How to Develop an On-Demand Taxi App like Uber

Uber-like apps have been in trend among entrepreneurs for the past couple of years. After all, Uber is one of the biggest success stories in the on-demand niche. F

Be on-demand food delivery, on-demand grocery delivery, or on-demand courier and shipping services, all these success stories take inspiration from the Uber’s business model in one or the other form that started with an online taxi, cab, or rides sharing business idea.

One of the biggest reasons for this massive popularity of Uber and other Uber-like businesses is they are all app-based. Most of them rely on mobile applications, which they have customized for different stakeholders. Take Uber’s taxi business for instance. There are customized apps for passengers and drivers. Without their cutting-edge mobile apps, Uber couldn’t have gone this far with just a website only experience.

If you want to know how to make an app like Uber, be advised that the process begins right from understanding the face of your business model and porting that to an innovative mobile app suite. If your mobile apps fail, your business fails, too.

The key features of an Uber-like App

How to develop an app like Uber, what are key features, and how to implement these features on your Uber clone? We will talk about all these questions in this article. So be with us to know everything about Uber-like app development. Let’s begin with the features.

The complete suite in an Uber-like on-demand business model comprises of three major software solutions:

• Mobile apps for Passengers (iOS and Android)
• Mobile apps for Driver/partners (iOS and Android)
• Control panel for Admin (Web-based)

Key Features for Passengers in an Uber-like App:

Passengers are the primary customers of your business. There is no shortage of innovative features that you can include in their app to enhance their experience. Nevertheless, the following are the most critical features you should look for while developing or purchasing an Uber-like app for your business:

• Real-time ride booking

Easiest ways for customers to book their ride on demand. Customers should be able to point their pick-up, drop locations, and book the rides instantly.

• Ride scheduling for later

Besides real-time, instant ride booking features, passengers also book rides in advance for later to avoid the last-minute rush. The apps with ride-scheduling features generally make a more precise impression on the target audience.

• Geo-tracking & navigation

Once they book an instant ride, the GPS must provide them the real-time location of the cab approaching them. Moreover, the same geo-tracking should allow passengers to track their on-going ride after checking-in, too.

• Fare estimation

It’s obvious that customers are conscious of the ride-fare. The app must show them an estimated ride-fare based on the calculations as per pick-up point, drop-point, sur-charges, any extra fee, and type of the ride (private-ride, shared ride, vehicle preference, etc.).

• Multiple payments 

Most of the online businesses that accept only one or few payment options lose the battle with those who offer multiple options. Make sure you equip your app with most of the popular payment options in your target regions. Besides, net banking, card, and cash, you should also integrate local mobile payment and e-wallet options.

• Panic alerts

You would be running a big business with different types of people, regions, and situations. Incidents and accidents might happen. It’s better to stay prepared for unfortunate events. Offering your customers and drivers a panic alert (SOS) system will help you to respond quickly in such situations.

• Driver information

Make your rides friendly and trustworthy by showing your passengers certain basic and interesting information about the drivers they share their rides with. Information such as driver’s name, ratting, profile picture, vehicle number, etc. should be your priority.

• Reviews and Ratings

Reviews and ratings are the best ways to improve your services. Passengers should be able to rate and review their ride-experience to create a vibe that you care for your customers and their opinions matter, too. Doing so will also help you to keep track of drivers are polite to the passengers and abiding by your customer-friendly policies.

• Ride History

Every customer of any business likes to keep a track of his or her purchases. Showing their ride-history with basic details will let them reckon their trips for numerous purposes.

• In-app chat support

For any kind of assistance or support that your completely autonomous platform can’t resolve, it’s always a wise choice to give out easy contact options to your customers. With an integrated chat option, besides email and phone support details, you can build trust among your customers and resolve grievances quickly.

Key Features for Drivers/Partners in an Uber-like App:

Drivers are also the stakeholders in your business. It is equally important to care for their experience. Don’t compromise with ease and hassle-free experiences for your drivers and lookout for the best you can offer to them. Here are some important features that you should definitely look:

• Accept/decline rides

While hunting for rides, drivers are notified of any ride-request coming on their way. The driver must get an option to either accept or decline a ride request.

• Passenger information

Showing basic customer information will let a driver decide if he or she wants to accept or reject a ride. The details must include information such as passenger name, passenger rating, pick-up point, etc.

• Geo-navigation

Navigation is important for drivers. They use it for navigation during on-going rides, and also to reach the pick-up points. Make sure the geo-navigation system is equipped with a route optimization algorithm to select the best routes for their rides.

• Ride history

Like passengers, even drivers need to keep a track of the rides they completed.

• Earnings analytics

Earnings analytics will help your drivers track their income and schedule their working hours accordingly. It will help them to keep a track of their payouts, too.

• Offline/online toggle

An easy option for the drivers to go online or offline as per their availability to fulfill ride requests. With an easy on-duty/off-duty toggle you can ensure only available drivers get ride requests.

• Destination preference

You might offer your services in a wide geo-location, but not all your drivers can serve in all the locations. Apart from automatic geo-location-based ride assignments, the app should also allow the drivers to get rides in their preferred destinations only.

• Reviews and ratings

As both passengers and the drivers are customers to your business, it is important to take care of them both. Allowing drivers to rate their experience is equally important.

• In-app driver support

For anything they need to clarify and fix, the app should give a direct channel to your customers to contact your business. This may include email, phone contact, and in-app chat support, too.

• Driver referral

Using a driver referral program, you can encourage your drivers to refer more drivers on your platform and strengthen your fleet. Offering bonuses and affiliate commissions will encourage them to do so.

Key Features for Admin of an Uber-like platform:

This panel is for you. No one can tell you how it should look and work. You should get a customized control panel based on ease of use, and convenient ways to manage all the front-end features given for passengers and the admin. The control panel features may range from the user management system to driver management, coupon management, route management, bookings management, referral management, third-party APIs, and many more.

How to develop an app like Uber at a low cost?

After you know all your requirements, the next big job is porting them to your suite. The suite of multiple apps and admin panel work in sync with each other. You can go for outsourcing a good software development company. They will charge on hourly-basis and give you a quotation of the estimated development cost based on your requirements.

Outsourcing such a project with multiple solutions will demand at least several months of development. Eventually, the overall cost will not be less than $80,000 for just development and deployment. They might also give you a warranty for a few more months where they will take care of any issue with the platform free of cost.

Alternatively, you can go for a ready-made Uber clone script. An Uber clone script is a collection of all the required solutions (mobile apps and admin panel), which software vendors develop in advance and re-sell to entrepreneurs like you. As it is a ready-made solution, it won’t take much time to deploy and start your platform. Moreover, depending on your requirements, an Uber clone script can cost as low as $1000-$3000.

Uber clone scripts are good for those entrepreneurs looking to start their business in a quick time and need similar features as Ubers’ original platform. For those who are looking for customizations in the original features, these scripts provide open source-code access, too.

To Conclude

Eventually, the cost of developing an app like Uber from scratch is not affordable by everyone. An Uber clone could be a lifesaver for such entrepreneurs. After all, why would you invest a fortune to re-invent the wheel, when you are getting the same features and the same level of customizations in a ready-made solution? You can purchase a good Uber clone script and customize it on top. It will still be much affordable than going for development from scratch. The choice is yours. Good luck.