Challenge
Our customer decided to develop a SaaS solution for taxi companies that would receive passenger transport orders and facilitate the real-time management of orders, drivers, vehicles, and transactions.
Solution
Axmor developed a cloud service for taxi companies that allows them to receive orders from passengers, automate the management of vehicle fleets, and process payments from passengers. This solution includes an order and payment processing service, a dispatcher portal, and mobile applications for passengers and taxi drivers.
Axmor integrated this service with a cartographic service, a payment gateway, and a telecommunications provider.
Integration with Google Maps
The service is integrated with Google Maps and can show the locations of all the cars and passengers waiting for a taxi on an interactive map. It also plots and saves the route of each ride.
Integration with a Payment Gateway
We integrated this solution with the popular payment companies Stripe and Braintree Payments, so that it could accept credit cards. At the end of each ride, the cost for the ride is automatically charged to the passenger's credit card. If there is an error, the money can be quickly charged back to the credit card.
Integration with Twilio
We added voice and SMS communication to the service by integrating it with Twilio. Passengers and taxi drivers can send text messages and make calls to each other without disclosing their phone numbers. Information about calls and messages is saved in the travel history.
With our solution, taxi companies can store and update information regarding drivers and passengers such as location, contact information, transaction history, vehicles, ride history, and comments.
With this solution, taxi companies can set rates for transporting passengers and configure discounts, promotions, loyalty programs, and referral programs. Passengers register with our client and enter the credit card number that they will be using to pay for taxi rides. Payments for each ride are divided between our client, the taxi company, and the driver via Stripe Connect and Braintree Marketplace. The ratios and other rules for distributing the money are configured in our solution.
A radius is set for each vehicle fleet within which the drivers will receive orders. Based on the order (e.g. the location of the passenger, direction and distance of the travel, type of vehicle, and driver's gender), the cloud service chooses the most appropriate driver and sends the order to him/her. The system also sets a time period for the driver to read over and accept the order. If the order is not accepted, the system seeks a different option. If the system cannot find a suitable driver, the passenger is notified that the order cannot be processed.
Dispatchers can receive notifications about suspicious actions of passengers such as suspect transactions with credit cards or an excessive number of trips in a single day. Moreover, drivers can notify dispatchers in cases when the price for the trip should be increased, if, for example, a passenger damages the car.
Managers and accounting departments of the taxi companies can run reports for a particular period in order to receive detailed information on the performance of each driver, the number of orders taken, vehicle mileage, the financial performance of the company, the driver's wages, and much more besides. These data help them to evaluate the performance of specific drivers and the fleet of vehicles as a whole.
- Taxi fleet management automation
- Driver performance increases due to fewer errors made by dispatchers
- Fuel and maintenance costs are reduced because routes are chosen automatically