“Oh! I am getting late. I have to look down the lanes to find a taxi ASAP!” Said, nobody, ever after Uber revolutionized the traditional taxi services.
The overall idea of taxi services was noble. However, their dominance over the riders started becoming prominent.
The drivers began charging the riders a much higher amount than what was expected out of them. Clearly, the riders were dissatisfied and Uber did what exactly every insightful business would do – it disrupted the taxi services!
The real problem behind the disruption story of e-hailing applications
The real pain as mentioned before was to find out a taxi. Go all suited for the meeting and yet have to wait for the taxi to arrive. And not to forget the high fare of the taxi plus driver’s tip. If at all, it was all about a few extra bucks, taxi booking services might not have been in the picture.
What gave an air to these taxi management systems is the time! Time is crucial and Uber leveraged out of it.
The e-hailing taxi mobile applications have drivers registered under the taxi management system. When the riders look for their rides, they can book one in as less than 30 sec.
And within 10 minutes, their ride is at their doorsteps. Clearly, the e-hailing taxi applications value the time of their riders. This is the chief reason behind the disruption story of taxi booking systems.
Uber disrupts the traditional taxi market with the help of an app
The question arises – How E-hailing taxi applications have improved the taxi industry?
Not many people know that there are different mobile applications for all the stakeholders along with their functionalities. Basically, there are three stakeholders involved.
Admin
The admin shoulders the responsibility of the taxi management system. He manages the drivers and the riders.
Drivers
The drivers have their own mobile applications from the taxi booking system. They can accept or reject the rides. They can count their earnings and keep a track of their quest rides.
Riders
With the help of the e-hailing applications, the riders can book their rides, track their fare, book for others, make online payments, refer to their friends and so on.
The taxi management system became possible because of the blend made by modern technology with the traditional taxi services.
With the help of the taxi booking system, the drivers can find more riders. There are many features that are built by keeping in mind the benefits of drivers such as Forward dispatch – it helps the drivers accept rides even when they are driving.
Thus, the taxi management system provides an ease of accessibility to the stakeholders.
Features that have made e-hailing taxi services a success
Uber-like applications have revolutionized the traditional taxi market with the help of mobile applications. These mobile applications came in with features such as:
Book now, ride later
With the help of this feature, e-hailing taxi apps ensure that their riders reach to their important events on time. The riders get a liberty to schedule rides up to 30 days prior, riders can catch their flights, interviews, or any functions on time by just scheduling rides looking at their events calendar.
Multiple payment modes
A big relief for payment after the ride! You do not want your customers to reach for changes here and there, right? Taxi booking system accepts various types of payments including credit card, debit card, mobile wallets, etc.
Once the ride is over, the fare is directly deduced from the digital payment option and the riders can have a peaceful journey.
Panic button
Where safety matters! The taxi management system comes with a panic button so that the riders feel safe during their rides. In case of an emergency, the panic button leads the rider to the emergency window, which shows the option to call the police or withdrawing the emergency drill.
Favorite location
The riders have an option to select their favorite destination. This saves them the efforts to enter manually their drop location everytime they book a cab. They can select options such as work location, friend’s place, home, railway station, etc.
Split fare
Anything that includes maths is complicated! That is what most of the people believe in. Splitting the fare without a calculator is a tedious task.
The split fare feature helps the riders and their fellow riders to share the total fare amount and divide it equally amongst themselves.
Long-trip notification for drivers
Moreover, as we saw above that, the UK government is providing significant contributions to the ones who adopt EVs.
The taxi management system is equally considerable about the drivers. The long-trip notification feature in the driver’s app helps the drivers get a heads up about the long trip.
Any trip exceeding more than 45–60 minutes is considered as a long trip. The drivers can get a heads up on the long journey and can either cancel it manage their tasks or be prepared for the long journey.
Forward dispatch
The forward dispatch feature in the taxi booking dispatch software helps the drivers who are close to the customer’s pickup point. He is matched with the rider even when he hasn’t finished the ride.
This helps reduce the idle-time for the drivers and ensures that the riders get a cab at the earliest.
Heat maps
The taxi booking system can help the drivers move to the areas where the demand for a taxi is more. This increases their probability of getting a rider.
The app displays the heat maps in red color. The location of the heat map is displayed and the drivers can travel to that location.
Shorter 2 minutes cancellation window
Cancellation window is the duration of time for which the drivers wait for the riders to arrive. When the cancellation window is longer, the driver stays idle for a longer time and the riders take their own time to appear at the pickup location.
The drivers can get paid if the riders make them wait for a longer duration of time.
Quest earnings
It is fun to be a part of work that has an adrenaline rush. The quest earnings help the drivers make additional money for reaching certain trip goals in a certain amount of time.
There is some taxi management system that allows only a certain number of rides to be added to the quest. But it is recommended that full access should be given to the drivers for the quest earnings where every ride they make counts.
What does the future hold for taxi industry?
Uber has been a fierce competitor for the taxi industry. Would it prevail in the future?
Probably, or probably not?
Everything narrows down to quality service at the end. If you keep your riders happy by building rider-centric features for them, they will be retained. On the other hand, remember to treat your drivers well equally. A bigger slice of your business depends upon your drivers.
Ultimately, your business model of taxi booking system should walk hand-in-hand with the technology. IoT and blockchain could find their applications in the future. However, talking about today, the advanced features are sufficient to survive in the race.
