How to Build an App Like Uber: The Complete Guide to Set up a Successful Online Taxi Business

Uber’s business model is changing the traditional way of doing business. Multiple taxi service providers have revolutionized their manual ride-hailing services by adopting modern methods of managing taxi bookings. If we look ten years back, when smartphones and on-demand taxi services were not in trend, we didn’t think that the taxi booking app will gain this much popularity in just a decade. If we talk about its underlying meaning, it is known as a platform which allocates the job to drivers. There are usually different panels for drivers, customers, and admin where riders can easily update the availability on the taxi booking app, and admin can control everything through a single dashboard.

Let’s Check Some Outstanding Stats of Uber’s Growth

Slowly and gradually, the Uber business model has grown in every place in the past few years. Uber has given fierce competition to other on-demand taxi services and somehow managed to stay above all.

• Uber has completed 5.2 billion trips in 2018 and 6.9 billion trips in 2019.
• Uber is available in more than 80 countries worldwide.
• Over 3 million people drive for Uber.
• An average Uber driver earns $364 per month.
• By 2021, it is projected that nearly 540 million people will worldwide use ride-sharing apps.

When the concept of ride-sharing or taxi booking apps came in the market, there were not many competitors, but today, there are other taxi dispatch apps like Lyft, which have a similar business model. It is effortless nowadays to develop an application because a clone of every app is available online. Ride-sharing usage has been increasing mostly in New York City from the last few years.

Step by Step Process to Build a Taxi Booking App

There are specific steps that you can follow to build a complete feature-enriched application like Uber. As we know that the competition is quite high nowadays, so, one has to create a taxi booking app which is exceptional so stand out of the cut-throat competition:

Market Research: One should do detailed research before stepping into the market with taxi app software. You should study thoroughly about the competitors operating in the market and try their applications if possible and find out the loopholes which you can eliminate while building your app.

Features And Functionalities: Every taxi booking app like Uber should have a different set of features and a technology stack that the owner wants to use in an application. A detailed list of each task and the stack will be useful for the owner as well as the developers working on your project.

Build An Application: The next step is to build a taxi booking app. Developing an application includes a lot of hits and trials because perfect functions need time to deploy in the application.

Launch In The Market: The last step includes launching the application in the market. Before launching, it is always advised to make an app like Uber with proper marketing strategies so that you have a plan before attracting the customers towards the Uber business model.

If we talk about the Uber business model, we see that it has a strong customer base and marketing strategies. Even with the dominant players like Uber and Lyft, the private-hire car business is still a flourishing one because people are continuously looking for something new in the market. Entrepreneurs are learning something new from their competitors every day and hitting the market with their new business plans.

How Your Taxi Booking App Can Compete With Uber

For competing against the leaders of the market, one needs to have robust marketing strategies, and he should include all the features and functionalities which Uber and Lyft have.

• Cab booking software is readily available in the market as a clone that you can purchase and customize according to your own needs and requirements.
• You can use early bird discounts just after you launch your app in the market to attract people towards your Uber business model.
• You should come up with the new and latest features in which the ride-hailing industry in the market is lacking. This can help in getting the attention of the public.
• You can give insurance coverage to the drivers and emergency button option to the customers to ensure their safety while riding.
• Keeping the current situations in mind, you can sanitize and clean every vehicle after every ride.
• You can also use electric cars which don’t damage the environment in any case.

One must be wondering how they can earn after launching an application in the market.

Revenue Models for Taxi Businesses

Commissions: As an owner, he can set an amount that he wants to charge as commission out of every ride. Moreover, the driver has to pay a fixed amount after he starts working on your platform.

Cancellation Fees: Cancellation fees are yet another way of collecting revenue from customers. There is a decided period in which a customer can cancel a ride. If he takes more than that, he has to pay a cancellation fee on the next trip.

Service And Subscription Charges: The owner can also charge a service fee from the customers, decided by the platform owner. It is a kind of flat booking rate which can generate a high amount of revenue.

Partnership: Promotional collaboration with big companies like Pepsi, Instacart, CCD, etc. is known to generate revenue and attract more people instantly. In this method, a promotional advertisement is placed on the big company’s website so that customers can reach you.

Advertisements: You can advertise your Uber business model in the market easily through various channels if you think that the promotional method would be a little costly.

Essential Features You Can Employ in Your Taxi App Development

Usually, There Are 4 Different Panels Included in every taxi booking app, which are:

1. Customer App:

This panel of the application is for customers. They can use it to book a taxi instantly and locate the driver.

• Easy registration and sign-up
• Social media integration
• Fare calculator
• Saved locations
• Multiple payment methods
• Fare splitting
• Extra stops in between
• Book for someone else
• Review and ratings

2. Driver App:

The driver application is like the backbone of any business model. Without this panel, a model is not completed. The driver can quickly sign-up and work according to his routine and wish.

• Driver’s profile
• GPS tracking
• Customer’s location
• Destination info
• Push notifications and alerts
• Track earnings
• Update availability

3. Admin Dashboard:

The most essential dashboard is the manager’s panel, which helps in supervising the overall operations on the platform. He is responsible for making any required changes in the taxi booking app anytime, which is reflected in every other panel.

• Single dashboard with all features
• Manage vehicles and drivers
• Responsible for background screening of drivers
• Reports and analytics
• Managing reviews and comments
• Send bulk messages
• Offers and discounts
• Manages payroll, revenue, and relevant data
• Solving server issues

4. Dispatcher Dashboard:

A dispatcher panel works as a medium to assign the jobs to drivers. This taxi dispatch system makes booking of a taxi easier and helps taxi companies to manage the data of every customer. The taxi dispatch system maintains the details & records of all road-service calls and handles all the drivers at their end.

How Much Does It Cost Startups to Develop an Online Taxi Booking App?

Taxi app development cost is also an important factor when one decides to enter the taxi-hailing industry and enter the market. Usually, the price depends upon various aspects like the location of the company, no. of developers working, features and functions they have included in building an application, no. of platforms, etc.

Usually, it is somewhere between $3k to $25k. If you only want basic features to be added in the application with basic technology, the cost will be less, and if you want access to all the advanced features and modern technology to be used, the price will go higher. The company’s locations also play an essential part in determining the cost. In some places like China and India, the developers are available at very low prices, but in California, the developers can charge double the amount charged in India.

Conclusion

All in all, we can say that the craze to the taxi dispatch business is growing rapidly. In this digital era, it is the most essential for taxi companies to make an app like Uber, which is more profitable in the market. To achieve success, one must implement great marketing strategies and create a strong base of customers in the initial stages of operation. No business achieves profit in the starting days; it needs hard work and a lot of customers to start with. Technology is playing an important part in every field, so, to start a taxi dispatch business, reliable and transparent software is much needed.

DepositPhotos – uber

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