7 Steps to Develop Сab Booking App in 2023
Many services are dislocated online now: shopping, grocery delivery, and entertainment are bright examples. Taxi and other transportation are not the exception. There are well-established market players that shaped the new transportation industry, and as you’ll see, their sizes are astonishing. You can participate in this process, too.
In this article, we’ll see the process to develop cab booking app, how to monetize it, and see the top-5 cab booking apps in the United States market. But first, let’s see why this industry can be so alluring.
Essentials of a Cab Booking App
If one needs to go somewhere, searching for a taxi driver is the common option. However, they often turn out to be expensive, and you don’t know if you can trust them.
That’s where a cab booking app may help. It connects drivers with users and calculates routes, ensuring minimum time waste and maximum trip efficiency. If you want to go somewhere, you’ll probably prefer the app, which will provide information about the driver and show your route and a clear price. In addition, it’s safe and convenient: you don’t need to contact suspicious persons in their cars in the middle of the night. Instead, just order a cab, and you’ll be there quickly and inexpensively!
So, see the market statistics below: it has $100bn today and is predicted to rise to $150bn in just three years.
Before we’ll move on to our algorithm on how to develop a cab booking app in 7 steps, let’s become familiar with the major examples of cab booking apps.
Top 5 Cab Booking Apps in the United States
Now, let’s see the global statistics of the app valuation. Uber is the absolute leader in this industry, so it’s at the top of all ratings. Note that all apps between Uber and Lyft are Asian, and Didi is the primary Chinese cab booking app, not used in the United States. As for Bolt, it’s popular in Europe, but its market share is much smaller in the U.S. Grab, while being larger than Lyft, is from Malaysia and is used mostly in Southeast Asia.
Lyft and Grab are much smaller than Uber, focusing primarily on taxi booking without additional services like Uber Eats.
So, now you can meet our champions.
Uber
Founded in 2009, it was the first app of such a type, revolutionizing the transport industry. It allows users to request a nearby driver, track their cab’s location, and make quick payments through the app. Drivers can use Uber to earn money. It operates in numerous cities across the United States, providing several options: UberX for affordable rides, UberXL for larger groups, and Uber Black for premium experiences. However, its prices are quite high compared with other apps.
Lyft
Established in 2012 as a direct competitor to Uber, Lyft offers similar services. They are similar in most services, but Lyft is mostly cheaper and emphasizes a friendly and community-focused approach. In addition, it encourages passengers to provide tips for their favorite drivers directly via the app. Lyft operates across the United States, offering various ride options such as Lyft Line for shared rides and Lyft Lux for luxury vehicles. Its advantages over Uber include more transparency and lower price.
However, despite all advantages, its features are more limited than those of Uber.
Via
Launched in 2012, too, Via Transportation focuses on shared rides to reduce traffic jams and costs. It provides a platform where passengers can book a ride and share it with others who needs a similar destination. Via operates in various U.S. cities, providing affordable prices and optimizing traveling. The disadvantage is that Via doesn’t provide such a large driver pool as Uber or Lyft, so it often cannot help when one needs to reach the destination quickly.
GRABTAXI
Initially founded in Malaysia in 2012, Grab expanded its operations to the United States in subsequent years. Its unique features include in-app emergency assistance and driver ratings.
FreeNow
Established in 2009 as MyTaxi and rebranded as FreeNow in 2019, it offers services mostly in the European Union, although available in some U.S. cities too. It focuses on licensed taxi services, ensuring passengers can hail traditional taxis conveniently through the app. Unique features include upfront fare estimates, real-time tracking, and multiple payment options.
Uber and Lyft are solid leaders on the list. Via Transportation provides shared and cheaper options, while Grab and FreeNow have much less presence in the U.S. market, operating mostly in Asia and Europe respectively.
How to Develop an App for Сab Booking?
So, you can create a cab booking application platform yourself. But as you can see, the taxi booking app market is quite competitive. And there are well-established apps in most parts of the world. You need to find your niche by adding a unique set of useful features to compete successfully.
While we shouldn’t steal your ideas, let’s review several tips on how to develop such an app:
Ensure drivers’ convenience: offering them various incentives which will help them earn more.
Include safety features: such as checking the driver and using the map to monitor accidents and dangerous checkpoints.
Various payment methods: including different currencies and even crypto, will ensure that your users will be unlimited in their possibilities.
Strong user support: will provide all assistance in case of troubles, including help with emergency services and all necessary information.
These features will make your app robust and convenient.
A 7-Step Algorithm to Develop an App
Now, let’s see how to implement everything we’ve discussed so far.
1. Define the Key Features
Outline the features and functionalities of a cab booking app. They include user profiles, map tracking, price calculation and estimation, payment services, driver interface, review system, and integration with other travel services. Remember the previous point: your app should be unique, so elaborate on this point as much as possible. Combine it with the next one to ensure that your ideas are relevant and tangible.
2. Analyze
Examine the existing competition and market trends to identify opportunities for differentiation and improvement. It will provide you insights into how to act on the market, which technologies you can use to be in trend, and which can change these trends and give you victory and profits.
3. Design User Interface and All Other Visual Elements
Set up the user interface and every other visual component including prototyping and creating color schemes, user flows and journey calculation, and interactions planning. Ensure a seamless and intuitive user experience.
4. Develop the Application Software Infrastructure
Prepare the infrastructure for the application software that will elaborate with user requests, manage drivers and their rides, monitor the routes, collect and analyze information, and perform all other key functions which you’ve planned.
5. Develop Front-End
Build the Front- end based on the previous point, ensuring responsiveness across different devices without any losses. After that, you’ll obtain a minimum version of your platform, but the next steps will make it fully functional.
6. Integrate Various Software and Other Services
Integrate numerous services and software to ensure a cab booking app’s functionality. An example is a map API for location tracking, which should be present to guide drivers and passengers to each other. Payment gateways are also important, as you’ll proceed with user payments. Lastly, as you need to verify each user and driver, it’s vital to use verification APIs.
7. Test and Maintain
Check and maintain to identify and fix any flaws, broken features, or usability issues. It should remain functional and work well on various platforms, so be sure to update and test it regularly.
Remember: each step requires further substeps based on your specific features. Be sure to allocate the whole document to each of these seven points and elaborate on them thoroughly to ensure your success.
Popularization & Monetization
Lastly, let’s review three examples of how you can monetize your application.
- Commission fee from each customer’s payment for a ride.
- Cancellation fee for canceling the booking.
- Advertising can be seamlessly embedded in your app: consider promoting travel services, for example, as they are usually connected with transportation.
As for promotion, use social media and orient onto drivers, allowing them to earn money while driving. Remember: they are your main driving force in direct and metaphorical senses. So, provide various benefits and features for them, which will ensure that they’ll remain happy. Busy people, who love to work, travel, and do various things, are also in your target audience, as you can save their time with your cab booking app.
Conclusion
A cab booking app will ensure convenient, safe, and cheap rides for your users, in case it’s well-planned and built. If you know how to reduce the price and improve safety without losses for yourself, you can implement it in your own application. Consider the features described here: they’ll ensure that your app will not fail right after the launch.
However, to ensure competitiveness with Uber and Lyft, you must be creative and implement/test more useful features. The 7-step algorithm will help you with that.
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