Though businesses are emerging every day only a few make you wonder how a business can be so cool. Having seen the growth of Facebook, Tesla, and Apple, Uber is also such a business which is getting more and more mind-blowing each day.
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Road map to develop a ride hailing app
It was rumored that the idea of Uber was born on a winter night when co-founder’s, Travis and Garrett, were complaining about some crappy things including the struggle to get taxis on a winter night.
Garrett took the lead and built the idea into a prototype and by 2010 there were cars rolling in New York City to simply test the service.
With only a few cars and few people knowing about Uber’s startup, it proved to be a hit at the initial stage itself. Knowing about this service, San Fransico joined host with Uber and the rest as we know is history.
Today, Uber stands tall among the transportation industry by providing various services which are solely customer-centric.
Also, people living in highly populated cities are relying upon ride-hailing services (like Uber and Lyft) rather opting to buy a new car and get stuck in huge traffic. Since this service offers a lot of advantages while cutting off the cost of maintenance, repairs, parking fee, and the struggle of driving in busy traffic.
After analyzing the growth of Uber and Lyft & their valuation after their IPO filing, many business entities were interested to invest in app-based taxi services to seek revenues. It is a beneficial idea if you plan to invest in a taxi app service or to start one of your own. Either way, it will turn out profitable.
It is well-known that competing in an already flooded market is hard but if you are strong enough with your roadmap to outsmart others, it is still a thriving one.
You can prepare for a research session to study your competitor’s strength and mistakes that they have done so far. Through this, you can easily plan your business strategies like how well you can enhance your Uber clone app features.
A right approach before planning to develop an Uber-like app
Uber, since its inception, is pleasing customers all over the world but at the same time, you can see many other booking apps proliferating around. This happens due to our never ending advancement in technology. So, there is a fair chance for you to compete in the industry.
But make sure to create your uniqueness in the business. Not only adapting to the current trend makes a difference but also the service that you provide matters. After inspecting your competitor’s growth, you must decide how and on which platform to develop your app.
You can either choose a native or cross-platform app. Once chosen, keep up your requirements and deliver it your developing partner. Either you can start developing the app from scratch or try a ready-made Uber clone app for your taxi business.
Few points here may help you while you develop like,
- Providing a user-friendly interface for both driver and user.
- Ensuring features to be simple yet effective.
- Maintaining a secure layer for payment procedures.
But whatever you opt for, just be sure to use the right technology stack while developing.
A little Uber way will be helpful for your app
Many say that the repetition will be inferior to your business. But implementing a little uber way in the app will be helpful. Who knows a simple tweak in features can even create a lot of difference.
But before doing it, you must know how the app and its features work. The ride-hailing mobile application has three different apps: User application, Driver application, and Dispatch system. The dispatch system is a complete backend process whereas the other two plays an important role in the scene.
Thus, you can get a brief about both user and driver app features further. You can inculcate this while you develop your own taxi app.
User app features:
Fare calculator:
Both Uber and other taxi booking services were heavily criticized for its surge pricing during various occurrences in cities. Make sure to not repeat it while you build and for this, you must be prepared to integrate new measures.
Price estimation or fare calculator can provide the needful since people can choose whether to take up the ride or not when they book a cab.
Recovered location:
This is one of Uber’s best integrations in the app. This feature allowed users to save their home and destination locations in the app. It helped people who travel to the same destination each day.
So that they can simply start the ride with just a tap rather entering the locations. Also, Uber maintains a record of its rider so that it allows the driver and the dispatch team to identify the right location at times.
Estimated time status:
None encourages late arrivals and this is same in the case of the taxi business. Uber allows its user to know the estimated time for both arrival and departure.
Also to assure a safe trip, it allows the rider to share trip details to families and friends. The trip details have information about the driver’s name, contact address, photos, etc.
Payment methods:
Incorporating a secure payment method for users is a crucial thing in the taxi app. Make sure that your service accepts both cash and cashless payments.
A few countries don’t accept cashless payment since drivers deny it. So allow wallets, credit card, debit card, and net banking option to proceed further as the rider wishes.
Split fares:
Split fares help riders when they choose a shared ride. This feature favors the driver to get equal shares without any confusion among riders.
Book for anyone:
This feature by Uber allows the individual to book rides for their friends and family who struggle with technology. You can quickly book a ride for anyone being at any place.
Driver app features:
Profile setup:
Details about the driver’s personal and vehicle info will be available. This feature is set up to verify the background check of the driver. Only when the information is clear he/she will be allowed to take a trip.
GPS tracking:
This is one of the crucial things in the driver app. It becomes impossible for the driver if the GPS goes unworking. So, integrate the best for perfect tracking process. Drivers use the tracker to find the exact location of the rider to reach destinations at the estimated time.
Alerts and notifications:
This feature alerts the driver when a cab request arises. The app will intimate through notification about the rider and his place. After accepting it, the driver will take up the ride by examining the shortest route.
Track summary and earnings:
This summary will give you an estimation of the points that the driver earned on a particular day. It allows the rider to plan for the day.
Finding fuel stations:
This feature allows the driver to find the nearest fuel stations with cost estimation in that locality.
Thus, after planning how to enhance or integrate the features you must find a mobile app development company to build your ideas. But before doing it, you must know the cost estimation that each company fixes.
Cost for developing uber clone app
As said earlier, the cost for Uber-like app development differs as per region and the technology stack that you chose for building. To break it down, the cost depends on
- Platforms that you choose to launch MVP.
- The structural complexity of the app i.e., including payment integration, Geo-location, and GPS based tracking.
- The region where you wish to build your app. Since the payment will be based on the country’s hourly wage.
Summary:
Though many taxi businesses are mushrooming everywhere there will always be a place for new innovations. And as an entrepreneur, you must be able to deliver the right service to people as Uber and Lyft did.
The cab service market is always open for new exploration and still, with arising technology and market dynamics you can even become the next leading cab service in the world.