When we walk through the streets, we’ll inevitably see taxi cabs everywhere. There are countless taxi booking apps available, which in turn has led to the numerous cabs flooding our streets. Uber has a market of $72 billion, which shows that it is one of the preferred cabs among customers.  People can book taxis as per their convenience through taxi apps.

Globalization has changed its view on the people’s perspective. Compared to time spent on waiting for cabs or auto-rickshaws, Indians prefer getting rides at an economical price and also within minutes of booking using a taxi booking app. The two main popular ride services in India are Ola and Uber. However, they are not covering all the places in the country. So there is immense scope for budding entrepreneurs to offer services in the less explored areas.

The market potential for India for taxi booking apps

• According to Statista, the market volume of taxi services in India is more than 2 million rides a day. In the years to come, the popularity of taxi service is bound to increase with the increased usage of smartphones.
• The aggregate taxi booking app is still at its nascent stage, as Ola and Uber occupy the market share of 4 to 5% in terms of the number of vehicles. 

• The market value of Uber is expected to amount to $230 billion by 2023. The app earns 20-30% as commission from every ride.

Some of the common challenges faced by people 

When we look at popular ride-sharing services, certain shortcomings need to be sorted out. If mobile apps like Uber resolved these issues, it would be helpful for customers, and it is likely that customers will prefer these apps over others. 

When customers book for a ride, the process for finding a suitable ride takes a lot longer than expected. When it takes more than a specific time period for searching the ride, customers can be notified so that they can take the required action.

People face issues when drivers cancel the rides after accepting them. In order to resolve the problem, there are mechanism devices so that the drivers cannot cancel the rides after accepting them.

Popular taxi services do not operate in remote areas, so people are finding it difficult to find rides in those areas. If online taxi booking apps like Uber offer last-mile connectivity services in those areas, they can captivate the presence of a much wider audience. 

Crucial factors involved in building an Uber-like taxi booking application 

These are the major aspects involved in the development process of Uber-like taxi booking applications

Registration and profile building

It is an essential part of development involved in mobile apps like Uber. Customers can register their profiles using social media registration or by adding their contact details. On the other hand, the driver profile must include the complete verification process to check for customer details.

Identifying the user location

As we all know Uber-like taxi apps revolve around identifying users’ locations and pinging in the nearby drivers for accepting rides. If the driver rejects the ride, the next nearest available driver is notified about the customer request. Taxi booking applications are intricately built around GPS services. Uber’s Core location framework gathers customers’ current location and transmits it to the server for the iOS app version. 

For the Android version, Uber uses the Google Maps API to calculate the approximate travel distance and travel time.

Push notifications 

The notifications are sent to users to provide updates on the current status of the ride bookings. Customers are sent notifications in various instances, as listed below.

• When the ride is booked, customers are sent a notification about the vehicle assigned and along with the driver’s details.
• When the driver is close to the customer’s location, the users are notified.
• In some cases, when a driver cancels the ride customers are notified.

The drivers also get notifications in their app. The notification features are built using Apple Notification services for the iOS app and Google cloud messaging (GCM) for the Android app.

Secure digital payment modes 

When considering building Uber-like app development in India, it is essential to offer secure payment modes for the customers. It will increase customer trust in using app services. Some of the popular payment gateway integrations used are Braintree and Stripe.

Advanced features to include in Uber-like app development process

The following features are aimed at offering better ride services for the customers: 

Drivers report 

Drivers can view the complete details regarding each ride using the report feature. The report can show the aspects related to a certain time frame of functioning. If drivers violate traffic rules or if the customer has reported any complaints, those warnings appear in this module.

Route optimization panel 

The shortest possible route between the customer and driver place needs to be offered to the drivers. The efficiency and timeliness of offering rides will, in turn, increase customer trust in using the application. 

Driver destination

Drivers can easily pick up the next ride from the previous ride dropping point. It will reduce the time taken for the customers to process the requests. 

Heat Maps

Drivers can see the popularly used areas using the heat map and move to those areas to get more rider requests. 

Conclusion

According to Mordor Intelligence, the taxi market is expected to reach a CAGR of 19.08 % in the period of 2020-2025. Once the crisis is averted, the taxi-service sector is projected to reach $334.5 billion in 2023, an all-time high record in the taxi industry. The future looks bright for taxi-booking app sectors; entrepreneurs can invest in this thriving segment and reap from its benefits.