How to Make An App Like Uber for a Taxi Business

Whenever there is an opportunity, a savvy entrepreneur with a futuristic vision always nails an innovative idea. Uber did the same by making a luxurious service quite affordable for daily commutes - the on-demand taxi service. In fact, Uber offers the service in comparatively a more valuable way than what on-demand taxi services used to offer way back in time.

Just see the costs of booking - they were too high; calling over the phone was the medium to book; no other way to track real-time location, except for calling the driver just to get an answer like “on the way, will be there in 5 minutes”.

This is what Uber did to nail this service marketplace industry:

1. Regulated the booking cost.
2. Offered real-time location tracking.
3. Allowed discounts and offers.
4. Offered an accessible touchpoint to book.
5. Offered Add-on services

Uber does not disclose its market share data. However, trusting on credible sources, we can say it shares 70-72 % of the US ride-sharing market. Now, let us see its competitor Lyft, which shares 30% of the US ride-sharing market. 2 years ago, this stat was somewhere around 20%. With this projection, one can assume that Lyft is also making a good impression and would continue to grow. (Source).

Can you start an Uber-like ride-sharing business?

Considering the performances of both the business in the same niche, it would not be a vague claim that ride-sharing is a profitable niche. Starting an Uber-like business would be a good idea, depending on the market in your locality.

So, if you think you possess a great business idea to nail the ride-sharing business in the local or the market abroad, this article is for you.

Let’s understand the business model, key partners, and key touchpoints involved in a typical online ride-sharing service.

Key partners

A taxi business like Uber constitutes three key partners:

• Users;
• Taxi drivers;
• Business owner.

In technical terms, when you are developing an app like Uber, you can also call these key partners as three actors on the app.

Key Touchpoints

As there are three actors involved, there are three separate touchpoints for each. That means a total of three mobile apps are required to conduct the business operation.

• mobile app for users;
• mobile app for taxi drivers;
• mobile app or Dashboard for Admin.

Each of these mobile apps would offer some definite set of features and functionalities to each key partner.

Key Revenue models

An Uber-like ride-sharing business works on on-demand service delivery model. Like every other business in the niche, the taxi service can offer two payment options to the customers:

• cash payments;
• digital payments.

Digital payments can be classified into various categories depending on the medium. You can allow the media like:

• credit card;
• debit card;
• digital wallets: E.g. PayPal.

Revenue from customers

The best-suited revenue model that supports the above monetization methods is –Transactional model. Users pay the fare once billed. The final billing is done only after completing the ride. It is also important to note that both driver's and customer's mobile app should offer real-time notification to let the two key partners know the bill amount.

So, the Transaction revenue model equipped with real-time billing and invoice generation is the most suitable design for a ride-sharing business like Uber.

Revenue from Drivers

The revenue model that suits here is commission based method. Drivers would be paying commission to the admin on each ride they complete. Admin receives the payments from the customers. After deducting the applied commissions, a weekly or monthly billing can be done for the accumulated funds to the drivers. Admin can transfer the drivers’ funds with any digital medium like PayPal or wire transfer.

Additional revenue - Cancellation and waiting charges

Cancellation and waiting time management is a whole separate feature in itself. All three touchpoints must be in perfect sync to let every key partner stay aware of the additional charges. For cancellation charges, the billing can be done on the user's next ride billing right after the canceled ride. For waiting charges, Admin can set up per-minute cost and bill the same on the final billing of the current ride. Depending on the business policies, Admin may choose to share these two revenues with the drivers.

Key Features - User’s/customer’s mobile app

The mobile app designed for general customers must necessarily offer the following features:

• search a ride;
• select from different ride options;
• track availability of rides;
• select pick up point;
• select drop point;
• book in real-time;
• schedule a ride;
• book for others;
• track real-time taxi location on the map;
• show estimated time of arrival;
• show estimated time for drop;
• show ride details- vehicle number, driver’s name, phone number, and customer ratings;
• select payment methods: Cash or digital;
• see rides history;
• write a ride review;
• panic button;
• save favorite destinations.

Key features - Taxi driver’s mobile app

Taxi drivers are key partners of any ride-sharing business. The ride-sharing business must necessarily offer a dedicated mobile app for these stakeholders. There are many features that this particular mobile app should offer.

However, if we talk specifically about an Uber clone app, it must offer the following features to establish an uncompromised user experience like uber:

• accept ride requests;
• update profile: Name, email, phone, and vehicle number;
• driver dashboard: earning reports, trip reports, and history;
• real-time Google map integration;
• preferred destinations for drivers;
• waiting time to include waiting-charges;
• real-time heat-map to see areas with high demand;
• forward dispatch to accept a ride from a location and time near to current drop point.

Key-features – Admin interface

Depending on the requirements, one gets both a mobile application and a web-based admin panel to manage the customers and drivers. The role of an admin is supreme here. He or she is responsible for a number of moderations required to offer a seamless experience to both customers and drivers.

So, the following features for an Uber Admin are a must:

• admin dashboard with graphical analytics: users, drivers, active requests and revenue;
• add new admin users with different access levels;
• add new taxi drivers;
• remove a taxi driver;
• review, Approve or disapprove taxi driver application;
• add new service types and categories - shared ride, dedicated ride, long rides, vehicle type etc.;
• add rules for service types and categories: corresponding fare, rentals, and surge charges;
• commission management: commission rates;
• multiple revenue models - COD, card payments, digital wallets;
• generate customer invoice for a ride;
• generate taxi driver invoice for payouts;
• browse individual driver profiles and payables;
• browse drivers’ ratings;
• sort drivers on different grounds: rating, reviews, location, vehicle type etc.;
• total and individual Revenue analytics: Total revenue, Admin’s commission, driver’s share.

Cost of building Uber-like apps for taxi business

If it was a few years back, the cost of building an Uber-like ride-sharing app could have been in fortunes. You would require to hire dedicated teams of at least the following professionals for each of the three touchpoints:

1. UI and UX designer X3.
2. 2- 4 coders X3.
3. Quality Assurance Engineer X3.
4. A Backend Developer X3.
5. A Project Manager X3.
6. 2-3 software testers X3.
7. 1-2 Android developers X2.
8. 1-2 iOS developers X2.
9. 2-3 Marketing experts X2.

This is the number of people required to develop all three touchpoints for an Uber-like business. Let's not forget the marketing professionals. Moreover, this is when you are developing an app-only business i.e. not offering website version to the customers.

Considering the cost of resources and compensations to each professional, the total cost of development would rise as high as $95,000 to $100,000. It excludes the cost of hosting and server management for each.

Cost effective way to build a taxi app - Uber Clone Script

Script-cloning is a business methodology utilized by software vendors. They apply all the approaches and costs explained in the above section to develop a software. Such software is developed taking a popular and similar software as a base. This is done so that business aspirants can easily comprehend what this particular software is all about - also called as a clone script.

Once ready, the clone script is put on sale as a ready-made solution. These scripts are also called turnkey business solutions as they save the time and money that would have been spent to develop the software from scratch.

What’s good in choosing an Uber clone script?

An Uber clone script is a similar ready-made software developed to let entrepreneurs launch their ride-sharing business in a quick and cost-effective manner. If you are going for an Uber clone script from the market, you must necessarily consider the following two aspects:

1. You need: - two mobile applications for Customers and Drivers; - a web-based admin panel; - separate or hybrid apps for Android and iOS.
2. Tally all the features listed above in the article for the three key partners.

Once, you have done the research on these aspects, you are ready to comprehend why choosing an Uber clone script is a beneficial idea for launching a ride-sharing business. Here are few points to explain it better.

An Uber clone script:

1. Saves a lot of time required to develop the taxi app from scratch.
2. Saves a lot of money as vendors can sell the scripts multiple time.
3. Saves a lot of research and development as vendors already did it while development.
4. Launches the business in no time as it is ready-made.
5. Can be customized to fit your own brand - White-labeled Scripts.
6. Can be customized to add new features without breaking the code-modular approach.
7. Can be hosted on your preferred server.
8. Vendors update the script from time to time.

To Conclude

Hence, launching an Uber-like ride-sharing business is not a tough job by the time I am writing this article. Clone scripts are well-known to offer a cost-effective alternative to those dedicated developments. What's the use of re-inventing the wheel? Just buy a wheel from the market and build your own car.

Did you know that a single Uber clone script can help you launch an array of businesses based on the on-demand business model? You can start businesses like on-demand medicine delivery, beauty services, mechanic service, cooking gas delivery, food delivery service, and much more like this.

Do you have any such business idea that can be launched on Uber’s on-demand service model? Our readers would love to multiply their knowledge with your ideas.