If you are running a shuttle service in addition to your taxi business chances are you are using the same management software for both. To an extent, it will be sufficient to manage both shuttle and taxi with one software but in the long run, you will realize that both are different business models and the requirements are different.
In this article, we will see the top five features of a shuttle service management system.
Booking process:
In taxi software usually, there will be a single passenger who will initiate the booking and wants to go from point A to point B. Then the booking request will be received by the driver and it is up to the driver to either accept or reject the request.
But in a shuttle service system, there will be multiple passengers initiating bookings from multiple pickup points. Here the driver will get multiple booking requests and will accept or reject the booking as he required.
So the system should be able to handle multi-pickup and multi-drop functionality without any hassle.
Fare calculation:
In a taxi application, since there is only one passenger involved, the fare is calculated either based on the distance traveled by that passenger or a fixed fare depending on the business model and plans.
In a shuttle service, handling fare is a bit more complicated as there are multiple passengers involved, and the fare should be calculated for every passenger simultaneously. So, the system must adapt according to the passengers in a single trip.
Route optimization:
In a taxi service, route optimization is simple as there are only two points involved source and destination. So, the shortest path between point A to point B is enough. Based on this, driver recommendations can be done on this route.
Shuttle service involves multiple pickup and drops points. The driver might know these locations before starting the trip or if there is a street pickup feature then the location will be available only when the trip is started. So here route optimization should be done including all the points.
The system should be able to calculate the best possible route one all the scenarios.
Trip cancellation process:
In a taxi application, when a passenger or driver cancels the trip for some reason then the whole trip is canceled. The cancellation fare if any will be applied based on the configuration.
In a shuttle service app, The trip is canceled if all the passengers on that trip cancel the trip. This usually happens before the trip starts. When a passenger cancels after starting the trip then that particular passenger is removed from that trip and the fare is calculated accordingly.
The system should be able to handle complex cancelation processes and fare calculations based on the admin’s configuration.
Reports and analytics:
It goes without saying that a good admin panel is not complete without reports and analytics. The system should record all the data for both taxi and shuttle services and must be able to display those data in a format that the user can understand. All the data regarding trips and fare calculation should be exportable in formats like CSV, excel, and pdf based on the configuration.
Conclusion:
If you are running a shuttle service startup it might seem enough to use simple taxi software for the management. But in the long run, a separate system should be in place for handling the different scenarios and demands posed by the shuttle service business modal.
Do check out our uber clone application which supports both taxi and shuttle services. We can also decouple either one based on your business modal and requirement.
Our application supports the following business models out of the box.
- Airport shuttle service.
- Minibus shuttle service.
- Long-distance shuttle service(Inner-city and Intra-city).
- Office professional shuttle service.
- School bus shuttle service.
