This website uses cookies to better the user experience of its visitors. Where applicable, this website uses a cookie control system, allowing users to allow or disallow the use of cookies on their computer/device on their first visit to the website. This complies with recent legislative requirements for websites to obtain explicit consent from users before leaving behind or reading files such as cookies on a user’s computer/device. To learn more click Cookie Policy.

Privacy preference center

Cookies are small files saved to a user’s computer/device hard drive that track, save, and store information about the user’s interactions and website use. They allow a website, through its server, to provide users with a tailored experience within the site. Users are advised to take necessary steps within their web browser security settings to block all cookies from this website and its external serving vendors if they wish to deny the use and saving of cookies from this website to their computer’s/device’s hard drive. To learn more click Cookie Policy.

Manage consent preferences

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies list
Name _rg_session
Provider rubygarage.org
Retention period 2 days
Type First party
Category Necessary
Description The website session cookie is set by the server to maintain the user's session state across different pages of the website. This cookie is essential for functionalities such as login persistence, ensuring a seamless and consistent user experience. The session cookie does not store personal data and is typically deleted when the browser is closed, enhancing privacy and security.
Name m
Provider m.stripe.com
Retention period 1 year 1 month
Type Third party
Category Necessary
Description The m cookie is set by Stripe and is used to help assess the risk associated with attempted transactions on the website. This cookie plays a critical role in fraud detection by identifying and analyzing patterns of behavior to distinguish between legitimate users and potentially fraudulent activity. It enhances the security of online transactions, ensuring that only authorized payments are processed while minimizing the risk of fraud.
Name __cf_bm
Provider .pipedrive.com
Retention period 1 hour
Type Third party
Category Necessary
Description The __cf_bm cookie is set by Cloudflare to support Cloudflare Bot Management. This cookie helps to identify and filter requests from bots, enhancing the security and performance of the website. By distinguishing between legitimate users and automated traffic, it ensures that the site remains protected from malicious bots and potential attacks. This functionality is crucial for maintaining the integrity and reliability of the site's operations.
Name _GRECAPTCHA
Provider .recaptcha.net
Retention period 6 months
Type Third party
Category Necessary
Description The _GRECAPTCHA cookie is set by Google reCAPTCHA to ensure that interactions with the website are from legitimate human users and not automated bots. This cookie helps protect forms, login pages, and other interactive elements from spam and abuse by analyzing user behavior. It is essential for the proper functioning of reCAPTCHA, providing a critical layer of security to maintain the integrity and reliability of the site's interactive features.
Name __cf_bm
Provider .calendly.com
Retention period 30 minutes
Type Third party
Category Necessary
Description The __cf_bm cookie is set by Cloudflare to distinguish between humans and bots. This cookie is beneficial for the website as it helps in making valid reports on the use of the website. By identifying and managing automated traffic, it ensures that analytics and performance metrics accurately reflect human user interactions, thereby enhancing site security and performance.
Name __cfruid
Provider .calendly.com
Retention period During session
Type Third party
Category Necessary
Description The __cfruid cookie is associated with websites using Cloudflare services. This cookie is used to identify trusted web traffic and enhance security. It helps Cloudflare manage and filter legitimate traffic from potentially harmful requests, thereby protecting the website from malicious activities such as DDoS attacks and ensuring reliable performance for genuine users.
Name OptanonConsent
Provider .calendly.com
Retention period 1 year
Type Third party
Category Necessary
Description The OptanonConsent cookie determines whether the visitor has accepted the cookie consent box, ensuring that the consent box will not be presented again upon re-entry to the site. This cookie helps maintain the user's consent preferences and compliance with privacy regulations by storing information about the categories of cookies the user has consented to and preventing unnecessary repetition of consent requests.
Name OptanonAlertBoxClosed
Provider .calendly.com
Retention period 1 year
Type Third party
Category Necessary
Description The OptanonAlertBoxClosed cookie is set after visitors have seen a cookie information notice and, in some cases, only when they actively close the notice. It ensures that the cookie consent message is not shown again to the user, enhancing the user experience by preventing repetitive notifications. This cookie helps manage user preferences and ensures compliance with privacy regulations by recording when the notice has been acknowledged.
Name referrer_user_id
Provider .calendly.com
Retention period 14 days
Type Third party
Category Necessary
Description The referrer_user_id cookie is set by Calendly to support the booking functionality on the website. This cookie helps track the source of referrals to the booking page, enabling Calendly to attribute bookings accurately and enhance the user experience by streamlining the scheduling process. It assists in managing user sessions and preferences during the booking workflow, ensuring efficient and reliable operation.
Name _calendly_session
Provider .calendly.com
Retention period 21 days
Type Third party
Category Necessary
Description The _calendly_session cookie is set by Calendly, a meeting scheduling tool, to enable the meeting scheduler to function within the website. This cookie facilitates the scheduling process by maintaining session information, allowing visitors to book meetings and add events to their calendars seamlessly. It ensures that the scheduling workflow operates smoothly, providing a consistent and reliable user experience.
Name _gat_UA-*
Provider rubygarage.org
Retention period 1 minute
Type First party
Category Analytics
Description The _gat_UA-* cookie is a pattern type cookie set by Google Analytics, where the pattern element in the name contains the unique identity number of the Google Analytics account or website it relates to. This cookie is a variation of the _gat cookie and is used to throttle the request rate, limiting the amount of data collected by Google Analytics on high traffic websites. It helps manage the volume of data recorded, ensuring efficient performance and accurate analytics reporting.
Name _ga
Provider rubygarage.org
Retention period 1 year 1 month 4 days
Type First party
Category Analytics
Description The _ga cookie is set by Google Analytics to calculate visitor, session, and campaign data for the site's analytics reports. It helps track how users interact with the website, providing insights into site usage and performance.
Name _ga_*
Provider rubygarage.org
Retention period 1 year 1 month 4 days
Type First party
Category Analytics
Description The _ga_* cookie is set by Google Analytics to store and count page views on the website. This cookie helps track the number of visits and interactions with the website, providing valuable data for performance and user behavior analysis. It belongs to the analytics category and plays a crucial role in generating detailed usage reports for site optimization.
Name _gid
Provider rubygarage.org
Retention period 1 day
Type First party
Category Analytics
Description The _gid cookie is set by Google Analytics to store information about how visitors use a website and to create an analytics report on the website's performance. This cookie collects data on visitor behavior, including pages visited, duration of the visit, and interactions with the website, helping site owners understand and improve user experience. It is part of the analytics category and typically expires after 24 hours.
Name _dc_gtm_UA-*
Provider rubygarage.org
Retention period 1 minute
Type First party
Category Analytics
Description The _dc_gtm_UA-* cookie is set by Google Analytics to help load the Google Analytics script tag via Google Tag Manager. This cookie facilitates the efficient loading of analytics tools, ensuring that data on user behavior and website performance is accurately collected and reported. It is categorized under analytics and assists in the seamless integration and functioning of Google Analytics on the website.

Taxi App Development: A Brief Guide with Tips

  • 13758 views
  • 9 min
  • Mar 21, 2019
Viсtoria S.

Viсtoria S.

Copywriter

Dmitriy G.

Dmitriy G.

Head of BA Office

Share

Did you know that in 2017, taxi apps including Uber and Lyft surpassed regular taxis in New York City by number of rides?

Taxi apps statistics

We’ve decided to take a look at this opportunity from a software developer’s standpoint and uncover the secrets of taxi app development. In this post, we share key features of a taxi app, possible development challenges, and a Business Model Canvas for an app like Uber.

What are taxi apps?

The concept of taxi apps is quite simple. A rider enters a destination and confirms their location. After that, the app matches the rider to a nearby driver. These apps include payments, GPS tracking, and customer support as well.

Now let’s take a look at key players on the global online taxi market.

With 75 million riders and 3 million drivers, Uber is one of the most popular ridesharing apps. It operates in more than 600 cities in 65 countries.

Today, Uber’s main competitor is Lyft, which is available in the United States and Canada. According to Second Measure, as of October 2018, Uber and Lyft combined owned almost 98 percent of the US ridesharing market. But while Uber led by market share, Lyft showed faster growth.

Here are some other taxi apps you might have heard of:

  • Curb is available in the US. Unlike Uber and Lyft, which let passengers share a ride in a private car, Curb allows riders to book professional and insured drivers.
  • Grab serves a number of countries in Southeast Asia. Grab services include GrabCar and GrabTaxi, so a user can ride either in a licensed taxi or in a private car. Grab also offers food delivery and pet transportation services.
  • Taxify operates in over 30 countries and has more than 15 million users. It has managed to get more active users in Africa than Uber.
  • mytaxi operates in nine European countries. More than 100,000 licensed taxi drivers and 10 million riders use the mytaxi app.
  • Ola is an Indian ridesharing company. In 2018, Ola expanded to Australia and New Zealand.

Key features for a taxi app

Generally, a taxi app has three types of users: admins, drivers, and riders. Let’s consider the core features each user requires. These are the features that are necessary for a minimum viable product (MVP).

Admin:

Admins get the features that allow them to easily manage, moderate, and track drivers and riders.

Dashboard allows an admin to view statistics on users, rides, and earnings.

Reports and analytics. Admin should be able to see various reports, including driver reports and payment reports.

God’s view. This feature enables an admin to see all the cars on the map as well as manage drivers, vehicle types, riders, reviews, locations, and fares.

Driver:

Drivers get the ability to manage their personal profiles, rides, and payments.

Map. A driver can see the route of the ride, pickup location, and destination on the map.

Notifications. A driver gets notifications about requests for a pickup, canceled rides, and new messages.

Call riders. To contact riders, drivers should be able to telephone call riders.

Rating system lets drivers rate riders when a ride has ended.

Fare calculator allows a driver to see how much a ride costs.

Rider:

Riders should have the ability to manage their personal profiles and payment methods.

Map. Riders can pick a destination, set a pickup location, track a driver’s real-time location, and see the route of the ride on the map.

Book a taxi. Once a rider has entered a destination and confirmed their location, they can book a taxi.

Call a driver. Riders should be able to contact a driver.

Estimated time of arrival. This feature allows riders to see when a driver should arrive.

Notifications. Riders get notifications about arrival, canceled ride, and new messages.

Fare calculator. Riders can see a fare estimate before booking a taxi.

Rating system lets riders rate drivers.

Reviews. Riders should be able to leave feedback about drivers and rides.

What are the challenges of developing a taxi app?

If you want to develop a taxi app, keep in mind that ridesharing services face certain challenges.

Safety

Safety is our top priority and it is our goal to make every ride safe, comfortable, and reliable.
Logan Green, CEO and co-founder of Lyft

Safety is a challenge for taxi apps, but it’s an absolute must. The biggest task is to make rides safe for both drivers and riders.

Uber and Lyft require potential drivers to undergo background and driving record checks. Drivers also must provide auto insurance and a driver’s license.

To make sure riders are safe and comfortable, both Uber and Lyft have certain vehicle requirements (which vary by city). For instance, Uber requires a vehicle to have four doors and be no more than 15 model years old. Vehicles can’t have any damage or missing pieces. Also, Uber allows drivers to use rental cars only from approved rental agencies.

As a safety measure, Uber has added an emergency button to the app. With this safety feature, users can quickly contact 911 directly from the Uber app by pressing a single button.

Competition

When you build a taxi app like Uber or Lyft, be ready to compete with big market players. To avoid big competition, you might want to consider picking a niche. Picking a niche and targeting particular users can increase your chance of success.

Here are some taxi services that have picked a particular niche:

  • Shebah. An Australian ridesharing service for women that has only female drivers.
  • HopSkipDrive. Created by three moms, HopSkipDrive is a car service for children. It allows parents to schedule and track rides for their children.
  • Taxi Electric. A premium electric taxi service that operates in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Taxi application development

Chicken and egg problem

A taxi platform is a two-sided marketplace. That means there are two types of users — drivers and riders — who benefit from each other. Riders simply won’t use a taxi app if there are no drivers. And here’s the question: who should you attract first? It’s the chicken and egg problem most marketplaces face. Let’s see how Uber solves it.

When Uber launches in a new city, the company starts with reaching out to professional drivers. To attract drivers, Uber offers minimum earnings guarantees. Thus, drivers get paid even if they don’t transport any riders. To attract riders, the company offers discounts and coupons. Users can even earn free rides for inviting friends to sign up.

Giving bonuses is an effective way to attract new drivers and gamify the process. Both Uber and Lyft offer driver bonuses for completing a certain number of rides.

Localization

If you want to expand to a number of different cities and countries, you may face some localization challenges. Note that localization isn’t limited to translating a taxi app into a different language.

First of all, there are different currencies. Fare estimates must be displayed in the currency of a particular country.

Second, the ride options may vary. For example, Uber offers an auto-rickshaw service in India and UberBOAT in Croatia. That means that you should consider the target audience’s needs and problems each time you expand to a new country.

Taking all of that into account, you may need to make some changes to the app interface to adapt it for a new city or country. If you compare Uber’s interface in different cities, you’ll notice that it looks slightly different. The changes are mostly related to differences in ride options. Though even when ride options are the same, they’re sometimes rearranged.

Uber interface
Uber’s interface in different cities. Source: Around the World with Uber

How do taxi apps make money?

Let’s take a look at the most common revenue streams for a taxi app.

Commission

Taxi services generate revenue primarily by taking commission for rides. Services like Uber don’t own cars. Instead, they pay drivers as independent contractors. Each transaction is divided between the driver and the company. Both Uber and Lyft take about 20 to 25 percent commission from each transaction. Drivers get the remaining 75 to 80 percent of the total fare.

Surge pricing

When demand for taxis in a particular area is high, prices for a ride automatically increase. Both Uber and Lyft use this pricing strategy. In the case of high demand, the price will be based on the number of available drivers and requests.

Different car models

Uber and Lyft provide several car services to meet the needs of different audiences. The better the car, the higher the price for a ride.

Uber provides several options, from UberX with regular sedans (about 80 percent of all Uber rides) to UberBlack, which is Uber’s most expensive luxury service. There’s also UberXL, which can seat up to six passengers and costs more than UberX. Uber also offers an option for shared rides called UberPool, which is cheaper for riders while letting Uber collect more revenue on each trip.

Lyft provides similar options. There’s the regular Lyft service, Lyft XL, Lyft Lux, Lyft Black, and Lyft Shared.

Taxi app development

Business Model Canvas for a taxi app like Uber

A Business Model Canvas is used to visualize a startup’s business model, evaluate the business idea, and figure out if the product meets the needs of its target audience. Here at RubyGarage, we use the Lean Canvas – a slight modification of a Business Model Canvas – to evaluate our clients’ business ideas. You can read about the Lean Canvas and our approach in this article.

Here’s an example of a Business Model Canvas for Uber.

Business Model Canvas for a taxi app like Uber

How to Build a taxi app cheaper 

Uber is a large project with tons of features. The development of a taxi app like Uber can be rather expensive (up to $150,000) even if you want to start with an MVP. Startups should look for options that allow for cost and development time reduction. And the RubyGarage team knows how to do that. 

Our company has created a white-label solution for fast and cost-efficient taxi app development that is completely suited to various business needs. Since it has all the necessary feature modules, we can reduce the development cost to $60,000 for an MVP.

We also understand the need of every taxi startup to create a unique product that stands out. That’s why we can provide you with additional features as well as a custom design for your taxi app. 

CONTENTS

Authors:

Viсtoria S.

Viсtoria S.

Copywriter

Dmitriy G.

Dmitriy G.

Head of BA Office

Rate this article!

Nay
So-so
Not bad
Good
Wow
6 rating, average 4.83 out of 5

Share article with

Comments (2)
Arpita Roy
Arpita Roy about 3 years ago
I love this article. This is very well written. You have truly enriched me with some excellent knowledge.
Reply
zoey laurance
zoey laurance about 3 years ago
In the era of IT, everyone needs comfort and this is happen more in transportation. In this article I got every needful information about the taxi booking and how can we develop this app and its prime features. Business Model canvas like Uber type of apps section is very helpful for me. Now I can optimize each factors of taxi booking app.
Reply

Subscribe via email and know it all first!