No matter if there are many big brands in the market like uber and lyft, the rideshare business is in its development era. People who are living in urban areas find it easy to commute to their work and other places by booking a shared vehicle which benefits the passengers as well as the driver. The cost of transportation is very low for the customers and on the other hand, drivers get paid for their empty seats. Rideshare cars can also be used when a person is driving alone to a destination, he/she can update their status online in their application, and could get another companion who is searching for a vehicle for the same destination.
There are many businesses like Ola, Didi, BlaBlaCar that are doing great even when they have very strong competitors like Uber. The rideshare industry is gradually making profits and is expected to rise more this year. With the advent of new on-demand industries in the market, entrepreneurs are taking the risk and investing in this market which is regularly earning profits through ride sharing businesses.
If you are a casual or a regular driver and mostly travel alone, you must think about how to start rideshare business and earn money out of it. Firstly, you should do detailed research that in which location, people are preferring rideshare cars to travel and then start planning to build a new application for your business as digital presence is the best way to increase your reach and make a strong customer base.
How Does It work?
These are not the on-demand services that customers will get, but it refers to the random drivers searching for the companion’s wishes to go to a destination the same as the driver. The benefit lies in the hands of both the passenger and the driver.
Generally, rideshare apps take somewhere around 20% – 25% of the customer fare and the rest of the amount goes directly to the driver. When you are building your application or starting your rideshare business, you will choose your share according to the distance or time.
You can either build your application from scratch or you can enhance an existing application because building an application will cost you more instead of enhancing a particular application. The working of this business is easy. You just have to launch an application in which people can update their destination and fare which can be further seen by other people. The application should have advanced features through which one can contact the other person via message or call to go to a particular destination.
Why Rideshare Business Is Perfect Startup?
In the last few years, the rideshare business has shown tremendous growth which usually benefits people living in urban areas because they receive an affordable and comfortable ride to their desired destination. We can say that rideshare business is a perfect business to start nowadays because it is growing continuously from the last few years and will reach more people in future.
Not only rideshare business, but building uber-like applications are in trend nowadays. Many entrepreneurs are entering the industry with a vision to grow in a short time. They know that many competitors are already there in the market who are standing just in front of them, still, some rideshare businesses like BlaBla car are showing surprising results.
Ridesharing term is known as carpooling sometimes so, you should not be confused between the 2 terms. The Concepts of both the terms are the same but there is a basic difference between the two. In the rideshare concept, strangers share a ride and pay an amount to third-party. Whereas in carpooling concept, friends or relatives share a ride by contributing their share. There are also some benefits of using rideshare cars, it helps in saving the environment because lesser cars on the roads mean lesser pollution.
If you have made up your mind to start a rideshare business and ready to build a new application, let us look at some of the basic features which an application should possess:
Passenger’s App (Basic features): Passenger’s application is one of the main panels due to which driver and the admin earns. The interface and functionality of this panel should be easy and understandable which any customer can easily use.
- Easy Signup And Login
- Update User Profile
- Search Drivers
- Real-Time Tracking
- Choice Of Cars
- Book Or Schedule
- Multiple Payment Options
- Notifications
- Fare Calculator
- Review And Rate The Journey
- Help Desk
Advanced Features:
- In-App Calling And Messaging
- Real-Time Tracking
- Sos (emergency) Button
- Multilingual Support
- Share Socially
- Pick And Drop Location
Driver’s App: Most of the features of driver’s application are same as in customer’s app like sign up and updating profiles. You can also add some advanced features in the driver’s app to make it more attractive.
- Update Availability
- Accept Or Reject Rides
- GPS
- Fare Calculator
- Access Reviews And Ratings
- Total Earnings
Admin panel: Admin panel is a kind of supervisor or the central hub which manages the working of driver’s and customer pane and has access to remove or block any driver. Routes and earnings are also managed through the admin panel.
- Access To Overall Statistics
- Management Of Drivers And Cars
- Offer Discounts And Promo Codes
- Overall Earnings
- Analytics And Reports
These are some of the features which should be included in a rideshare application. Moreover, you can also add some advanced features to make your app more attractive and easy-to-use. Businesses like Uber and Lyft are running successfully for many years and starting a new business as their competitor and building an application same as uber, would not be a good option. You have to create and build an application possessing some unique features launched with some good marketing strategies. For more information and statistics about rideshare app, you can visit here.
Here are some good tips on start your own rideshare business:
- Do A Detailed Research: The very first thing you should do while starting a rideshare business is doing detailed research of the market and find the location where people are booking rideshare car daily. That would be best for the startup. From sources, it is found that the startup of rideshare business receives a boost when it is set up in rural areas where people travel daily to urban areas.
Markets and overall revenues should be studied properly to implement marketing strategies in a particular area. A general survey of local people about their travel tastes might help you setting up your business.
- Build it Differently: You should develop an application which doesn’t have features like uber and lyft, rather you should add some unique features and you should target a specific area where you can start your business. You can also give various options for cars in the application which can accommodate many people at once.
- Create A Catchy Business Name: Find or create a catchy and easy to pronounce name for your business and check that name with other rideshare business names as well. Your decided name should not collapse with any other business which will lead to confusion.
Check the domain name online which is the easiest way to find a unique business name.
- Check If You Need An Investor: Can you fund your business yourself? There are 2 ways of funding your project. First, you can invest yourself from building an application to implementation. Secondly, you can find an investor to fund your business. We will look at the cost of building an application further in this article.
- Complete All the Legal Requirements Before the Start-up: Just before launching an application, you should complete all the legal requirements needed to start a business like opening bank accounts, taxes to be paid, registering your firm legally etc. Check with the local authorities that what all requirements need to be fulfilled.
Once all the legal documentation is completed, then you can implement your business plan and related strategies in the market.
How Much Does It Cost To Start A Rideshare App:
Your whole business depends upon your marketing strategies and the services you offer in your application. You should create your own rideshare app to succeed in your business. But the question here arises is, how to make a rideshare app and what will be the cost in building an app. The answer is quite simple.
There are 2 types of applications:
- Application Build From Scratch
- Application Enhanced By Adding Or Removing Certain Features
Building an application from scratch costs you more whereas feature enhancement doesn’t cost much. Moreover, the cost depends upon the number of features involved in an application. Generally, the estimated cost of an application lies somewhere between $5k – $20k. There are basic and advanced features listed above in this article, if you want only the basic features in your application, the cost will be lower and if you also want some advanced features, the cost of building an application will go up. Factors responsible for deciding the cost of an application are as follows:
- The location of the company
- Basic and advanced features involved
- Number of hours worked in building an application
- Number of developers working
- On what platforms, the application will work
The overall cost of an application is decided after estimating the above factors and this will be discussed when you go to a company and discuss with a project manager.
Conclusion:
We have listed the basic points of how to start a rideshare company and the overall cost to build an application. All in all, rideshare business can benefit you if you are implementing perfect marketing strategies or vice versa. Nowadays, starting such a business can draw huge profits if implemented strategically.
Shortlist companies and make a layout before moving further. Make sure to do detailed research and find an amazing app development company who can build a fully customized and feature-enriched application.
