A person using a ride hail app on the mobile app in his hand.
Ride Hail Apps!

The ride-sharing market is improving day by day. And yes, so does the demand for ride-hail apps. Hence, most taxi start-ups as well as well-established cab business owners won’t think twice to automate their businesses with the help of a ride-hail app. 

However, are you also interested in this field? Or else, willing to automate your ride-sharing business with the help of ride-hail apps? If so, you are at the right place! We are ready to share everything about raid hail apps, including how to develop one. So, what are you waiting for? Scroll down, and get yourself enlightened! 

What is Ride-Hail Apps Development?

Well, if you are new to this field, and wondering what these ride-hail apps are, keep calm! This section is surely going to clear out your doubts. 

A ride-hail app means a mobile application that creates the opportunity for customers to book their customized rides through an online platform. So, what they generally do is connect the registered local drivers with the passengers. Then, those drivers would arrive at the location of the passenger in their private vehicle, and provide the service. 

The cost of the travel depends on the distance of the ride, as well as the waiting hours. When the passenger sets his destination in the app, it normally gives out the average cost of the ride; thus, the drivers do not have a chance to cost the passengers an unfair price. Besides, the cost of the travel is calculated based on a fixed rate and the app displays the total cost of the ride, to both the driver and the passenger at the end of the ride. Further, the app gives the chance to rate a driver, and the ratings are publicly visible. Therefore, the drivers tend to act as nice as possible, and the hassles would be less. Likewise, many interesting features are available in a general ride-hail app.

Accordingly, these ride-hail apps have become a trending category of mobile applications that indeed make the transportation of passengers very easy and convenient. So, the demand for ride-hail apps won’t go down any time soon, and thus, developing them won’t do any bad for you! 

How to Develop Ride-Hail Apps?

Well, there are certain steps that you need to follow, as you develop a ride-hail app. They are as follows. 

1. Research

Whatever your project is, research would give you the best start. And yes, it is the same with developing ride-hail apps as well. 

First, performing market research on the ride-hailing market would be important. It would help you to identify the loopholes, or rather the shortcoming at present, and then address those points when you develop your ride-hail app. Besides, this is the best way to understand the real requirements of the customers.

In Sri Lanka, ride-hail apps are mostly based on car rentals. Yet, don’t forget to research the other possibilities of building ride-hail apps targeting other sectors such as trucks and logistics as well. Focusing on a unique niche can sometimes give you the amazing benefits that you can ever imagine. 

However, make sure you identify your scope, competitors, competitive strengths and weaknesses that you can focus on, etc. Nevertheless, understanding the requirements right means you can develop the product right. Hence, this research should not be missed if you are ever going to develop a ride-hail app. 

2. Design 

Following the research, of course, you can start designing your ride-hail app. This phase involves a few important tasks as follows. 

  • Choosing a platform that would reach a broader customer base.
  • Choosing a technology stack to work on.  
  • Deciding upon the architecture of the mobile application. 
  • Designing the features offered to various parties using the app, such as drivers, passengers, admins, etc. 
  • Deciding upon the various components, and their inter-dependencies.
  • Designing the wireframe of the app. 

Upon completing these design aspects, you can move to the development phase of the ride-hail app. 

3. Develop

At this phase, you have a good idea about the various components of the app, their interdependencies, as well as the technologies and tools to use. Hence, you can put them into action during this development phase. 

4. Test

Similar to any other software product, these ride-hailing apps also need to be tested, prior to release. Therefore, mobile app development companies also manage a Quality Assurance (QA) team to perform these tests. They will use manual testing methods as well as automated testing methods to validate the product. And the most important thing is that it is not only the functionality of the product that would be tested here, but also the security, portability, usability, user-friendliness, and many more aspects as such.

If the team identifies any bugs or required improvements, they would take measures to fix them. Accordingly, they will make sure to have a quality mobile app ready for deployment by the end of this phase. 

5. Release

If the product is designed aiming at the Android platforms, it should be released via the Google Play Store. If the product also supports the iOS platforms, of course, it can be released via the App store as well. However, releasing the product through the App store requires a higher cost than in Google Play Store. 

However, when the app is released through the Google Play store it would take around 48 hours for approval. So, following the Google Play Store approval, your mobile app is available for anyone to be downloaded. 

6. Maintenance

Well, a raid hail app development project won’t end as you release it to the public. You have to take care of it even after that, especially to maintain the quality of the product, as well as to maintain the brand name. 

In fact, when a user downloads the app, they would appreciate it if they have a support hub to solve any of the doubts that they get. Lending a helping hand to the users likewise, will surely improve their trust in the product, and pave the way to having a loyal customer base. Besides, this maintenance phase would also help to identify any of the errors, or weak points of the app, following the release as well. Hence, it is important that a team is allocated for this continuous task. 

Monetizing Models of Ride Hail Apps

There is no doubt that you run a business aiming at profits. So, how do these ride-hail apps generate a profit for you? Let’s find out! 

There are various ways that you can earn from your ride hail applications. Accordingly, we can highlight three different monetization models that would help you generate a better income through these apps. 

1. Commission-Based Model

What happens here is that you are charging a commission from the driver as well as the passenger for providing them a platform to connect with each other. You are free to decide the commission that is applicable to both parties. Yet, make sure that you choose it in a way that it aligns with the present market rates. If not, you are easily going to lose customers even though you offer a better service. 

2. Partnering Model

What happens here is that you partner up with some other business to expand your business. Meanwhile, the partnering company would pay you for involving them in your business.

For example, if you come up with a ride-hail app for car rentals, you can partner up with taxi services in the country, and provide them a platform to reach potential customers, while increasing the number of rides that can be managed through your platform. So, following a partnering model will mutually benefit both parties, and thus a good option.

3. Advertising Model

You can offer a space for other businesses to advertise on your mobile app, and get a payment for the promotional space that you provide them. Yet, be mindful that the advertisements won’t be a burden for the users of the app since it is a reason for the users to give up using the app if they find the advertisements disturbing them. 

Technology Stack for Ride Hail Apps

Well, when considering the tools and technologies that you can use to develop ride-hail apps, the following would be our suggestions.

This table shows the most appropriate technologies and tools based on the various features that you are going to include in your app. 

FeatureTechnology / Tool
Programming LanguageFor Android: Kotlin, Java
For iOS: Swift, Objective – C
NavigationFor Android: Google Maps, Google Location Service API
For iOS: MapKit, Corelocation 
Push NotificationsTwilio, Nexto, Plivo, Sinch
Payment GatewaysPayPal, Braintree, Stripe
Data Management Datastax
DatabaseMongoDB, Hbase, Postgres, 
Cloud EnvironmentAWS
Real-time analyticsCisco, IBM, BigData, Hadoop, Spark 
Technology Stack for Ride Hail Apps

Demand for Ride Hail Apps in Sri Lanka

As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, the use of ride-hail apps is increasing day by day. Hence, we can say that there is an increasing demand for ride-hail apps in Sri Lanka as well. Thus, working on a raid hail app for your business won’t be a decision that would go wrong. 

However, if you are not capable of developing your own ride-hail app, nothing to worry about! There are enough and more professionals to help you with it. LakMobile Technologies is one such entity that is expertise in ride-hail app development. So, if you have any requirements as such, do not hesitate to contact them, to make your dream ride-hail app come true! 

The Bottom Line

After all, using ride-hail apps is more like a common scenario in the present context. Simply, traveling around the country is more likely impossible without ride-hail apps, especially, if you do not own your vehicle. Besides, even the ones who own vehicles tend to use these ride-hail apps for their traveling purposes since it is more convenient and easier than driving around. Therefore, the demand for ride-hail apps is surely not going to go down, and thus, developing ride-hail apps also tends to be a good option. So, develop your ride-hail apps, and who knows, you can even make it a business one day!