How to Develop Bespoke Taxi Booking App Like Bolt & Uber?

Replacing the traditional taxi services, taxi booking apps are the most convenient way of traveling hassle-free. A fast, efficient and easy way to travel through the city without worrying about the parking or safety of your car is one of the most loved features of booking taxis.

While the taxi booking apps are here to say, many business owners and entrepreneurs are looking forward to entering the competition and want bespoke taxi app development solutions. While taxi booking apps are on the rise, it is not enough to develop an app and expect it to come into play overnight.

For your bespoke taxi booking app to be successful, you need an app that aligns or is better than Uber or Bolt. You need to include unique, fresh, and compelling features that will give users a reason to choose your taxi booking app. Another contributing factor is collaborating with a reliable taxi booking app development company that understands user needs and offers solutions based on the most advanced technologies to provide a powerful app backend and frontend platforms.

But before diving right into the features and taxi app development, you should have in-depth knowledge about the most popular apps.

So, let’s get started with,

Things that make apps like Uber and Bolt popular 

Uber came into existence over 10 years ago and is now the most popular taxi booking application globally. Following the trend, many start-ups sprung up with the idea of having their taxi apps. So, if you are also one of those entrepreneurs looking forward to a taxi app development, here is a detailed walkthrough on how the app works and the features that make apps like uber popular.

Taxi booking mobile apps like Uber or Bolt is designed to match the criteria of passengers and drivers. A taxi app mainly comprises three parts:

• App side for passengers – The passenger part of the application has the most features and connects to the backend application via API. It also helps the passengers to request, cancel, see and book a ride by entering the destination and pick up points. The riders can also choose the kind of taxi they would opt for, such as UberX, select, black, Uber pool, and XL.
• App side for drivers – The driver part of the Application connects to the backend application, similar to the passenger app. The drivers can see the rider’s name, acceptance or rejections option, pickup location, destinations, and the time for the arrival. These features let the driver decide whether or not to accept the ride and how much time the ride will take to plan for an upcoming ride.
• App admin panel –It processes the data and requests from the passenger and driver side of the apps. Admin panel requires an API for apps and adapters for payments, database, etc.

Now that you are aware of the parts of a taxi booking application, the most logical question in your mind would be,

How do these apps make money? 

It is pretty easy to deduce that taxi booking apps make money by taking a fixed percentage of drivers’ earnings and charging users fees such as the booking, cancellation, and insurance fees. However, the cost of a ride varies on multiple factors, but this payment model is successful and profitable to the taxi app developers.

Thus, if you join the bandwagon of taxi app development, you can either use the same monetisation methods or modify the payment processes to make it more effective. But remember, an easy and effective payment method with minimum riding cost to the passengers will be one of your significant anchors while starting in the taxi app market.

Through the detailed descriptions of the parts of the application, it is clear that an app works flawlessly when all the parts of an app, including its frontend and backend, are integrated and work smoothly. Even though the work process of integration looks simple, the development is a whole new ball game and requires complex architecture and technologies to the application work.

It’s now time to look forward to the key features that you should include in your bespoke taxi app to make it big and stay afloat in the pool of taxi booking apps.

Let’s dive right in,

Key specifications for taxi app development 

While developing the taxi booking app, the fundamental requirement is to understand that the app is divided into three different sets of products with different features and functionalities. Here we will talk about some of the basic features for each side of the app.

1. Rider/Passenger side of the App

Here are some key features that every taxi booking app should have for the riders to facilitate a smooth booking and travelling.

• App registration – The users can quickly register on the app by providing their name, number, and email address. They can also sign up using their profiles on existing social media like Gmail or Facebook.

• Booking a ride – The app should give users an option for real-time booking of the app or schedule the ride later. A good app should have both options for the ease of riders.

• Payment gateways – Integration of secure payment gateways enables a passenger to pay directly from the apps. Add the options of paying via credit/debit cards, wallets, or net banking to allow easy in-app payments for the riders.

• App notifications – The rider should receive trip notifications when the driver accepts or cancels the request. The notification should have vehicle information such as model, number, and the time of arrival, along with the driver information.

• Fare calculator- It shows the user an estimated cost of the trip and the fare breakup before confirming the ride.

• Trip history – The trip history should have the data about all the rider’s previous rides and show all the previous transactions.

• Driver’s/Trip Rating – The users should be able to add the driver’s reviews and rate the trip so that other riders can decide whether to continue the ride or switch the driver. Allowing the users to rate the app helps build a trust factor.

Move on to the features to include for the drivers,

2. Driver side of the App

The essential features of the Driver side of the app are similar to the passenger’s side. However, the main difference arises in the navigation, payment, and order part.

• Registration – The drivers have to register with the app to enter personal details and submit verification documents like a driver’s license, address proof, and national ID.

• Notification – The app should have notifications for the driver, including push notification, rider information, ride acceptance/rejection, contact the rider, etc.

• Trip Alert – Informs the driver about a new trip, shows payment status and navigation details. The app should also allow for accepting or canceling the trip along with a valid reason to avoid confusion between the rider and the driver.

• Navigation/Location – In-app navigation helps the driver to choose the best route for the trip and allows the driver to access unknown areas. You can also include offline maps in the app to allow the driver to continue the ride in lost connections.

• Trip reports – Reports notify the driver about the trip statistics and show the amount ride owes.

And finally, here are the features of the Admin Panel,

3. Admin Panel 

Admin Dashboard or panel is to store and manage databases about the passengers and drivers. The admin panel has complete details of drivers and trips and stores all the financial transactions.

Moreover, for enhanced performance of the app, an admin panel can also be linked with the Google Analytics tool to analyse the behaviour of app users. Analysis of the app is one of the most advanced features that will help you keep track of app usage and help you define marketing activities.

After knowing the bits of a taxi development app, here’s the real deal,

Step by step Guide to taxi app development 

1. Choose the platform (Android and iOS) 

Android and iOS are independent processes and run differently. When it comes to launching a taxi app development, the aim should be to reach as many customers as possible for its use and application. Thus, businesses should consider developing the app for both android and iOS platforms. Launching a seamless app for both platforms will attract a huge customer base and will attract a fair number of drivers and customers. Thus, you must offer the customers app that runs equally well on different operating systems. Additionally, the companies benefit from making a native app for each platform, so choosing one should not be an issue if you are thinking about profit, faster performance, security, and responsiveness.

2. Implement flawless UX/UI Design  

Customers love to interact with an app that gives them a pleasing performance and a smooth interface. To connect with your customers, you should first focus on creating wireframes, prototypes, and mock-ups that look and function like real applications. This will help test the initial versions of the app before finally rolling out the official version to the users.

3. Focus on the Backend Development 

When it comes to a taxi booking app, chances are there will be huge volumes of data and processing. This explains why there is a need for efficient data organization and management. The backend of any application is its core and should offer a connection to data sources, payment services, and various means o of communication. Ensure that the application’s backend can easily connect and disperse the data while harmonising the drivers’ and passengers’ user interfaces. However, processing this data can be a tedious task since it is received from several sources and changes rapidly in real-time.

4. Have quality Assurance and testing protocols 

Software testing ensures that the delivery of the app is bug-free and organised. To make the most out of your app, make sure that the taxi app development company runs manual and automated testing to offer you an app without faults. The excellent taxi app development service provides runs testing process along with UX/UI designers, project managers, and customer support team that increases the chances of success.

While testing the app, the professionals can also add some additional features or upgrade the existing ones to give you the most advanced version of the app. QA testers ensure that unexpected bugs are fixed as soon as possible to give an excellent user experience on a taxi booking app.

5. Have streamlined Project Management in place  

The process of taxi app development should have everything streamlined, and the project progress should have proper place and time. A good roadmap results from proper project management devised by the project managers or a professional team. Choose a development company that comes up with a plan clarifying all the what’s and how’s and answering all the problems arising while processing.

Technology stack for developing a taxi booking app

A lot goes into the taxi app development process, but the most vital part of the app development is the tech stack. Here are some technologies that will be sufficient in developing an exceptional taxi booking app.

• Amazon S3
• Amazon EC2
• Google Maps
• Routific
• SNS, Twilio or Nexmo
• SendBird
• Socket.io
• Stripe
• Swift
• Kotlin
• APNS
• Firebase
• CoreLocation
• MapKit
• Node.js
• Objective-C

Recommended Read – How To Hire An Android App Development Company?

How much does a taxi app development cost? 

Before calculating the cost of taxi app development, you must know that the development cost depends on multiple factors and varies depending on your technical specification and features you wish to include in your application. For instance, hiring a professional taxi app development team on an hourly or a full-time basis will affect your financial brackets. However, you can change the number of work hours and days that will help you minimize the costs.

Another key factor influencing the cost is the location of the developers. Suppose you’re based in the UK and are looking for app developers. In that case, you must look for an offshore taxi app development company that offers qualitative development at competitive prices.

Matellio understands all your development concerns and offers you the best taxi app development solutions that will fit your business and your pockets.

Get a complete taxi app development solution 

Now that you are aware of the features, tools, and specifications of the taxi app development, you might already want to enter the competition of taxi booking apps. To help you with the development processes, Matellio has the industry’s best mobile app developers who will work on your app development idea to give you a customised app. No matter how precise and intricate your requirements are, Matellio will work on them with the best of its minds and deliver a solution that will make you stand out in the marketplace.

Let’s talk over a 30-minute consultation call to answer all your queries regarding the taxi app development