Taxi App Development Tips to Make 3x Profits in UAE

In the chief towns of UAE, such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai, or Sharjah, the taxi industry is not about transportation. The UAE’s ecosystem follows innovations and technologies almost every day. Because of this, UAE already pulled 5.18M overnight visitors in Jan-Mar 2024, with an increase of +11% compared to Jan-Mar 2023. The stats are proportional to the demand for taxis in the city.

To develop a taxi app in the UAE, you must first familiarize yourself with the Road and Transport Authority (RTA). Then, the process of obtaining licenses and permits for every taxi begins. Plus, it would help if you had permits issued by the Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED).

So, if you’re an entrepreneur or startup owner and want to start a taxi app development in the UAE, we’ve curated the perfect guideline for you.

Let’s start !!

Taxi Mobile App Development Market in UAE

The biggest reason the online taxi business is elevating is its advanced facilities like AI-integrated chatbots, real-time tracking, and many more. These advanced technologies significantly intensify the user experience and increase popularity.

This is why, according to Statista’s research, Dubai boasts one of the highest taxi app penetration rates globally, with over 6 million downloads across the top six apps alone. Moreover, Dubai’s taxi apps are projected to generate revenue expected to hit $199 million in 2024, and the user penetration rate is expected to reach 40.8% by 2028.

Read also: Comprehensive Insights into Careem Business Model

8 Essential Features for Taxi App Development in UAE

One of the factors for a successful app hinges on its robust set of features and functionality. The features cater to both passengers and drivers for a seamless experience of reaching the destination.

Let’s check out the list of the most essential features of a successful taxi app –

1. Notifications

The notification feature is integrated to inform both users and drivers. This includes details about pick-up or drop-off location, final fare, timing, etc. Which contributes to the experience, enhances communication, and makes the ride-hailing exposure seamless.

2. Driver Details

Another vital feature is to show users information about drivers. To gain their trust and make everything transparent between users and drivers. The detail includes-

• Vehicle Number
• Ratings
• Image
• Contact Number
• Driver’s Location

3. Cancel Ride

In your on-demand taxi app development, implementing this feature makes your user and driver feel free to cancel the rides if needed. But, in this, make sure you charge a cancellation fee from your user.

4. Live Tracking

Live tracking can be done for both passengers and drivers. For passengers, it provides monitoring of –

• Shows drivers location
• Estimated time of arrival of driver
• They can share their live location with their friends and family

And for drivers, the live tracking includes –

• Shows passengers location
• Route optimization
• Estimated time of arrival

5. Confirm Ride

A confirmed ride at the correct time feels worthwhile to your users and drivers. So, uniting this feature shows you different kinds of confirmation, such as

• Booking confirmation notification
• Ride confirmation details (vehicle number, driver contact number, etc.)
• Payment confirmation notification
• Cancellation confirmation notification

6. Navigation

The navigation feature guides drivers in reaching the correct location for passengers. You can integrate Google Maps or Apple Maps to fetch users’ pick-up and drop-off locations. Also, it helps optimize routes with traffic signs and different ways to reach the same destination to avoid time consumption.

7. Multiple Payment Integration

This versatile payment method makes the process more authentic for your taxi app development in the UAE. It provides the convenience of making payments seamlessly without any hassles.

The feature of multiple payment integration includes-

• Cash payments
• Debit/Credit cards
• Unified Payment Integration (UPI)
• Helps in Calculating Ride Fare
• Payment History

8. Reviews and Ratings

This feature helps users to check driver’s ratings & reviews. In this feature, drivers and passengers can give reviews and ratings to each other. As per drivers’ ratings, they get rewards and incentives that motivate them.

Elevated Features to Build Taxi Booking App in UAE

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

Incorporating AI and ML will help you to reduce your efforts and time. Because it has the capabilities to interact with your user or to fetch insights of any data. AI and Ml also allows you to analyze your user’s behavior, travel patterns, vehicle selection, etc.

Artificial Intelligence can leveraged in building taxi booking apps in the below-given ways

• Predictive Analysis
• Image Recognition
• Route Optimization
• Chatbots
• Customized offers and promotions

Machine learning can leverage your taxi app development in UAE in the below-mentioned ways

• Customer Churn Prediction and Retention
• Sentiment Analysis
• Fraud Detection

2. Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoT) can show you real-time information about drivers’ speed, behavior, and positions. Which impacts the ride quality by improving harsh driving conditions. The positive part of IoT are shown below –

• IoT predicts when vehicle maintenance is needed, reducing breakdowns and downtime.
• This involves a feature that provides safety to both driver and passenger. It has automatic collision detection and emergency alerts.
• By optimizing the routes and ride patterns it suggests the most efficient routes.

3. Blockchain Technology

Blockchain technology is an advanced database mechanism that allows transparent information sharing in business networks. The blockchain collects data and enters it in a 4MB file called a block. Implementing blockchain technology gives you advantages like-

• It protects data by using cryptography to assign private keys to the selected members because the decentralized nature of blockchain makes it more secure from hackers.
• Blockchain keeps users’ data more secure by selecting the information they want to share.
• It can secure digital transactions by providing a tamper-resistant record of all passengers’ and drivers’ financial transactions.

4. Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented reality shows the real world with an artificial environment. It intensifies images, 3D models, or text. AR serves the visual elements to users through devices such as smartphones, eyeglasses, or a headset. The benefits it gives you for developing an on-demand taxi service app in UAE are –

• Using heads-up displays (HUD) mounted on windshields helps drivers to check road conditions or speed.
• It lets passengers track their driver on the map with the 3D car embedded.
• AR allows users to tour their destination virtually before reaching their destination.

5. Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous vehicles are intelligent technology that navigates without human intervention. It uses advanced sensors, artificial intelligence, and cloud connectivity. AVs can detect obstacles, which gives information about their size, shape, and position. The benefits of AVs are-

• The government will convert 25% of vehicles into AVs by 2030.
• It gives a competitive advantage by using AVs in your taxi app. It makes your user more attractive.
• AVs can work 24*7 for you and give you profits the whole day. Installing AV in high-traffic areas will reduce congestion.

6. Heat Map Visualization

Heat maps are the visual representation of areas in high demand. Because of the heat maps, you can know which area your driver should be in to complete the rides. It shows different color themes for the demand intensity in a particular area, from blue to yellow. This will help you check high-demand regions, zones, traffic hotspots, and areas with less driver availability. Other benefits of heat map visualization are below specified-

• With the help of a heat map, you can see the high-demand area of passengers and allocate your drivers accordingly.
• Utilizing heat maps to build a taxi booking app and making strategies will give you a competitive advantage.
• Heat maps help you adjust fares according to real-time demand and maximize revenues.

Technology Behind Taxi Mobile App Development

The tech stack is a fusion of frameworks, technologies, and tools to develop and deploy software applications. Choosing the correct tech stack will make your taxi app development in the UAE successful. So, we’ve curated a list of tech stack according to features and everything for you-

Cost of Building a Taxi Booking App in UAE

Significant things have already been covered, from features to tech stack. But what about the cost of your taxi app development in the UAE? 

Building an online booking app costs around AED 40000.00 to AED 250,000.00. However, the cost of developing an on-demand taxi service app in the UAE is wholly dependent on its various aspects, which are stated below-

Factors Affecting the Cost to Build Taxi Booking App

1. Design Cost

The first thing that comes with developing an on-demand taxi service app is the cost of designing an app that contains the process UI UX of it. The design includes the twists of screens, features, usability or visual designs.

The table below will show you the cost of designing-

Note – The above table contains the estimated cost of the type of app design.

2. App Complexity

This involves the complexities directly influenced by the features and functionalities of a successful ride-hailing app. In contrast, the complex features are immersed in top-notch UI UX design and new technologies. For more details about cost based on the app’s complexity, to know more read the below table-

Note – The above table contains estimated costs and times for app complexity.

3. Type of Platform

Another concern while developing an on-demand taxi service app in the UAE is the platform you choose. The platform may be iOS, Android, or cross-platform. It will be more expensive if you prefer iOS and Android, because both of them need separate development teams, codebase, time, and money. Rather than this, you can choose a cross-platform app using React Native or Flutter.

Explore Further – How Much Does It Cost to Build a Mobile App in Saudi Arabia?

4. Customization Needed

Customization is a part of app development where you add things according to your targeted audience and region. The customization part comes when you decide to develop a medium or large size of taxi app development in the UAE.

• UI/UX The cost for UI UX is somewhere between – AED 24523.92 – AED 110357.64, which is estimated and might be changed depending on the customization.
• Third-Party Integration The customization in third-party integration will cost you between – AED 1836.51- AED 9182.57.
• Encryption Protection Encrypting information into secret code customization will cost you AED 550.95 – AED 918.26.

5. Security Compliance

Security compliance indicates the security of cloud-based policies for your platform’s cloud-based system. It shows how your data can be secured or who can access it. Using security compliance will help in risk management by-.

• Recognize possible vulnerabilities
• Implement data privacy standards.
• Respond effectively to incidents.

Developing security policies separately in cloud storage will require different taxi app developers, which affects the cost of development, time of growth and efforts. The code signing certificate is also a mandatory part of security, which refers to signing a digital code to ensure its authenticity and integrity. Code signing certification is essential to prevent malware practices from being maliciously installed on the user’s system.

Explore Further – The Uber app development cost to understand how you can make an app just like Uber.

4 Challenges of Building a Successful Ride-Hailing App

Developing an on-demand taxi service app in UAE challenges the emiratis entrepreneur. Choosing advanced technology to follow local regulations to beat competitors is a challenge many businesses face. To overcome these, we’ve handpicked your major challenges and solutions. Let’s check it out. What are they-

1. Market Competition

The market competition is elevated because of the major players like Uber or Careem ride-hailing taxi apps. The critical aspect of differentiation is the first-serving user experience. Adding to this, keep your focus on your app’s seamless and user-friendly interface. Other things which you can do are-

• Follow the advanced features mentioned in this blog to leverage hyper-personalization for passengers and drivers.
• Another thing to mention is that you keep upgrading your app features and functionalities.

2. Data Security

Every user of your app feeds sensitive data, including their payment and personal data. Make sure your app includes a robust security facility. Which helps build trust in your users. To avoid any data security-related challenges, you can integrate the below-given things-

• To protect sensitive data, use industry-standard security algorithms like – AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), RSA, or ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography) to secure your user’s data.
• Use secure communication protocols like HTTPS to encrypt data transfer among your app & backend servers.

3. Payment Gateway Integrations

Another challenge is ensuring your user’s payment-related data is secured. To solve this challenge, you can follow the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCT DSS) guideline, which helps you secure user’s sensitive data. Apart from payment, the payment process is another challenge. If your app has too many pages for payment, it will not work for you. To solve such problems, here are the solutions-

• Be regular in checking your payment gateway integration to address vulnerabilities.
• Enact a one-click or autofill facility to reduce the frustration of users.

4. Regulations in the Region

To build a taxi booking app, you should know about every regulation by the RTA (Road and Transport Authority). To do this, you first have to do thorough research about all the government regulations. Keep an eye on all the updates announced by the government. It encourages customers to follow your app because it is updated with the latest regulations.

Read the full article of the Uber Business Model to avoid these challenges and make your taxi app in UAE as popular as Uber or Careem.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the shift from offline to online taxi business models has transformed the way of going from one destination to another by tapping through minimum taps on the app. Developing an on-demand taxi service app requires choosing the right advanced features and tech stack for your taxi mobile app development. And, it’s not enough for you to build a taxi booking app; you would require a strong team of dedicated taxi app developers.

To build an app from scratch or an app like Uber clone , you need a taxi app development company in the UAE or another country with experts developing the best taxi app for you. A team of skilled professionals who bring your app to the list of top taxi apps in UAE.aPurple has a team of experts who are experts in developing your app and advanced technology like artificial intelligence, augmented reality, machine learning, and many others. So, don’t miss out on the free consultation with our experts!

Author

Mahil Jasani

Mahil Jasani is an enthusiastic web and mobile app development expert who always loves to enlighten readers about his experiences and the ever-evolving technologies in today's world. He has a decade of experience helping startups and enterprises with custom digital solutions to drive better ROI results across different industries.