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.
