The carpooling or ride-sharing business is booming, with new companies being launched with similar concepts. Affordable rides, comfortable journeys, and timely service have been the benchmarks of successful companies like Uber.
In fact, you must know that Lyft is the largest competitor of Uber, but in terms of revenue, it generates only a fraction of what Uber does.
Presently, it has more than 75 million riders across the world. If you are planning to create your own ride-sharing app and launch a business, here’s something interesting for you.
The emergence of such a concept in business has definitely reduced the travel expenses and time for commuters. With competition raging high in the industry, you must know the secrets to make your mark.
What is Ride-sharing and How Does the Business Operate?
Carpooling or ride-sharing is the process through which the driver keeps picking up the passengers and traveling along the same route.
In the process, the fuel cost is reimbursed on a shared basis. However, a trip can be accepted as carpooling under certain conditions:
- Passengers cannot avail on-demand services from the car owner. It indicates that under any case, the person will go to the intended destination, whether any rider shares the car or not.
- If the car owner does not earn any extra money on ride-sharing, the person simply saves costs on fuel.
- As the passengers share the ride, they need to share the total cost.
Therefore, the main concept behind ride-sharing is to organize the ride with a group of people, who are on the same route. In the process, the car owner saves fuel and the passengers save travel costs.
Thanks to GPS technologies, the driver can locate the passengers. It is for this reason that most of the ride-sharing companies need robust apps to ensure a hassle-free experience for the customers.
When passengers wish to travel to a particular destination, the app looks for the nearest vehicle capable of traveling to the same. The passengers share the same route while traveling and are more comfortable, as compared to trains or buses.
Guidelines for Developing a Powerful Ride-sharing App
While developing a carpooling app, you should focus on trust, the very essence of a successful business. Carpooling serves as a peer-to-peer mechanism for sharing rides, through which the empty seats in a car are shared with other travelers for money.
It is important to develop a safe platform, with a pool or riders and poolers. Here are certain tips that can help you create a powerful ride-sharing app.
1. Research on Market Competition
Firstly, you need to carry out the much-needed research to know about the competition in the market. Start with your city and browse relevant websites to find out the competitors.
Once you have identified them, try to focus on their weak points. You can go through the online reviews to get an idea of the general sentiment of the existing customers of your competitors.
When you can locate the mistakes for which the reputed companies are failing to make their mark in your city, you can bridge the gap. This becomes the USP of a new business, and when you stay focused on customers, you are bound to succeed. Integrate the necessary features in your app to ensure a seamless experience for your customers.
Now, before developing a ridesharing app like Uber, try to find out what your competitors are lacking. A feature-rich app can be the most powerful tool for your business.
2. Focus on Customer-Oriented Apps
The ease at which customers can book the rides determines the credibility of your business. Other factors you need to focus on include communication with the customer service department, feedback and complaints features in the apps and optimizing the cost.
In order to be successful, it is important to come up with features that can refine the overall experience of the customers.
Have a look at what reputed companies like to offer to the travelers:
- Customers can expect instant replies and feedback from the other end. So, make sure to have a mechanism that does not keep them waiting.
- Apps should be integrated with options like rating and reviewing rides. This will allow the customers to intimate the company about their travel experience.
- From time to time, introduce attractive marketing strategies through the apps. Discounts on special days, free rides and cash backs are some of the popular strategies. Use the apps to inform the customers about these deals.
3. Come up with Cheap and Customized Solutions
It is crucial to come up with cheap and personalized solutions for your customers. Uber stands apart from its competitors as it updates the apps with new features from time to time. It comes with quick and cheap solutions for the riders.
For instance, travelers can get their ride preferences filtered. Waze, too, has made its mark in the industry, allowing the customers to specify their ride preferences. This indicates that commuters are not bound to travel with unknown people only.
4. Carrying out a Limited Trial
Before you start large-scale operations, carry out a limited trial to check out whether the features on your app are performing to the expected levels. You may start with one or two cities, and gradually expand the network.
At the same time, work on the feedback that your customers give and refine the features on the apps. The accuracy of your GPS, the timeliness of the rides and overall comfort of the travelers are the key determinants of success.
After you carry out the initial trial, you can expand the services across other cities.
Some Additional Tips on Building Carpooling Apps
The apps should have a seamless registration process for users. The organization affiliation needs to be verified using the corporate email addresses of the customers. In case of any unpleasant incident, it becomes easier for the company to track the rider.
You may also use the option to login through social media profiles. This will give you information about mutual friends so that you get relevant background information to assess their credibility.
Some carpooling apps come with the female-only option, which helps the riders get connected to only female drivers. Considering the safety of female riders, this is a useful feature to integrate into the app.
Make it a point that you have an SOS contact with the rider, apart from the one being used in the app. This will help the drivers get updates in real-time through a phone call or SMS.
The drivers and riders should be able to rate each other, which will help in maintaining transparency in the operation. You can check the feedback from time to time and take necessary action.
Top Features That Can Make Your Carpooling App Stand Apart
Have a look at the front-end and back-end features that your ridesharing app should consist of:
Front-end Features:
Below are some of the best features that are required in a carpooling app nowadays:
- Latest rides
- Geolocation
- Payment
- Social sharing
- Google map integration
- Auto-price suggestion
- Customer support
- SMS and email notification management
- Member verification
- Internal messaging systems
Back-end Features:
Below are some of the best features that are required in a carpooling app nowadays:
- Managing users
- Payment to drivers
- Viewing message conversation
- View booking
- Printing invoice
- Managing rates
Apart from the guidelines mentioned above, you should create a community forum, where the riders can address any possible issue 24/7.
As a part of your marketing strategy, you can offer discounts on the first few rides and price-offs for regular customers and come up with other ideas. Get across to one of the reputed app development companies with your business ideas.
The experts will work with them to materialize an app that can strengthen your business. Ride-sharing, as a business, is a great idea and people have become familiar with these technologies in the digitized age. You can bank on a favorable business environment and convert your aspirations to a profitable business.
Also, if you are interested in reading more such articles based on the latest trends of the mobile app industry like how to develop a profitable rideshare app. Then, all you need to do is follow MobileAppDaily by clicking on the ‘Subscribe’ button.
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