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Limousine Reservation and Dispatch Software

In the wake of rising on-demand ride-hailing apps, the analysts depicted apprehensions regarding the decline in limousine services. Some predicted that the luxury options in ride-hailing apps would eat up the market share of limousine. However, the advent of limousine dispatch software just in time allowed service providers to avert all disruption threats.

Research from the past three years indicates that limousine market is growing at 8.2% annually. In 2017 alone, it generated revenue of $5.4 billion (Marketresearch.com). Although operational expenses grew by 6.5%, yet this growth is relatively lesser than other transportation modes. The businesses which are incorporating dispatch and reservation software are showing remarkable growth.

Components of Limousine Service Software

There are similarities in on-demand businesses for taxi, delivery and logistics, beauty and glamour, and a bunch of other industries. Most of such startups connect customers with service agents spread in an area. For instance, ride-hailing business has gig workers to cater requests from passengers.

However, limousine services vary from other on-demand businesses in that they do not employ gig workers. The reason is obvious – driving limousines require way different experience than taxi services operating sedans and hatchbacks. CabStartup offers a dispatch platform to businesses which can be customized and rebranded for limo on-demand services.

Limousine Dispatch System

The features of dispatch software ensure to facilitate administration. It provides comprehensive data reports with visualization charts and graphs. Thus, businesses can track the progress within a given timeframe. Data visualization tools also enable them to highlight the areas of improvement. Apart from data analysis abilities, following is a couple of notable features.

Stress-free Geofencing

Geofencing is the mechanism of defining the boundary of operational region of service. The system disallows putting pickup and drop-off locations outside this region. Administrators can draw the fence on an embedded map by simply sketching lines. These fences do not need to have definite shapes. Instead, One can define irregular fences to craft the desired operational area.

Approve or Block Passengers

Administrators can block any user from acquiring services. Barring individuals might be the case of someone breaching your company’s policy. For instance, you may want to block a user from accessing service who cancels the ride too often. Or conversely, you might want to unblock someone. Either case

Limousine Reservations Software

This module is identical to passenger apps in on-demand taxi services. Customers can schedule a limo ride with few clicks on their smartphone. The difference lies in the fact that most services require payment ahead of time. This requirement makes sense because canceling a taxi request once the agent starts moving toward pickup location costs only a few bucks. However, same in case of limo would cause multiple times more. Following are some of the features of reservation software.

Distinct Passenger Profile

Each ride requesting customer has to have a distinct profile to acquire services. It enables them to keep track of their previous rides and payment receipts. Limo staff also has a collective profile which serves essentially the same purpose as customers’ profile. These IDs for both customers and staff members provide you the opportunities to settle disputes by retrieving history.

Scheduling and Real-time Tracking

Your customers can search for the nearest locations of all vehicles. This ability allows them to get an estimate of arrival time. Before scheduling a ride, they may also get an approximation of fare. Fare calculation is a vital feature considering the fact that amount will be far higher than usual on-demand ride-hailing services.

Customers can track rides in real-time and communicate with one of the staff members. CabStartup offers in-app messaging and calling feature to facilitate users. Moreover, customers can also cancel the ride request. You may set the penalty for cancelation as per the business needs.

Feedback and Payments

Limousine reservation system also allows paying through a number of options. Apart from traditional options including credit card, the system also offers in-app virtual wallet. However, most limousine services do not accept hard cash because the amount is many times greater than ride-hailing services.

Customers can provide feedback about ride quality and behavior of staff. Feedback from customers allows you to identify the loopholes in services. Action on complaints also satisfies customers.

Promotional and Referral Discounts

You may define the strategy to offer promo codes. Usually, services offer such codes to either frequently using passengers or the ones who have not used it for months. Policy for referral codes remains same. It applies to the customers who invite their acquaintances to use this service.

Connection Stability

At times, the signal strength of devices of staff members may not be up to the mark. This may cause confusion and the customer may end up canceling the ride. Connection stability feature shares the signal strength of customers and staff members with each other.

App for Limo Staff

An app for staff is essential to assist in communication and route planning. CabStartup offers the following features in its vehicle staff module.

Push Notifications

Members can acquire in-app notifications as soon as customer or one of the administrators share any update. These notifications are customizable as members may turn them off. The software also notifies customers about the status of ride. This status may include acceptance, beginning, arrival, and end of trips.

Route optimization

Although route optimization software is often embedded in vehicles, yet app enables the drivers to acquire a customized map in their smartphone or another device. Such a map includes operational details including but not limited to geofencing.

Driver Wallet and Rating

Driver and other staff members also have a virtual wallet integrated into the app. If a customer pays less than the total fare, passenger wallet cuts down into negative credit. Driver remains aware of the earning details and the money that one owes to the administrator.

Try Dispatch System without Cost

We understand that you do not want to spend on acquiring software which fails to fulfill your business needs. Therefore, we offer you to evaluate our platform before purchasing it. Apart from one-time purchase, you can also subscribe CabStartup cloud-based platform.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments

Industries and Use cases for On-demand Dispatch Software

On-demand dispatch software remains at the core of most of the startups which emerged in the ongoing decade. May it be food delivery from Grubhub and Uber Eats, same-day logistics from Postmates, Homey app for home chores, or ride-hailing services from Uber and Lyft, every on-demand business requires corresponding dispatch software.

Some of the features of such software systems remain identical irrespective of the industry. However, there are variations as well. This text explores various case studies where on-demand dispatch software can be applied. It also provides specific instances by mentioning successful startups.

Taxi Management Software

Ride-hailing industry is arguably the pioneer in introducing on-demand mobile apps. It is also the first to bring on-demand startup unicorns. Since the start of Uber and other ride-hailing apps, the taxi businesses are either facing disruption or evolution.

Those taxi companies which are reluctant to incorporate management software apps are ceasing to exist. In contrast, the ones who understand the significance of such software systems are evolving to the level of Uber.

Alianza Taxi provides a successful case study. This traditional taxi company started to struggle after the advent of Uber and Lyft. Taxi industry is already reaching the saturation point in metropolitan areas of the US. However, the company reemerged after acquiring dispatch software from CabStartup. Similar are the success stories of Yugo Cabs and over a dozen other clients.

The business owners can enable their customers to schedule a ride within seconds. Moreover, they can facilitate them by picking and dropping off at the location of passengers’ choice. Thus, taxi services powered by management software have become the preferred choice of passengers over traditional taxi rides.

Delivery On-demand Solution

The arrival of smartphones and the corresponding on-demand economy allowed delivery and logistics businesses to address the challenges of last-mile and same-day delivery. The companies now ensure that customers receive and send the parcels at their doorstep.

E-commerce platforms are among the primary stakeholders. They enable manufacturers to reach distributors and retailers in time. Besides, they also allow marketplaces to flourish. Services like Amazon Marketplace enable peer-to-peer buying and selling. The smooth-running of these operations require seamless delivery services.

Another area in logistics where on-demand solution is making significant gains is the food delivery industry. Multiple startups in the US alone are on their way to becoming a billion dollar prodigies.

The service providers cannot merely rely on same-day delivery in food delivery industry. Instead, they need to ensure same-hour delivery. Moreover, there are frequently occurring cases when one agent has an excessive number of pending tasks while other remains idle. Dispatch software also allows efficient planning of task scheduling.

Shuttle Dispatch Software

Ride-hailing and taxi industries allow booking of an entire vehicle merely to carry a single passenger. This model is highly inefficient as passengers occupy more space on roads. For instance, 50 passengers traveling alone will occupy 50 vehicles.

Conversely, Shuttle dispatch software allows passengers to share rides. Although public transit systems also enable travelers to share rides, yet rideshare model is different. It emphasizes efficiency so that each seat of the vehicle remains occupied for most of the operational hours.

Besides, customers can book a seat and hop on to the ride from nearest location. Local transit systems have prefixed pickup and drop-off stations. The vehicles do not stop in-between two stops. In contrast, shuttle dispatch systems also have dynamic stopovers. This implies that the vehicles update their stops depending on the pick and drop locations of each passenger.

UberPool and recently launched Express POOL are examples of rideshare apps. Via, founded in 2012 – two years earlier than UberPool, is the pioneer of rideshare services. Analysts consider shuttle dispatch as the most suitable investment in ride-hailing industry owing to its ability to acquire governments’ support.

Bike Taxi Dispatching Software

After facilitating passengers by reaching their choice of location, the ride-hailing industry is facing the challenge of inefficiency. This is why not only rideshare services but two-wheeler dispatch systems are also thriving. Bikes are not as good a solution to tackle environmental problems, but they provide a decent alternative to reduce traffic.

Moreover, the trend of electric bikes is also gaining momentum which will eventually address environmental issues. The dispatch system for bikes remains almost identical to those for taxis. The difference lies in navigation and route planning. The maps for bike route optimization require more details because, unlike cars, bikes can drift through narrow alleys.

On-demand dispatch software from CabStartup enables bike taxi service providers to assign the most appropriate bike agent for the ride requesting customer. Meanwhile, it enables the customers to track their ride while the agent heads to the location.

Paratransit Dispatch System

While transportation is paying strong emphasis on efficiency to avert damage to environment, inclusiveness is another prominent factor. All notable companies are starting to offer services for individuals with a disability. For instance, Uber offers UberWAV for wheelchair access vehicle. Similarly, Lyft also offers wheelchair enabled vehicle.

Research reveals that wheelchair accessible ride requests are constantly increasing. The rate of increase in median age indicates that paratransit request rates will keep on increasing for decades. Besides the US, the trends of increasing median age are reflecting in entire North America and Western Europe.

The potential of paratransit also mirrors in the efforts of top ride-hailing companies. They are not only offering WAV but also replicating autonomous taxi services in this sector. Most of the paratransit companies are operating on the rideshare model. Thus, they operate within a radius and employ dynamic stations.

CabStartup Cloud-based Platform

Considering the similarities and variations in the mentioned and a bunch of other industries, CabStartup provides a platform to business owners. The owners can rebrand our white-label taxi app software as per their business needs.

You may experience CabStartup platform free of charges to evaluate its efficiency.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments

Rise of Electric Car Taxi and Corresponding Dispatch System

In the contemporary age of short innovation cycle, ride-hailing businesses need to adopt modern technologies to outperform their rivals. The adoption of dispatch software and apps enabled services like Uber and Lyft to disrupt traditional taxi businesses in the US and beyond. One notable business innovation aiming to shape ride-hailing industry is the integration of dispatch software with electric car taxi.

Electric cars bring Three-tier Sustainability in Taxi Business

The possibilities of business optimization become limitless when taxi app couples with electric cars. You may take a look at the potential of taxi business enhancement with taxi operator software here. Following are the areas where electric taxi service is sustainable.

    1. Economic Sustainability

    The electric cars are highly efficient owing to their ability to convert up to 90% of electrical energy into mechanical energy. In contrast, the thermal engine running on combustible fuel converts between 20-30%. Taking into account the cost of electricity and traditional fuel, operations of electric vehicles are three times cheaper.

    Apart from the engine’s efficiency, EVs have significantly low maintenance cost. Combustion engine requires a number of additional mechanical components to ensure smooth-running. Radiators and exhausts are two notable components apart from scores of others.

    However, three components, including motor, charger, and inverter completely define the architecture of electric vehicles. Even hybrid vehicles also cause significant cost reduction.

    2. Environmental Sustainability

    Maintenance and fuel costs do not entirely define the expenses of thermal vehicles. There are unforeseen costs which are visible only after purchasing them.

    For instance, there is no tax discount or exemption for owners of thermal cars. In contrast, the owners of electric and hybrid cars have to pay significantly lesser tax. Moreover, the legislation in the past two years enables you to get a considerable discount on electric vehicles.

    Besides averting regulatory penalties and surcharges, electric taxi service is becoming consumers’ primary choice for fulfilling social responsibility. Lyft’s operation in Seattle confirms this hypothesis. The company allows customers to choose Green Mode for EVs or traditional cars. A considerable number of passengers are opting Green Mode indicating a sharp attraction towards it.

    3. Recharge Convenience

    With a fleet of electric cars, none of the vehicles needs to go out of the way for refueling. Instead, you can have a charging station at your company’s franchise or another place of choice. Thus, EVs also save time otherwise consumed in refueling.

Overcoming the Challenges of Electric Taxi

Like any other invention, electric vehicles also pose some challenges. Nevertheless, the global resolve to mainstream EVs and phase out traditional combustion vehicles is working out the solutions.

Number of Charging Stations

The introduction of EVs developed the problem of a lack of charging stations. Unlike fuel pumps, charging stations were intensely rare as vehicle owners had to travel tens of miles for it.

However, the private-public partnership is ensuring to install more stations in every region. The aim is to increase station density up to the magnitude of fuel pumps. Companies like ChargePoint are pledging to achieve this ambition by 2025. ChargePoint itself aims to add 2.5 million new stations. It also reveals that half of the stations will be located in North America.

Range of Vehicles and Electric Taxi Operations

Another challenge for EV cars is the range of operations. Range is the distance that a pure electric car can travel after charging completely. Fortunately, many electric cars can travel over 300 km in a single charge while one of the Tesla models peaking up to 600 km. Each of these cars is capable of cruising on highways.

Low-speed cars also have an average range of about 70 km. However, they take almost the same amount of time to charge as high-speed electric cars. Thus, a driver would not be able to work for the entire day because the vehicle charging would exhaust. Thus, these vehicles are good enough for part-time drivers.

Vehicle Costs and Early Break-even Points

Both electric and hybrid cars are expensive than thermal cars. Nevertheless, customers are constantly increasing because EVs are capable of reaching break-even points sooner. This is the point where a product manages to cover the entire purchase cost by revenues.

Moreover, taxi companies reach break-even points quickly because these vehicles travel more miles than the ones owned by non-taxi owners. Tesla and other companies are also striving to bring the cost down so that EVs are affordable for customers of all socioeconomic groups.

Recycling Batteries

Critics argued that electric cars are not 100% emission free. One of the reasons is the fact that batteries have a lifetime after which they are no longer usable. Still, tech companies are striving to extend lifetime. Besides, they are also trying to recycle the batteries to provide another life to the same battery. Although the repurposing does not enable it to use a car battery, yet the product can be used to store solar energy.

Global Trends indicate High Rate of EV Adoption

Electric vehicles are depicting notable figures in North America, Europe, and China. By the end of 2011, the total number of EVs in the US was under 18,000. Six years down the road, the number increased to almost reach 200,000 vehicles.

In the subsequent year, this number further increased. Q4 of 2018 saw 210% more purchases than the same quarter of 2017.

The aim of sharing these numbers is to provide evidence for the argument that electric vehicles will completely replace their thermal counterparts. Not only private owners but taxi companies and ride-hailing services are also turning toward EVs.

Existing Companies Offering Electric Car Taxi Service

Most of the top taxi dispatch companies in the world are already offering electric car taxi service. Each one of them is planning to adopt 100% electric cars for their operations. Some of the cases are mentioned below.

Uber’s EV Champions Initiative

Uber revealed its electric cars strategy in 2018 with launching EV service in seven North American cities. It also announced to expand into other US cities and global regions. The company aims to reach over five million EV rides in the US in 2019.

As a part of its global EV program, Uber wants to switch to 100% electric cars in London by 2025. Uber’s intention to quickly evolve its global fleet into electric cars indicates that thermal vehicles would not last over five more years.

Being the most widespread ride-hailing business, the company is setting the trend as the competitors are following the suite.

Tesla’s Million Robotaxi Plan

Tesla is the inarguable pioneer of commercialization of electric vehicles. Each of its models is making rounds in the consumer circles. However, Elon Musk, the ambitious owner of Tesla unveiled that the auto manufacturing giant will introduce a million robo-taxis by the end of 2020.

If Tesla manages to achieve even a quarter of the targeted number, there will be a huge shift in ride-hailing. Each of the Tesla models is already running on batteries. Thus, Tesla is set to further fuel the competition with level-five autonomy apart from electric architecture.

Lyft and Waymo

The growing trends of electric taxi are evident in the fact that Lyft also kicked-off its EV service. After initiating in Seattle, Uber’s primary North American competitor is planning to introduce the same in rest of the US. The company is offering unlimited charging for drivers who choose electric cars.

Waymo – a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. – started its autonomous taxi service in Arizona last year. The company currently operates hybrid vehicles. However, it will refresh its fleet with 20,000 electric cars from Jaguar. The emphasis on EV by ride-hailing giants indicates that the taxi services with thermal vehicles will soon cease to exist.

Electric Car Taxi Dispatch Software

CabStartup taxi dispatch software is commensurate to the advancements in modes of mobility. The platform runs as smoothly for electric cars dispatch system as for traditional ride-hailing businesses. Our clients operate in more than 15 countries worldwide. The CabStartup cloud-based dispatch system offers the following three distinct modules.

Passenger Module

Passenger app comprises features including separate profile for each user, ride tracking, and in-app payment method. Customers may also choose one of the other methods.

The app ensures that passengers can book the nearest ride in only a few clicks on the app. Besides, it allows rating the ride and leaving feedback.

Driver Module

Drivers can also have their distinct profiles like customers. A profile allows them to view their history of rides. This ability is vital because most ride-hailing companies pay drivers depending on the number of completed rides in a predefined time period.

The users have access to navigation and route planning systems. These features ensure that drivers adopt the shortest route with the least traffic congestion. Drivers can also leave feedback and rate passengers.

Drivers can choose to switch to offline mode and get back online with only a couple of clicks. Both driver and passenger modules have high usability allowing every individual to utilize it without requiring technical background.

Admin Panel

Administrators at successful ride-hailing companies monitor every ride to ensure security for customers and drivers. Admin panel provides real-time tracking, and hence surveillance of rides. The admins can also retrieve the history of each ride so that they may resolve disputes. This panel also enables admins to block or unblock any passenger or driver from scheduling or accepting rides, respectively.

Dispatch Panel

Although the system automatically assigns the nearest and most suitable ride for requesting passengers, yet, at times, human intervention is required. Every assigned ride requires a confirmation from the dispatcher. Nevertheless, you can choose to uncheck this requirement.

Let’s Grow Together

Ride-hailing industry will not wait for undecided businessmen. Those who are uncertain about adopting dispatch technology will cease to exist in at most three years. Customers expect companies to facilitate them. Thus, they would most likely stop using your service if it is not as efficient as your rival’s services.

CabStartup understands the specific ride-hailing needs of various regions in the world owing to its widespread client-base. Test our free of charge cloud-based taxi dispatch software right now.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments

Taxi Operator Software Enabling Owners to Compete Uber

The life of taxi business owners was relatively free of worries until there was no app for ride-hailing. But then Uber hit the market with taxi operator software followed by Lyft at the close of the previous decade. Consequently, these apps started to divide the share of taxi industry and soon managed to grab the larger proportion.

Yes, the above paragraph only states the obvious. However, whether you are a taxi business owner or a ride-hailing startup aspirant, you need to remind yourself some facts over and over again. Do you have trouble remembering facts? Say no more – CabStartup documents them for you.

Why taxi management software is inevitable for taxi companies?

You must have heard enough about the significance of mobile apps for taxi business. In case you missed it by any chance, here is a brief recapitulation on how apps can transform your business.

Consumers’ Choice

Let us keep things straight. Passengers do not care if the taxi company they choose has a license or not. For them, that is a matter of concern for owners and regulators. What they need is a service which picks them at their doorstep and charges them less.

Until now – and till an indefinite time in future, ride-hailing apps will continue to rule the transportation industry. The primary reason is the fact that the apps enable riders to pay relatively lesser for a similar journey. Besides, they facilitate the passengers by picking them from the point of their choice.

Taxi apps also ensure to reach the passenger in mostly less than five minutes. Customers can pay effortlessly through a bunch of payment methods. Each of these functions requires only a few clicks on smartphones.

Cost Efficiency

Despite charging less than traditional taxi services, app-based rideshare businesses are more cost-efficient. These apps enable the drivers to adopt the most optimized route considering distance and traffic volume on various roads.

Moreover, the presence of taxi apps eliminates the need to employ large teams to respond to every ride request. The apps are capable of connecting the requesting app user with the nearest driver. Ride-hailing companies only need staff to address the queries and complaints of passengers.

Taxi apps also prevent the requirement of purchasing or leasing cars. Instead, the companies acquire vehicles from private owners while returning them a part of earning.

Reaching Consumers

Every effort in regards to the marketing of taxi business becomes a whole lot easier with app at your disposal. Any product or service with a tag of discount on it prompts the consumers to acquire it. They do so even if they have to download the app.

Getting a customer to download your app is the first step on way to winning consumer trust. Moreover, the discount does not damage the revenue count because the number of ride requests rises significantly during the times a company is offering free rides.

You may argue that traditional taxi services may also provide discounted rides. True – but the absence of route optimization already costs them enough. The discounts, in the presence of lower rates from ride-hailing app companies, will further hike the costs.

Taxi App Software Integration is not Free of Challenges

Ride-hailing industry, as well as many taxi companies, is demonstrating massive progress with the integration of taxi software. However, a number of cases indicate that the companies failed to gain value even after integration. Following two are the primary reasons for failure of software.

Performance Setbacks

Frequent crashes, lack of smooth in-app transition between different pages, and taking excessively longer to process requests are some of the performance setbacks which lead users to quit app. Thus, you need to ensure that taxi dispatch software facilitates users in every respect.

While building an app or acquiring platform-based services, be sure to evaluate the app under various conditions. CabStartup provides full access to the system for a trial period of 15 days so that taxi business owners can test it well enough.

Competition

It barely takes a minute or two to download a taxi app. If a consumer does not like the experience of using your app, one will most likely switch to another. In such competitive circumstances, you can outperform your competitors by offering seamless services with standout features.

How much does a taxi dispatch system cost?

Taxi software vendors often vaguely mention the costs to acquire surcharges later. CabStartup has unambiguous pricing policy. The taxi owners attain full access to all features of passenger, driver, and admin panels. The price is inclusive of the dispatcher as well.

Moreover, CabStartup facilitates passengers by allowing them to make one-time payment. One-time payment offers in-app wallets for drivers and passenger apps. It also offers access control levels.

How CabStartup defines the benchmark for best taxi dispatch software?

The number of successful case studies and the diversity of challenges addressed in each of them indicates the experience of CabStartup in developing and improving startups and the taxi industry, respectively. We understand the intensity of competition and ensure that our customers remain ahead of their rivals.

CabStartup offers distinct app modules for passengers, drivers, administrators, and dispatch staff. While some of the features are mutually occurring in each module, most features are disparate.

Why going in the theoretical details when you can evaluate each feature and app efficiency yourself. Start the free trial right now.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments

Market and Innovations in Paratransit Dispatch Software Systems

Amidst various businesses in the ride-hailing industry growing at light pace, paratransit is often overlooked by entrepreneurs. However, the market analysis and regulations from governments indicate that investors are missing a massive opportunity. An investment in paratransit dispatch software would generate a significant sum along with a potential of expansion to global scale.

Although paratransit is set to flourish in the entire world, yet the US carries one of the highest success probabilities. Both aging populations and governments steps toward easing paratransit businesses are reasons.

Following is a collection of some of the factors which are supplementing the success of investment in paratransit.

Paratransit Dispatch Service – Market Analysis

Despite a relatively lesser number of vehicles, the count of trips crossed 223 million by 2013 as reported by APTA. Six years down the road, analysts predict the count close to 360 million with a sizable increase in requests.

For the same reason, two-thirds of national and private transit departments provide paratransit facility –unlike six years back. Besides, many local governments are collaborating with independent contractors to ensure the facility. This way, the entrepreneurs are often able to get sponsorship from authorities.

Unlike Uber and other similar services serving as replacement of traditional taxi, regulators are highly flexible in case of paratransit. They are enabling businesses to start and operate seamlessly. Their aim is to facilitate one of the fastest growing demographic groups.

As stated earlier, the aging population is the primary cause of rising paratransit need. Since the turn of the century, the median age has attained a drastic growth rate. Since 1970, the median age in the US grew by 10 percentage points to reach the current 38%.

Besides, Western Europe and Canada have even higher average ages than the US. Thus, the demand for paratransit will only grow – and that too with substantial pace – in the upcoming years.

It is notable that APTA statistics are paratransit-specific. They do not consider on-demand medical services, though that industry is also growing by leaps and bounds. Paratransit strictly falls under non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT).

Innovations in Paratransit Scheduling and Dispatching Software

Although paratransit dispatch software systems are innovative in themselves, yet research is underway to ensure further innovation in the system. Software companies and auto manufacturers are working in their respective domains to introduce wonderful features. Following innovations are most notable.

The top auto manufacturers are working on autonomous paratransit vehicles. This trend is gaining momentum because some of the ride-hailing industry leaders are shifting toward self-driving cars from human-controlled ones.

In on-demand taxi domain, many companies worldwide including Waymo, ZMP, Tesla, and Ford are aiming to launch full-scale self-driving rides. In fact, Way and ZMP have already introduced such services in a region with small radius.

Although driverless vehicles are unavailable for public transit and paratransit industries, yet Ford is planning for it big time. The company will launch a shared mobility system they call transportation mobility cloud which will connect all means of transportation. In the midst of these developments, the manufacturers are also paying strong emphasis on autonomy in paratransit vehicles.

Besides, the manufacturers are also searching for the most suitable spacing arrangement so as to promote social interaction.

Features of Paratransit Dispatch Software for Small Business

Like on-demand ride-hailing systems, some of the features are must for paratransit as well to ensure smooth-running of system. The current state of competition also suggests having these must-have features including, but not limited to real-time tracking, route optimization, user profiles, and cloud-based platforms.

However, you can have as many functions as you would like in the system on top of the essential ones. Following innovative features will make sure that sure paratransit system is the best taxi dispatch software system.

Monitoring systems in Vehicles

Paratransit is reserved for either the seniors or the ones with a disability. These individuals require constant monitoring to ensure that they remain well during the ride. This monitoring does not only involve sharing video streaming of the rider but several other measures as well.

IoT devices make things a lot easier for the monitoring and surveillance staff. They can keep the paratransit passenger under observation while sitting back at their workplaces. Moreover, they can also connect IoT devices to measure the functioning of passenger’s body. For instance, the admins can assess the pulse rate and blood pressure of traveling patients remotely.

Hyperlocal Paratransit

Paratransit businesses require their vehicles to operate within a radius to avoid excessive costs. For instance, if the radius length is set to half of a square mile, the passengers lying only in this radius would be able to book a seat. Such a hyperlocal paratransit facility does not only save costs but time as well.

AARP reports that paratransit passengers pay $2.26 on average. This amount is reasonable considering the level of facilitation as compared to traditional transit systems.

Get Underway Right Now

Paratransit industry is no less than a hidden gem. Entrepreneurs are not exploring this option owing to the hype around on-demand taxi industry. While many other industries are volatile to changing trends, paratransit is here to stay for decades.

With CabStartup, you do not need to build paratransit dispatch software from scratch. Instead, you can acquire our cloud-based platform with a one-time payment. Either way, you can rebrand the system to launch your startup.

Get our free ride scheduling software for trial right now.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments

Driverless Taxi and Impact on Traditional Ride-Hailing

The introduction of ride-hailing services disrupted the traditional taxi industry. Seeking a taxi is now only a few taps away unlike the lengthy and relatively inefficient traditional model. The advent of autonomous cars was also labeled as the beginning of driverless taxi era. However, self-driving vehicles will take more than a decade before starting to replace drivers with software.

Driverless Taxi Service – Current Status

The latter half of 2018 was a breakthrough period for autonomous ride-hailing concept. Two independent services kicked-off in regions geographically apart by thousands of miles.

The commercialization of robo-taxi services sets the ground for multiple candidates who were waiting for an initiative. Many companies are planning to introduce similar services this year. The ones that started last year are preparing a step ahead to expand into more markets.

Following are the services which started last year or the ones aiming to inaugurate driverless taxi in the near future.

First driverless taxi

The collaboration between ZMP Inc. – a Japanese autonomous car technology developer – and Hinomaru taxi service introduced driverless ride-hailing to passengers. Although the self-driving cars are under trials for years, yet this collaboration marks the first commercial use.

However, the service is currently limited to only a few towns in Tokyo. The owners aim to the service full-scale at Summer Olympics next year.

The initiative is also significant because ZMP is the only self-driving taxi aspirant in Asia apart from Chinese DiDi Chuxing.

Waymo Driverless Taxi

Waymo is the first autonomous ride-hailing service in the US and entire west. While ZMP remains first worldwide, Waymo’s area of operation is broader – approximately 100 miles in Arizona.

The public response was fine but not an overwhelming one. There are obvious reasons. Customers will take time before extending their belief on autonomous rides. Eight months prior to Waymo’s launch, a self-driving test vehicle from Uber fatally hit a pedestrian. The incident occurred in one of the towns where Waymo introduced its service.

The criterion for charging fare is at par with Lyft and Uber services. Waymo wants to attain net profit by the end of 2020.

Tesla Robo-Taxi

Tesla demonstrates no urgency for diving into the newly established competition. Instead, the company aims to introduce its version of self-driving cabs in the last quarter of 2020.

However, Tesla intends an entirely distinct business model from the existing rideshare companies or, for that matter, other self-driving companies.

It aims to partner the owners of autonomous vehicles to utilize their vehicles when not in use. The company will pay a percentage of earning to owners in return while keeping 25-30% of revenue.

Driverless Cars and Impact on Traditional Ride-Hailing

Although the above cases indicate that autonomous taxi services are seamlessly drifting toward a total self-driving mobility system, yet the ground realities are way different. There are multiple challenges on the way to regularizing driverless taxi services on large-scale.

Besides, the accidents of some vehicles under testing phases imply that the cars are not fully ready to attain status of final level autonomy. One notable incident was an Uber fatally hitting a pedestrian in Arizona during testing.

Lack of policymaking is also one of the major causes. Local and national governments do not appear to demonstrate urgency in regularizing self-driving taxi services.

Your Ride-Hailing Business Journey Starts Here

For these reasons, the driverless taxi scheme is not a threat to the ride-hailing fleets which are based on human drivers.

CabStartup is the technology partner of number successful ride-hailing solutions in 12 countries around the world. Start your free trial today to examine the performance and features of our platform.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments

Types and Components of Taxi Management Software

Most taxi business owners are convinced about the effectiveness of taxi management software like Uber app. They understand the fact that passengers are far more likely to acquire one of the ride-hailing services than traditional taxi.

However, they are unsure about the scope of software which will be sufficient to run the business efficiently. Such owners can choose one or more systems from the following choices depending on their business needs. The selection should follow the order in this article.

Taxi Dispatch and Monitoring Panel

The command and control system of a taxi business comprises the dispatch panel. Such systems also exist in traditional businesses. However, there is no real- time monitoring mechanism for administrators. Dispatch panel assists companies in the following ways.

Responding to Customers’ Requests

When a customer requests a ride, the drivers in the vicinity and admin controlling the dispatch panel get a ping. Any of the pinged drivers can take the ride after approval from the admin.

To ensure that this series of actions occur in shortest time, many apps offer automated admin approval. Still, the decision of providing this facility rests on the owner.

Dispatching the Most Suitable Vehicle

Every passenger has a location-based radius which allows the nearest idle drivers to accept the ride request. However, taxi fleet management software should ensure that the choice of driver also involves few other factors.

  1. If a vehicle is scheduled to drop off a passenger, the driver of this vehicle may still accept another ride. This case should only occur if the estimated arrival for riding passenger is less than five minutes.
  2. Apart from being in the radius of passenger, the priority is to dispatch the driver with shortest arrival time. A vehicle may consume more time to reach the passenger’s location if remains stuck in traffic.

Monitoring the Ride

The surveillance and tracking of every fleet vehicle enhance the management significantly. This ability increases the security of riders. In case the driver stops sharing live location, the admins still have the information about last known location.

Dispatch software also allows the assessment of every driver individually. In a traditional setting, the admins have to manually add the record for each driver. Consequently, the probability of error remains higher.

Settling the Disputes

Although efficient systems leave little room for dispute, yet it should allow admins to settle it if a dispute arises.

Some of the most frequent causes of clash include discount application and ride cancellation surcharge. Besides, some passengers may also have complaints regarding drivers’ professionalism.

Instead of having the passenger to call or show at company’s office, the system should allow in-app complaint registration.

Passenger-specific Taxi Service Management Software

This software system is completely different from dispatch panel in both features and structure. The primary distinction lies in the primary device. Admin app runs primarily on a laptop, a personal computer, or a tablet. In contrast, almost every passenger uses handheld device including a smartphone or a tablet.

Scheduling a Ride

Passengers are able to schedule the ride and enter the locations for pickup and drop-off. The owners should note that the users want as minimum number of smartphone taps as possible. Every additional step before confirmation adds to their annoyance.

After assessing various rideshare apps including Uber, Lyft, and DiDi, we are sure that the quickest booking requires at least two steps. However, this is only the case when passenger selects one of the recommended destinations. This recommendation is based on the frequently traveled locations.

Moreover, the latency rate and wait time after scheduling are also influencing factors. Latency rate is the time before an admin dispatches the driver. Wait time is the duration between dispatch and arrival.


The chart depicts that UberX takes considerably lesser time as compared to traditional taxi which does not have dispatch software. UberSelect and UberBLACK take even less number of minutes because their demand is smaller.

Options for Drop-off Locations

Some passengers do not want to reveal the drop-off location for various reasons. Thus, the option to enter locations for drop-off should stay with the passenger.

At times, the passengers need to visit more than one destination with short wait time during ride. For instance, a rider may want to pick an accompanying rider from a location and then travel to another location. Such passengers should have the choice of multiple stops. However, there should also be limitations so that the addition of stops does not increase the ride time significantly.

Payment Flexibility

While the competition in taxi industry is growing with the increasing demand, the customers expect highest facilitation from service providers. Flexibility in payment is one of the factors that attract customers.

Your drivers do not need to carry hard cash or point of sales (POS) terminal. Instead, the passengers should be able to pay via in-app wallet. If the wallet does not have the required amount, the app should push the remaining amount as negative credit. Hence, customers can pay later.

Driver-specific Taxi Manager Software

Many features in driver modules are similar to those of passengers. However, there are differences too.

Accepting Ride Requests

Taxi booking management software should allow drivers to accept ride requests. The app may also provide the flexibility to cancel a ride with varying penalty. The ride-hailing service providers often block a driver’s account for the day if one cancels more rides than certain limit.

Record for Personal Accounts

Like passengers, software should ensure that each driver has a separate account. This ability enables drivers to view their performance statistics. These statistics should also be available to admins so that they may reward or punish the driver based on one’s performance.

Conclusion

You do not have to necessarily acquire every module of taxi software. Instead, get one of the modules. Nevertheless, automating the processes on driver, passenger and admin sides ensures high value for taxi business.

You may acquire system on a subscription-based scheme or through a one-time payment. Start your free trial right now.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments

The Blueprint for Starting a Taxi Business

Initiating any business is as painful as trying to get over a failure. For this reason, many skillful people refrain from jumping into entrepreneurship. Some of those who have the heart to push themselves go through back-to-back pains of starting and failing in business. Starting a taxi business is no less challenging.

Nevertheless, there are ways which guarantee success up to a considerable degree. Entrepreneurs can bring down the probability of failure significantly by adopting these ways.

 

How to start a taxi business?

Following points in the same order present the path to a successful taxi business.

Determining the Appropriate Market

Market identification is one of the most significant prerequisites to the taxi business. Many taxi owners emphasize on marketing of business and providing the right selection of features. While both of these factors are also essential, ignoring appropriate targeted market may push all the effort in vain.

The decision of choosing an appropriate operational region should depend on various factors. Some of the top factors include:

    ->The quality of existing ride-hailing system.

    ->The time required by existing taxi services to reach the passenger’s location after booking.

    ->The cost of operations in the region. The inflation rate is also an appropriate measure to predict future costs.

    ->A startup in a market with less demand and higher operational cost will be more likely to fall into losses.

Identifying the Target Demographics

The next crucial step is to identify the local demographics. Socioeconomic classes are the primary consideration while assessing the demography.

This assessment enables the taxi owners to introduce the most suitable types of services. For instance, if the average income is relatively lesser in a country, the owners should provide low-cost vehicles. Such vehicles will require smaller maintenance and fuel costs. Consequently, passengers will also be able to get a cost-effective solution.

Moreover, research into local culture and traditions is also significant. Marketing of a business is far more productive if it highlights the native culture and popular trends.

“If people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to the brand.” (Howard Schultz)

Collaboration with Potential Partners

Partnerships with notable businesses in a region serve as a catalyst to a taxi company’s growth. Both partners supplement the marketing efforts of each other. Apart from marketing, they also assist in acquiring more customers.

Some of the most noteworthy collaborations from ride-hailing industry include UberEats and McDonald’s for food delivery and Uber and Toyota for manufactured vehicle utilization.

Moreover, it is not essential to collaborate with businesses from a different industry. For instance, Lyft and Waymo are ridesharing competitors but working together for autonomous vehicles.

Such partnerships within the industry turn rivals into beneficiaries allowing every partner to grow remarkably.

Taxi App Tailored to Business Needs

After a comprehensive market and user research and attaining partnerships, owners need to develop an efficient app. Some of the taxi app features vary depending on consumer needs. Nevertheless, starting your own taxi business requires the app to perform a few unavoidable functions.

Route-planning is the most vital function which enables drivers to reach passengers in the shortest possible time. Besides, the ability to track drivers is also indispensable to outperform the traditional taxi rivals.

App speed and user experience are crucial to sustaining the high competitive index. You can get away with ordinary app performance only through either the absence of competitors or poor competitor’s performance.

Creating the Pre-launch Hype

The customers should know about your services ahead of a business launch. The passengers should be eagerly waiting for you to launch the service. This approach pushes the customers to rush and try the new option at their disposal.

It is advisable that the service remains flawless in the initial weeks. If the app fails to impress customers, the owners may never be able to repair the lost reputation. Consequently, they end-up either rebranding or, in the worst circumstances, closing the business.

Social media should be one of your primary channels to create this hype. Although ads in print and electronic media and billboards are also effective, yet social media provides a low-cost solution.

This approach is also a way to build awareness among the passengers about your services. Each person knowing about your business prior to launch is a potential passenger after launching. Stirring up this hype may not be necessary for starting a business, but it is undeniably a significant strategy.

Increasing the Customer-base

The pre-launch awareness should be sufficient to provide a considerable initial customer-base. However, your business needs to attract more customers to keep increasing the market share.

Instead of pushing more money in efforts to grab greatest share, you can use the existing customers for the purpose. Referral codes provide one of the most proven ways of increasing user-base.

A user serving as a referee can invite a non-user to download your app. As a result, you will add another customer while the customer will get a reward in the form of a free or discounted ride.

Consolidation and Expansion

After developing a sizable user-base, you may move on to expanding the business in more regions. The phrase “sizable user-base” is a relative one depending on the targeted market. A thousand downloads should be sufficient for expansion if the population of initial region is less than 0.1 million.

Conversely, ten thousand downloads would be insufficient to look into other markets if the said population is over five million.

The regions with high competition are more likely to lose a customer. A user may switch to an alternate ride-hailing service provider if one offers better services with lower costs.

 

How much does it cost to start a taxi business?

Cost of starting a taxi business varies with the scope of business. Some of the factors affecting cost include:

  • Number of initial operational regions.
  • The number of company-owned vehicles in the beginning.
  • The kind of features you intend to incorporate in your mobile app.
  • The number of marketing channels used and the extent of their utilization.

CabStartup has the most efficient pricing model for providing a taxi dispatch platform. The business owners can rebrand this dispatch software to use it as their own company.

You can use our software for free as a trial to evaluate its performance. Moreover, you can add as many additional features apart from the existing ones.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments

Selecting the Taxi App Development Company and Pricing Structure

Taxi apps are making serious numbers all around the world. Ride-hailing businesses are conquering the global taxi industries. Entrepreneurs with no or little experience in this industry are often interested in knowing about the correct choice of taxi app development companies.

This article shares the points one should keep in mind while making a selection. There is also a brief analysis of taxi app development cost. Later in the text, we share some essential features which ensure a useful app.

How to Select Taxi App Development Company?

To start with, make a query on any search engine of your choice to find the best app development company. There will be tons of results sharing companies claiming to be the best ones. Instead of finding the company, you will end up more confused than ever.

What is the point of querying in the first place then? This practice will enable you to estimate the amount of “scams”. Last thing one would desire is to pay a company which lacks the expertise for taxi app development.

In essence, a company with poor capability may win the entrepreneurs’ trust with intensive but misguiding marketing approach.

Following are the ways one can identify such companies.

Working Case Studies

If a company claims to have years of experience and unparalleled expertise, it should have real case studies. Without working on real-world projects, any such claim would be an exaggeration.

Some companies argue that they have no disclosure agreement (NDA) with their clients. Although it is highly unlikely that each of the clients signs NDA, yet there is a workaround in such cases too.

You may take the example of CabStartup. We have enabled many aspirants to build their taxi business from scratch and attain a significant market share. Some of the success stories are on their way to lead the local taxi industry.

Many taxi booking app development companies are putting fake case studies on sites to convince visitors. Rarely one finds a successful taxi company with no presence on the web. Thus, one can comfortably find out if the posted case study is real or fake.

Working prototype

Any company that has prior successful experience of working on on-demand taxi app development should have a working prototype. They can provide the demo of functions and features of their system.

Beware! The companies can fool you with inefficient software concealed under fancy interface. Create at least ten instances of drivers and allocate distinct tasks to evaluate the performance. Although ten instances are still insufficient, yet they are enough to prove expertise.

CabStartup also understands this fact that the fraudulent groups in the industry are misguiding inexperienced entrepreneurs. Thus, we enable our customers to use the software system for free before purchasing it. For this reason, entrepreneurs trust us.

Cloud-based solution

This is debatable because many companies are using web-based services. Again others are relying on local servers as well. Many taxi mobile app development companies offer “script” of Uber or Lyft. They claim that this script is as good as actual app.

However, we already reasoned out how cloud-based systems are better than any other choice. If rest of the options were good enough, we would not have redefined our business plan to incorporate cloud infrastructure.

Evaluating App Pricing Structure

Companies have varying price structure depending on their architecture. The experience of CabStartup leadership enabled them to introduce a comprehensive pricing model. Some entrepreneurs are interested in bulk investment while others prefer deferred payment options.

We offer one-time paid enterprise solution. The payments can also be made on deferred pricing. The features in both models are same. Customers get access to in-app wallet for drivers and passengers. Besides, they also get “access control hierarchy”.

Regardless of your choice of developer, CabStartup strongly discourages to use developers who build the app from scratch.

Essential Components of Taxi Mobile App

The features vary for different taxi companies. New aspirants also tend to envisage distinct features from the existing ones. Irrespective of the distinguishing features, every taxi app must offer the following.

Passenger App Features

Many of the features of passenger app vary from those of drivers.

Every passenger should be able to create a separate account. In essence, this account remains associated with a contact number of smartphone owner.

The app should share the history of at least ten most recent trips. They can use this historical data for complaints or request the same drivers who served them earlier.

Besides, the application should also share the vehicles in the vicinity of one’s predetermined pick-up location. Once they book a ride, the passengers should be able to view the arrival time of drivers. Moreover, efficient app also provides real-time location of drivers.

In-app communication facility is essential to enable drivers to reach customers in time. There are multiple ride-hailing scenarios. A company may add as many details as they want as long as the performance remains intact.

Driver App Features

Drivers also need to have distinct accounts and can view the history of recent rides. Knowing about nearby drivers is vital to allow drivers cover all areas in the region.

Apart from ride status and communication with passengers, drivers should also have the ability to rate passenger. Driver and rider wallet are also notable features.

Admin Panel

Administrators should not only be monitoring the drivers in the region. The panel should allow them to run effective data analytics and get some meaningful insights.

Furthermore, an authorized admin can redefine geo-fencing – that is the radius of operations. An interactive dashboard should give statistics about the tasks assigned to every driver.

Software of CabStartup allows admins to manage the accounts of drivers and passengers. Some admins have the privilege to block or reopen an account. They also have the history of payment and every ride to settle disputes.

Start your free trial of CabStartup right now.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments

Taxi Marketing Strategy – Exploring Digital and Traditional Options

Taxi marketing is one of the crucial yet overlooked pieces in the chain of taxi business growth. The advent of on-demand services redefined the taxi marketing strategy with some new app-specific approaches. CabStartup’s experience of working with taxi industry in the ongoing decade enables our experts to compile a list of most effective marketing strategies.

Following are some of the approaches toward taxi business promotion. Please note that they all are equally significant regardless of their order in the list.

    1. Business Brand Highlighting Local Culture

    There is barely any part of the world where taxi industry does not have firm roots. Almost every country has an established taxi union with multiple businesses vying for the major market share.

    In such circumstances, any new player has to have an attractive brand name which signifies local culture. Besides name, the company’s motto should also reflect the traditions of native population. This approach is assisting businesses in many industries to grab attention of customers immediately.

    Apart from highlighting culture, the aspirants can raise trending matters of social domain and create awareness about them among public. Meanwhile, they can also reach a broader range of audience.

    For instance, you may introduce a scheme under which your company plants a tree for ten rides from a customer. Research indicates that CSR activities leave a substantial impact on consumer buying behavior.

    2. PR and Social Media Marketing

    It will be foolish to promote a business without considering social media. Facebook – the biggest social network – alone has over 2.3 billion monthly active accounts. Social networks are some of the first sources for a company to reach customers.

    Another factor that makes SMM essential is the cost of this kind of marketing. Marketers can promote companies at remarkably low rates.

    The emphasis on SMM allows businesses to grow global outreach. In comparison to traditional billboards, the SMM reaches far greater volume of population – and in various parts of operational region.

    3. Promotional Discount

    There is no better treat for taxi passengers to have free or discounted rides. Although the owners may have to subsidize the process to attract customers, yet the return makes it worthy enough.

    Discount is among the effective taxi marketing ideas because it keeps a customer base. If a user stops using a service, one may return to use it later when discount is available.

    Promotions are one of the primary components of Uber digital marketing strategy.

    4. Acquiring Customers’ Feedback

    Your customers need to know that you care for them. This is one of the core differences between traditional taxi services and ridesharing apps. The traditional companies require lodging a complaint through the call, email, or on-site.

    However, passengers rarely bother to go the extra mile. In contrast, the app provides the ability to lodge in-app complaint. Moreover, many software systems also enable the complaining individual to see the status of their claims or query.

    Feedback acquisition allows companies to find loopholes in their business. Besides, it also enables them to assess customer behavior toward occasional changes in policies.

    5. Business Partnerships for as Taxi Marketing Strategy

    Partnerships are vital for business growth. If your taxi company manages to make alliance with a large-scale company, your growth rate comes at par to partner.

    It is advisable that the partnership is beneficial for both allies. Such alliances grow mutual trust and allow business owners to work for the success of their partners as much as for themselves.

    The collaboration of food outlets and delivery companies present a pertinent case. GrubHub delivers food for KFC and Pizza Hut among others whereas UberEats for McDonald’s. These collaborations ensure cost cut for both stakeholders. Besides, they also improve the services in process.

    Similarly, collaborations are also essential in taxi industry to give a tough call to competitors. However, it may not always be companies from another industry. Taxi companies can run decent business partnerships between them too. For instance, Uber and DiDi take the leverage of local companies at times instead of rivaling them.

    6. Visibility over Search Engines

    This is a crucial aspect of marketing strategy for taxi services to grasp new customers’ attention. If a passenger, who has never used taxi apps before, would most likely look for one at search engine.

    Besides new passengers, existing ones looking for the alternate option will also search it over the web. Inviting passengers and marketing companies to write reviews on PR sites works well. The eventual objective is to increase the visibility on internet.

    7. Referral Code

    This is one of the proven marketing ideas for taxi companies. If a passenger invites another passenger to download the app, the companies reward the referee with a free ride. This strategy is similar to the one mentioned in promotional discounts. However, discounts are repeated, but the referral code remains for once.

    Apart from other reasons, the codes present a successful on-demand taxi marketing plan because people download the app. There will rarely be a case when riders delete the app after acquiring the discounted ride. The presence of app in phone will always provide them a secondary option if their primary choice service is unavailable.

    Even if a rider does not frequently use your service after getting the first discounted ride, the promotional activity will give a huge boost to app on app stores.

    8. Seamless Technology

    This taxi marketing strategy has more to do with user experience. Nevertheless, it indirectly impacts marketing campaigns too. Over 80% of the taxi app users are not well-versed with complicated mobile apps. An apparently fancy interface can also cause annoyance regardless of efficiency of the app.

    Moreover, the case of the other way round also backfires. An app with decent interface and high usability offers little help if the speed is not up to the mark. Hence, both cases prompt the users to look for an alternate option.

Cabstartup assists taxi businesses to enhance profits with the most suitable cloud-based dispatch system. Evaluate the efficiency yourself by using the free trial.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments

Bike Taxi Business Scope and Revenue Model

Smartphone powered bike taxi apps are crucial players causing disruption in the traditional taxi business. The $6 billion annual revenue of taxi businesses in the US alone indicates the volume of this industry.

However, market analysis also reveals that market share is rapidly swinging in favor of on-demand bike apps. Besides, the industry is flourishing in various parts of the world including Asia with huge population density.

How to start a bike taxi business?

Like any other industry, bike taxi business ideas also require a comprehensive business model. This model includes, but not limited to scope of services, operational regions, and sources of income. It is advisable to sneak into each of them.

1. Business Scope

Generally viewing bike taxi model allows the investor to find the wide domain of options. However, bike sharing remains the most attractive one owing to its increasing demand in urban areas.

    i. Bike sharing

    The traffic congestion is discouraging people to use private or taxi vehicles. A bike is an appropriate alternative for its economy factor and relatively easier penetration in high traffic areas. Moreover, it is not only cost-effective for passengers but also service providers.

    The fact that bike taxi is a solution to high costs and traffic problems prompts governments to promote it.

    Despite the introduction of autonomous and electric vehicles, starting bike taxi business is far from foolish. Autonomous cars will take at least two decades from now to attain a position where they might disrupt bike taxis.

    Without autonomy, electric vehicles only solve the high-cost problem. The challenges of traffic jamming remain in place. Thus, bike-taxi startups are here to stay for some time.

    ii. Delivery Services

    Delivery and logistics landscape is evolving with the integration of bikes. The challenges of last mile and same day delivery are making this mode of transportation an essential component.

    Furthermore, delivery services are not limited to B2B or C2C types. Although only a few restaurants and fast foods offered food delivery up to a decade back, yet it is becoming a necessity to stay in competition.

    One indication of remarkable on-demand food industry potential is the 300% faster growth rate as compared to dine-in restaurants.

    iii. Repair Services

    Visiting a car mechanic is one of the least interesting activities. This is why vehicle owners tend to seek on-demand repair services. The availability of a service increases its demand because people not habitual prior to service availability.

    Apart from vehicles, the service provider may also offer to repair small damages in homes. However, it rests upon the budget of entrepreneurs to scale up the business as much as they can.

    iv. Rental services

    This is another variant of bike-sharing service. Instead of a bike-taxi agent riding the passengers to destinations, the service seekers can rent the bike and ride alone.

    Bike rental services are vital for individuals who need to travel from place to place with considerable distance in-between. Rental bikes are also useful for individuals commuting to work. Thus, Bike-share and rental services have separate user-base with some of them overlapping.

    The cost of rental and bike taxi operations is more or less the same. In bike-taxi operations, the wages of riding agents are one of the major money consuming areas. Although rental bikes do not require ride agents, yet the relatively lower demand makes the profit margin tantamount to taxi.

    v. Emergency Response

    Bike riders can be the first responders to emergencies in metropolitan areas. The definition of emergency varies with most frequently occurring scenario being the need for first aid to treat minor injuries.

    Workplaces, as well as residential areas, require an emergency response. Fire eruption presents another instance which requires a quick response. Although these situations occur occasionally, yet the demand is colossal when viewed collectively.

    The notable factor in each kind of service is the fact that bike is the most essential component. Rest of the elements causing a hike in cost are insignificant.

2. Targeted Towns

The identification of appropriate regions is one of the most crucial aspects of bike taxi business plan. The selection of targeted areas involves following consideration.

  • Population density should be higher. If the town is bigger in terms of area with scattered population, the bikes will have to cover greater distances. In contrast, a smaller area with more population reduces the operating radius. In big cities with massive population densities, service provider can offer a number of operational regions.
  • Weather should be moderate. This notion may appear absurd, but it makes a lot of sense when one has to travel on bike at above 95°F or below 50°F. An appropriate workaround is to offer occasional services when weather conditions are favorable.

3. Revenue Model

Before sharing sources of revenue, you should note that bike taxi or related services require only small initial capital. You do not need to purchase bikes as bike owners can register their vehicle with your company for profit share.

The only factors of initial costs include the cloud-based app subscription or purchase and marketing. The app expenditure is reasonable while marketing cost varies depending on the volume of promotions.

The sources of income widely vary depending on the scope of business model. However, service charges are common in each of the models.

A passenger or delivery service seeker pays for fare or delivery charges respectively. Similarly, first response service provider and rental bikes also generate revenue through charging per hour.

The apps for food delivery services also earn through marketing of restaurant and fast foods. The food outlets pay delivery app owners to keep their restaurants visible in the search results.

4. Payment Choices

The flexibility in payment options is one of the distinctive features of on-demand bike taxi. Apart from hard cash and POS machine, an app for the purpose often allows payment through in-app credit.

The passengers can top-up the credit ahead of traveling or may pay later.

The Sooner the Better

The market is growing at an astronomical pace with no signs of slowing down in the entire next decade. However, it is wise enough to start as soon as right now.

Share your business idea with CabStartup to become one of the thriving taxi startups. You can also take a free trial of our product.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments

Success Factors of Rideshare Business Model and Future Forecasts

Note: This article was updated on January 13, 2020

No other sector has revolutionized as much as urban transportation in these first two decades of 21st century. Many innovative businesses emerged taking the leverage of smart technologies. Rideshare business model is becoming one of the most successful models besides on-demand taxi and bike taxi services.

This article explains rideshare business model and explores the reasons for its success.

What is Rideshare Business Model?

Over 80% of vehicles in metropolitan roads around the world have a single passenger. This problem is creating a massive inefficiency because each of these vehicle drivers is consuming road space of entire vehicle.

Moreover, this problem persists in traditional taxis too whose number of passengers is mostly not more than one at a given time. Consequently, the contemporary century-old traffic model is becoming unsustainable.

Public transit systems (PTS) including rapid buses and subway trains are only a small part of solution. A commuter cannot book a seat or estimate the arrival time without traveling to stations. Most PTS offer the facility of phone call or website.

Get to know the features of CabStartup Rideshare Platform

However, smartphone apps present the most effective solution with remarkable user experience, unlike websites.

A commuter can book a seat with rideshare app while at home and find the nearest pickup point. Public transport vehicles only stop at prefixed routes. In contrast, rideshare apps allow dynamic stations. The vehicle stops at locations of riders’ choice while remaining inside the radius of operation.

Why is Rideshare Transport Model Successful?

Growing traffic congestion is not the only challenge addressed by rideshare businesses. They are also ensuring low-cost solution to commuters with better profit margins for service provider.

Excessive Utilization

One drawback of taxi business is the fact that drivers remain idle most of the time. This problem burns excessive fuel and consumes more time without returning enough.

Cloud-based rideshare model ensures that more people use single vehicle. This way, per passenger cost drops down. More people traveling in the same ride enable each rider to distribute cost.

In essence, drivers are not getting a lesser amount of money per ride. Instead, the increased utilization enables them to allow passengers pay significantly less.

Research indicates that rideshare services earn substantially more per hour of operations than taxi services. Thus, rideshare business plan is successful in perspective of passengers, drivers, and service providers.

Empowering Both Passengers and Drivers

Like one of the features in Uber business model, most rideshare apps enable ratings for both passengers and drivers. This dual-rating and feedback facility improves user experience. The facility develops a sense of understanding among the two stakeholders.

Any effective rideshare app would act on ratings and feedback. Drivers with poor ratings either face permanent or temporary termination. Those with decent ratings get bonuses.

Similarly, the apps also penalize passengers with low ratings. Usually, the regulators lower the number of promotional offers to such customers. In intense cases, customers may also face closure of their account.

Advanced Booking Rideshare software

As mentioned earlier, booking a seat through smartphone is mostly unavailable in public transit systems. Rideshare model allows passengers to reserve a seat in the vehicle of their choice. This feature reduces the pickup time and allows passengers to prepare in time accordingly.

The cost of traveling during peak traffic hours often goes extremely high. Thus, seeking a taxi is rarely an option for commuters.

Since the stops are dynamic, rideshare vehicles can far cover more areas than traditional public transport system. Sharing model also allows changing areas of operations instead of sticking to the same radius.

Tracking and Time Estimation

Customers have the facility to get the estimated arrival time of vehicles. They can also view the route of vehicles to find the nearest pickup point.

Rideshare is unable to pick riders at their doorstep unless the pickup location falls on driver’s route. However, it ensures to reduce the walk time as compared to public transport. Customers prefer walking few steps out of their homes instead of paying many times more by acquiring a taxi.

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Smartphone Payment Facility

The inconvenience of keeping hard cash or credit card is a thing of past. Now both of these payment methods are merely options. Customers mostly use the in-app wallet which allows filling balance ahead of ride or paying later.

Like other features, this facility saves time and ensures that passengers have less number of things to care about.

Safety and Dispute Settlement

One of the most notable facilities is the security of passengers. Unlike taxi rides, shared mobility allows monitoring staff to track rides for surveillance. Any efficient rideshare app provides the ability to store data of customers and drivers. Admins can access this data for accountability purposes.

Furthermore, the apps also allow settling disputes in a highly effective way. Traditional taxis do not save minute details in record of rides. In contrast, shared apps keep track of the areas traversed and conversation between driver and rider.

However, the apps need to ensure data security and avoid breaching privacy unless a dispute settlement requires so.

Forecasting the Forthcoming

Some vehicle manufacturers are designing vehicle interior, particularly for ridesharing businesses. Such cars and vans will feature seats with increased security features.

Besides, level four autonomous vehicles are kicking off the commercial operations. Alphabet’s Waymo is one of the first rideshare services featuring autonomous vans.

Many companies are planning to offer hopped rides in the upcoming times. These rides will enable passengers to reach the destination by hopping more than one vehicle under same booking.

You can be the upcoming prodigy in rideshare industry. We are here to help you with our cloud-based rideshare system. Take your time with the free trial to test the system’s efficiency. We will get back to you once the trial is over.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments

Revisiting Conventional and Innovative Taxi App Features

Technology has already transformed the conventional taxi business with the introduction of smartphone apps. Over the years, various rideshare companies introduced innovative taxi app features.

Now, the ride-hailing industry has matured to the extent that one can define a list of must-have features for a company to survive in the fierce battle for supremacy. Moreover, there is no limit to innovation. Any innovative feature facilitating riders would help owners vanquish their rivals.

Following is a compilation of features picked by CabStartup analysts which ensure survival. There is a list of innovative features later in the text whose adopters can tilt the competition in their favor.

Must-have Taxi booking app features

It would be mundane to remind that drivers, passengers, and administrators should have separate panels. Some companies also offer distinct dispatcher panel to add further convenience for managers. This taxi booking app feature list is a collection of features from each panel.

1. AI-Powered Route Planning for Drivers

With increasing traffic congestion and road densities per square mile, drivers face hard time to find passenger’s location. This factor causes annoyance among riders and wastes time.

However, route planning and optimization software systems are minimizing this problem. These systems based on artificial intelligence share the route which is most suitable for drivers. Such software considers numerous aspects to decide the “best route.”

Most crucial aspects include distance to the destination and traffic density on various roads. Besides, some systems also take into account the obstacles and quality of roads by observing vehicle speed in low-traffic regions.

2. GPS-based Vehicle Tracking

Using a traditional taxi service, passengers and admins have to rely on the driver’s word of mouth. They do not have the capability to track vehicles in real-time. Consequently, passengers are unable to estimate arrival time.

Taxi app must provide the ability to track rides to passengers as well as administrators. App developers can comfortably integrate this feature – thanks to the remarkable efficiency of GPS satellites. There are pre-built APIs which makes the task easier for developers. GPS trackers do not require an internet connection to find one’s own location.

3. Cloud-based Operations for Dispatcher

This is arguably one of the most important features to manage multiple rides seamlessly. Some taxi owners offer apps to passengers, but their dispatcher panel is not hosted on cloud. A cloud enables companies to manage operations remotely.

Using cloud-based approach, the history of past, ongoing, and upcoming rides remains on remotely located servers. The authorized personnel can access this history from anywhere.

In contrast, the taxi apps not offering cloud end-up storing data on local servers. The managers in such cases can access data from centralized physical location only.

4. Knowledge of Ride Partners

A passenger can view details of driver which is tasked to take the ride. These personal details invoke the sense of security among passengers. Similarly, drivers can also view essential information about passengers.

The companies must ensure that sharing of personal information complies with privacy regulations. The administrators do not need to push riders to share particulars every time they request a ride. Cloud-based taxi apps allow saving information of millions of customers and accessing it easily.

The information should also include feedbacks and rating visible to the two stakeholders. Moreover, the app should enable both to rate the experience and share feedback.

5. Digital Invoices with Multiple Payment Options

Traditional taxi services relied on POS devices to generate invoices. Later, they also introduced machine to swipe cards for payments.

It is unwise to continue the same old practices despite the presence of smartphones. Drivers share digital invoice instead of paper receipt. The passengers and admin can access this digital bill later in case of a payment dispute.

Mobile app also enables passengers to pay via other options besides credit card and hard cash. Many developers also offer wallet to top up the balance or pay later.

6. Direct Communication between Driver and Passenger

Millennial are aware of radio taxi services which used to book rides through phone calls. The only choice for passengers to connect with drivers was an indirect one through an agent. This communication mechanism deprived passengers of privacy and forced them to go through an unnecessary hassle.

Smartphone allows direct and free of charge communication between driver and passenger. An app should offer communication through messaging as well as phone call.

Innovative and Underexplored Features of taxi app

A glance at Uber app features list reveals that it offers each of the abovementioned features. However, startups and traditional companies should take few steps ahead of Uber and other giant rideshare companies to outperform thesm.

Following three features are proving to be excessively helpful.

1. Chat Encryption

An app should ensure end-to-end encryption of conversation between driver and passenger. Some service providers weigh down this feature, but it is significant to raise confidence of riders.

However, there are cases when riders complain about inappropriate conversation styles. Thus, the record of chat should remain saved in cloud storage for an unlikely retrieval at some point.

2. Remote Information for Signal Strength

At times, the passenger or driver may have weak internet signals. This may result in unresponsiveness. Eventually, the passenger may cancel the ride and give negative feedback despite the fact that drivers are unable to help.

Therefore, both passengers and drivers should know the signal strength of each other. This ability will prevent them from getting or sharing unintended feedback.

3. Instant Booking option

Many passengers are regular commuters who travel to single destination every day. For instance, working class books rides for traveling to workplaces. Instead of putting details of destination, the app should provide one-click instant booking option.

Though it is not essential for rideshare operations, yet provides considerable relief to individuals sharing same information repeatedly.

There’s More to It

The cloud-based dispatch solution of CabStartup offers each of these conventional and innovative features. Moreover, the product offers a lot more to taxi companies and aspiring startups.

Instead of going into the details of system efficacy, we invite you to start free trial and test the efficiency yourself.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments

Key Transport Trends for 2019 and their Impacts on the Taxi Industry

Uber, lyft, and DiDi are the popular platforms that has been disrupted the taxi industry. Stats show a 50 percent increase in the number of self-employed drivers in the Uber dominated areas. An income fall of around 10 percent has been seeing in the salaried drivers. Taxi fleets are in a position to move with the new age of mobility.

Trend 1: Electric Cars: A Pollution free Environment

The future is green and climate change has been a hot topic for the last few years. Environmental problems have come at the forefront for customers. The significant part is towards the greener living with recycling and sustainability emerging as the primary concerns for the modern world.

Various countries are targeting electric vehicles to promote a pollution free environment. Therefore, electric cars are becoming a trend. Norway leads the way as the highest number of electric vehicles are available there. Nearly half of new car sales in Norway are made up of electric cars, the country is believed to be 5-10 years ahead of the pack. The use of electric cars is on their agenda since the late 1980s. If you think of electrical car manufacturers, Tesla jumps straight to mind.

No doubt, the electric car business has been booming for other manufacturers too. Electric taxis are the next step for fleets which are increasing in demand for a green future.

A drawback related to the time is the time taken by the cars to fully charge an electric car paired with the relying upon EV charging points and a lot of uncontrollable variables such as demand, maintenance and more.

Electric vehicle infrastructure can be a deterrent. However, the spread of EV charging points and advancements in fast charge EV technology will move at a rapid pace.

EV manufacturers, ZOE, and Kangoo, are increasing the range of their electric vehicles. It is also introducing new connected services for easier vehicle charging. With the help of smartphones, Users can get charging information or control operations in real-time.

Electric cars are a part of the green agenda for many countries. Taxi drivers and company owners can get benefit from plans to incentivize electronic vehicle adoption. It is time to start planning for electric vehicles. The EU proposes the targets of electric car sales by 2040, which needs to take into consideration by the cab companies.

In Ireland, taxi drivers are set to get 7,000 euro donation for shifting to electric cars. In the UK; the “Go Electric Taxi” plan rolled out in 2018. In the programme, incentives are offered to drivers on their first electric taxi orders, free charging on trial and zero commission fares in e-taxi app bookings. It is not just happening in Europe. These are already operating in the US whose distinctive apps provide zero emission micro-transit services to highly populated urban areas.

As far as this trend is concerned, taxi companies should be thinking about moving ahead as electric vehicle transition will be coming sooner or later.

Trend 2: Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous vehicles are a reality. Copenhagen’s Metro is automated and self-driven with Hitachi Rail Italy succeeding a contract to supply a few new autonomous trains for the M1/M2 lines by 2020.

After a decade from its beginnings as Google’s self-driving car project, waymo is not far from becoming a commercial entity. Members of the public have been traveling in its driverless Chrysler Pacifica minivans for some time.

Nissan is preparing to launch its self-driving taxi service in Japan by 2020. Autonomous vehicles are already available, but the question of legislation, safety, and perception remain relevant.

A 2017 Pew Research Center report showed that self-driving cars will dominate the roads within the next 50 years. Taxi companies need to understand that self-driving cars and autonomous taxi fleets are inevitable.

Trend 3: Alternative Travel

Airbus is making steady progress, which aims to realize the concept of personal flight, with the aircraft offering a single seat tilt-rotor vehicle. As with autonomous cars, motorized aerial vehicles are coming down the line.

Trend 4: Merging Traditional Taxi Companies and Transportation Network Companies

Transportation network companies have taken over the cab industry with Maas (Mobility as a service) becoming a vital outlet. Ride-sharing, taxi apps, and digital systems are part of modern transportation.

Grab operates online-to-offline mobile platforms in transportation, food and beverage industry, mobile payments and financial services. It acquires Uber’s southeast Asian assets, placing it as a ride-hailing winner.

Toyota and Grab have been in cooperation since August 2017, and the new capital intends to realize MaaS for a more efficient and mobilized society fully. Uber is on the endless march to becoming the Amazon of transportation with cars, trucks autonomous vehicles, bikes and scooters in its publicly available fleet of third-party transit.

Conclusion:

Ride-sharing taxi apps and third-party transportation services need to embrace the digitally-inspired change that smart technology offers its customers. Many taxi companies are trying to approach the sophisticated technology and developing innovative solutions to compete.

We offer white label taxi app solution for a wide variety of transport services. Sign Up today for a white label app solution.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments

Selection between Cloud-based Taxi Dispatch and App Clone

It is very frequent for the readers to find companies advertising an Uber clone. Many of them are able to replicate the Uber application successfully to attract rideshare business aspirant. However, the factor which makes Uber and other top taxi apps successful is not the appearance and interfaces of app. Instead, the most notable link in the chain is cloud-based taxi dispatch software.

Before diving into the details of cloud-based software, you need to know the shortcomings of taxi app software clone.

  1. It is highly probable for taxi company owners to increase the number of vehicles and corresponding drivers with time. However, app script does not provide the ability to scale up.
  2. Cloned system runs on a local server. The owner has to renew the hardware to accommodate increasing data. This hardware includes servers for storage and its associated devices. Moreover, they also require an administrator to ensure the smooth running of this system.
  3. Taxi company owner is responsible for data security. In case of breach, owner has to pay the penalty.
  4. Scripted app lacks the ability to enable the owner to deploy and configure the app and underlying software.
  5. Being a taxi business owner, you will have to pay for upgrading and maintenance of app. Consequently, you end up on the mercy of developers who charge your wallet until it dries up.
  6. The clone code is strictly scripted to address few needs of the business. If at some point you need to add more features, the script will disallow due to lack of reusability. Thus, the flexibility of code remains a problem with app clone.

Perks and Privileges of Cloud-based Taxi Dispatch System

Incorporating a taxi dispatch system hosted on cloud brings an incredible volume of advantages at your disposal. Cloud-based software also offers mobile app, but the back-end functionality remains entirely different. Following are some of the areas where SaaS solves the problems arising in cloned taxi apps.

Drawing Lines for Data Security Responsibility

Data security remains one of the chief issues for companies which host data on web. Every violation of data intends to compromise one or more of these three attributes of security:

  • Integrity
  • Confidentiality
  • Availability

Breach of any of these attributes results in hefty penalties and lawsuits from regional administrations and app users respectively.

The most significant challenge during penalizing the violators is to identifying the responsibility. Taxi owners might end up paying the price for the bugs in app which make the system vulnerable to breaches.

The benefit of employing cloud taxi dispatch system is the fact that it provides excessive data security, thereby reducing the fear of violation significantly.

In the event of violation, which is extremely rare with cloud platform, a comprehensive disaster recovery system prevents loss.

Besides, the cloud system provider is accountable for data security. Thus, taxi business owner does not have to care for securing data.

Avoiding Overhead of Installation, configuration, and Maintenance

You may not have technical teams who can assist with installing and deploying the system. Even the presence of technical employees will not help because they will have to quit their assigned tasks to work on installation and configuration.

The developer will not assist if the app gives the signs of a bug. Instead, you will have to hire another developer to fix bugs.

Fixing code written by another team is always a hard nut to crack. Thus, the business will soak into delays and hiked costs instead of generating more profits.

With cloud-based taxi dispatch system, the cloud service provider is responsible for installing, configuring and maintaining the system.

The code remains with the provider who remotely fixes the problems. Therefore, businesses can minimize costs at many levels.

Seamless Scalability

Scalability is one of the core attributes of taxi business. The owners intend to expand the operational area and number of vehicles to increase revenues.

To scale-up the business based on cloned apps, owners often have to redefine infrastructure with more storage space.

Cloud-based taxi dispatch software prevents owners from changing infrastructure. Instead, they request vendor to update their package with as many vehicles as the owners wish.

How is Cloud-based Taxi Dispatch Software Overcoming Challenges?

Cloud computing and its associated systems are around for over a decade now. In the initial years, the businesses were reluctant to acquire cloud-based services for the following reasons.

-> Lack of internet speed
-> Excessive cloud spending
-> Unavailability of a regulatory framework

Here is how a decade of development addressed these problems.

Utilizing Remarkable Internet Speeds

Cloud is as good as internet speed because the system is located on remote servers accessible through internet. A decade back, internet speed lacked significantly.

However, the arrival of 4G internet and corresponding mobile devices drastically improved the speed of cloud. Verizon is starting 5G internet services in two weeks. The services will expand to most parts of the world before the end of 2019. Thus, the internet speed is now a thing of the past.

Cutting Cloud Spending

Users were unaware of effective cloud utilization. Many businesses at the start of the current decade complained about increased costs after incorporating cloud.

Cloud provides the ability to pay only as much as one consumes. There are multiple subscription packages which allow owners to acquire the one that best suits their business needs.

However, cloud service providers exploited the fact that most customers were unfamiliar with this system. Therefore, they charged the customers big time. Now, a technical understanding of the subject is unnecessary. Anyone can compare and evaluate cloud services.

Moreover, cloud is now powered with several automation tools. These tools enable the owners to reduce reliance on large workforce and perform tasks that would otherwise take many employees.

A comprehensive Framework in Place

Companies and governments barely had any legislation before 2012 for cloud-based services. Fortunately, administrations worked extensively in subsequent years to develop a robust and globally accepted framework.

Now, companies can comfortably generate a governance hierarchy to look after cloud affairs.

CabStartup Leads Your Way to Success

A decade back, the taxi app clone might have worked better. However, it will be highly unwise to purchase clone instead of cloud-based taxi management software.

For these reasons, CabStartup offers cloud-based dispatch system to taxi owners with separate apps for passengers and drivers. Grab your free trial right now.

By Shahrukh Satti 0 Comments
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