What is the first image that comes to your mind when you hear the word “taxi”? It is most likely a yellow NYC car with a corresponding roof sign or maybe a London black cab. Is that right?
You probably know that the first taxis looked completely different. The service of hiring vehicles is very old. It all started at the beginning of the 17th century. Horse-driven carriages were ground breakers in this field. They later evolved into hansoms that were eventually replaced by cars. Such a great history!
It looks like nothing more could be done or changed to make the taxi service improve. But wait… Are we not in the age of mobile technologies now? We are, and exactly this fact has turned out to be crucial for the way we live and work today. Mobile apps are widely used for our everyday activities and for business as well. A taxi booking app is a great example in this regard. It brings use to people and profit to those who dare to start providing this kind of services.
Read also: Mobile Travel App Development
Almost everyone knows what Uber is. This application has won crazy popularity and motivated a lot of people to think about launching their startups with a similar idea. Let’s see if it is really worth it. Today we will talk about how to build a mobile taxi app and what is necessary for its success.
Just in case you don’t know…
Uber is a universally recognized mobile application owned by an American company Uber Technologies Inc. This San Francisco startup has rapidly grown into a giant within a few years. It appeared in 2009 and continues developing and extending the range of the offered services gaining wider audiences from all around the globe. Smartphone users in more than 66 countries and 449 cities in the world have personally got acquainted with the app. A greater number of people have heard about it at least once.
The stunning success of Uber caused a lot of rush of other entrepreneurs who are willing to repeat it. This phenomenon got the name Uberisation. Its main feature is a new business model characterised by a shorter distance between customers and service providers achieved by an app and a fair rating system of the latter.
If you are about to join this trend there are some things you should be aware of and prepared to, development cost being one of the most important ones.
How much does it cost to develop a taxi app like Uber?
Taxi booking app development has definite peculiarities that have to be considered while you’re doing the planning. The whole scope of work depends on whether you already have an established business or not. If you don’t, the list of the solutions to build should include:
- A website;
- An admin panel;
- A mobile app.
If the task is to make a mobile app for the taxi service you already provide it is easier, less time-consuming, and cheaper too.
One more point that comes into question is the choice of a development platform. You should learn about the peculiarities of each option to decide upon the best one for you. First of all, choose between cross-platform and native development.
See also: How to Choose the Right Development Platform for a Mobile App?
“Write once, run everywhere” solution seems to be good, but hybrid apps have a lot of disadvantages. If you are not ready to compromise the quality of your product you’d better quit this idea right away. A more reasonable way is to build native applications. In this regard consider Android and iOS as the two leaders of the market.
Functionality is another significant topic for discussion. This kind of applications requires two sides to be taken into account: a driver and a client. They have different goals and perform different activities to reach them still being interconnected. It all results in the necessity of building two apps: one for drivers and one for users.
Such a condition gives much room for imagination and creativity, but there is no need to do everything at once. Start small and grow bigger. Lean principles which advise to make an MVP first and then build up other features would be very efficient here.
Each of the apps has a set of the core features to be implemented first of all. Let’s see what they are.
So, a driver app will have less functionality, namely:
- Registration;
- Reply to booking requests (accept/decline a booking);
- Status updates (pickup/drop a passenger);
- Booking history.
A passenger app is more comprehensive as a client has to perform more activities to find and hire a car. The mandatory functions are:
- Registration;
- Card details (the main card and additional ones);
- Pickup locations (a dropdown with address results, add home and work);
- Request results (see available taxis on the map, review driver profiles);
- Fare calculator;
- Driver tracking;
- Processing payments;
- Reviews and rating;
- Booking history;
- Push notifications.
Take a look at the approximate estimate of time needed to develop both applications and the budget you should be ready to allocate for this purpose. The details are here.
