners can register their cars and provide passenger transportation services. Uber is exactly this type of software.

2. A program that provides users with a list of available cab services in the region and approximately calculates the cost of the trip. This option is suitable for companies with a limited budget who want to start developing a business in the field of transportation. 

Whatever type of app you choose, it's essential to scale it easily. After all, a business in such a fast-growing industry is destined for rapid customer growth and the need to expand the digital product's capabilities.

Taxi Mobile App Development: Roadmap

Creating an app for cab service is not only about its development and design. It is a complex process that begins with an in-depth analysis of the market and competitors and ends with the promotion and maintenance of the finished product. Let's consider all the stages of development in detail.

Step 1: Market Research

Before starting work on an app, it is important to research the market that the customer plans to enter. Will it be a global service or a digital solution for one city? What features are relevant to the target audience? The answer to these and other questions will help create software that will really be in demand.

Step 2: Сompetitor Analysis

You should study what opportunities your competitors offer to their customers. This will allow you to adopt best practices, avoid their mistakes, and make your digital solution the best on the market.

Step 3: Test Application Ideas

Once the idea for a future software product is clearly formulated, it needs to be tested. You can survey the target audience, create a prototype of the app and test it, and develop a Customer Journey Map. 

Step 4: Design the App

The quality design of an app is the key to its popularity among users. The interface should contain recognizable elements to promote your brand and be simple, visually appealing, and convenient.

Step 5: Decide on Functionality

Lack of features, as well as overloaded extra features, will have a negative impact on the demand for digital solutions, so it is worth choosing those that best meet the needs of the target audience.

Step 6: Decide on Monetization Strategy

You can charge drivers and passengers a fee for using the app, introduce a cancellation fee, or add advertising to the program.

Step 7: Choosing the technology stack

Using advanced technologies and tools will create a modern digital product with high performance, functionality, and, if necessary, easy scalability.

Step 8: Decide on Architecture

Choosing the right architecture can simplify the process of software development, testing, scaling, and post-release support.

Step 9: Development Started

At this stage, you work directly on the app, creating the frontend and backend parts of the project.

Step 10: Test Application

Testing is one of the main stages of work on an app. Identifying defects before the release of a digital product reduces the cost of fixing them many times over and avoids end-user dissatisfaction.

Step 11: Launch

The success of a digital product's release depends on how thoroughly the research was conducted and how well the development and testing teams worked. An effective go-to-market strategy also plays an important role.

Step 12: Launch Promotion

At this stage, it is important to make your product known to as many people as possible. We recommend using modern ways of promotion: SMM, content marketing, SEO, paid advertising, and PR.

Complete Features List Of a Taxi Booking App

Here is a list of features that are endowed with the best taxi booking apps. 

Driver/User Authorization

The driver needs to log in to the program to access the orders. Customers can use cab services and participate in the loyalty program.

Multi-Lingual Support

Does your country have a developed tourism industry, or do people of different nationalities populate it? The best way to avoid communication problems when hailing a cab is to create a multi-lingual app that supports users from different countries.

Automate Driver Payment

The function allows you to link an e-wallet or card account to the program. This will significantly speed up the payment process.

Multiple Payment Options

The time when it was only possible to pay for a trip in cash is far behind us. Now it is possible to pay by card, through online banking, etc. 

Push Notifications

Notify customers of vehicle arrival, order status, promotional offers, and other important information. 

Social Login/Sign-Up

In order not to forget your app password at the most inopportune moment, it is important to be able to log in to the program using your social networking account data.

Bill Splitting

If multiple passengers are in a cab and each has a different endpoint, it can be difficult to determine the cost for each. Bill Splitting will help you split the cost fairly. 

Multiple Bookings

The ability to make several simultaneous orders can be very useful. So customers can plan their day by booking several cars for different times or help their family and friends get to their destination.

Book Cab For A Friend

With this feature, you can order a car for relatives who have not yet mastered the new technology or for a friend whose phone is dead. For anyone who needs it.

In-App Call

It is very convenient to make a call to clarify the order details without leaving the app. This feature should be implemented in the client interface and the driver's software.

Auto Dispatch Software

The function will automate communication between the cab service and passengers. This will eliminate the human factor and increase the speed and quality of service.

Emergency Contact

If an emergency happens during the execution of the order, the ability to communicate quickly with the emergency services will come in handy.

Live Tracking POP Mode

Does the software have a Book Cab For A Friend feature? It makes sense to give the passenger the ability to track the location of the car in real-time. 

Smartwatch Access

This feature allows you to access order management in the cab booking app from your smartwatch. This will take your service level up a notch.

Driver Queue Algorithm

The system allows you to create a queue of drivers who can come to the customer as soon as possible (for example, within 5 minutes) and send a notification of the order just to them.

Surge Pricing

In some situations (unfavorable weather conditions, public events, etc.), the demand for cabs exceeds the supply. In order to regulate the number of cars in the desired area, the price of services can be increased. Drivers will strive to earn more and go exactly where needed. 

Zone Pricing

In addition to the previous demand-driven pricing model, cab services can adjust their prices based on where passengers are boarded or dropped off. For example, it may be more expensive to ride in areas with too much traffic or remote areas.

Heat Map View

Visualization of traffic in a particular area at different times helps the driver to optimally build their route by looking at the app screen.

Phone Number Masking

For some customers, their privacy is paramount. It is for them that many cab apps have implemented a phone number masking feature.

Loyalty Programs

Reward regular customers with discounts on trips, and offer promotional terms of service to passengers who haven't used the app for a long time. This feature provides many opportunities to increase the loyalty of your customers.

Real-Time Analytics

Thanks to detailed analytics, cab owners can determine how many drivers are registered with the service, where they are located, and how many orders they have fulfilled.

Booking History

Adding this functionality will allow customers to view completed and canceled orders, track popular routes, and control transportation costs.

Customer Profile

The function will allow passengers to update their contact information in time to always stay in touch. It is also directly linked to the ability to view their order history.

Dashboard

All the information you need to manage your business effectively is available to the administrator on the dashboard. Here you can see the number of registered and available cars, the amount of payments, the number of orders, and much more.

Driver Profile

Drivers, like customers, have access to a personal profile that contains up-to-date user information. 

Fare/Route/Duration Calculator

The function will allow customers to know before calling a cab the approximate amount of costs and estimate the time on the road, taking into account traffic jams and other factors.

GPS Tracking

Modern software allows cab service customers to track the vehicle's location that is on order in real-time. This eliminates the need for constant communication with the driver to clarify the arrival time.

Login/Sign Up

Logging into a taxi-call app account shouldn't take much time, and at the same time, it should guarantee the safety of users. To do this, it's wise to use two-factor authentication, i.e., logging in with a username/password and a one-time code from an SMS message.

Map View

Viewing the map in real-time allows you to build the best route to make each trip as fast and comfortable as possible.

Messaging

Calling the driver to clarify the trip's details is not always convenient. In order to make communication as comfortable as possible, the software adds the ability to write messages.

Messaging Alerts

Receiving notifications about new messages allows you to read the important information in time and reply to your conversation partner without delay.

Navigation and Route Optimization

You can't do without a navigator and the ability to optimize the route to make it easier for the driver to find the right address. This function is especially relevant in large cities.

Ratings and Reviews

Most modern apps allow you to leave feedback and ratings on drivers and passengers, forming a rating for each. This works as additional motivation for the driver to perform better and for the passenger to be polite and cultured.

Reports

The administrator gets access to reports on payments received, routes, number of completed and rejected orders, and driver activity. This allows for efficient work planning and increased profits.

Stats and Earnings

The feature will allow drivers to better control their work: time, routes, and income.

Each customer has the right to determine the set of features their app will have. However, it is worth remembering that the more features your users get, the more popular your digital product will become.

Taxi Booking Mobile Apps Examples

Before creating your own cab app, it's a good idea to look at the leaders in this industry. What made them famous around the world?

Uber

It is the company that millions of users associate with the on-demand taxi booking service. The app has 93 million active users from 70 countries around the world. It works on iOS and Android devices and supports progressive payment methods and the ability to pre-book a car.

Lyft

This service is the main competitor of Uber in the United States. Its services are used in 300 cities in the U.S., and the number of active users approaches 19 million. Lyft is a cross-platform digital solution whose "features" include the ability to specify your location as precisely as possible, automatic ride payment, and an interesting bonus program.

Gett

Gett is an Israeli company that acts as an intermediary between licensed taxi fleets and passengers. Unlike the previous services described above, Gett is focused on the B2B sector and operates in many European countries and the United States. The app's advantages include booking a car two weeks in advance and the right to travel for free by sharing a link to the program with friends.

Curb

The app is considered one of the best digital cab ordering solutions in the U.S. It is available to iOS and Android users. Among the features that customers appreciate the most is Pair and Pay. It allows paying for a ride with the touch of a button on the smartphone and sending an e-mail with a detailed description of the order after making the reservation.

Easy taxi

This company's digital product is available in 30 countries on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. Users note the increased attention of the service to security issues; the app is available to exchange data on the trip in real-time, sending notifications after arrival at the destination. It is also possible to calculate the preliminary cost of the trip and order a cab or a private driver. 

Bolt

Bolt is an Estonian company that provides its customers with an app for quick and convenient cab calling in 30 countries. In addition to providing standard functions, the company pays increased attention to passenger safety. The latest software update announced the ability to check the driver's documents in real-time.

inDrive

The app is an aggregator of passenger and freight transportation services. Like other reviewed digital solutions, it is available for iOS and Android devices and has more than 150 million downloads by users from 47 countries. The peculiarity of the app lies in the pricing model; the cost of the trip is set based on the agreement between the driver and the passenger.

How to Build a Taxi App: Conclusion

Taxi mobile application development is a complex process in which none of the stages should be neglected. Research the market, choose a progressive tech stack, hire the best experts, and organize quality testing. In other words, do not be afraid to invest in your business's digital future – your monetary investment will pay off.