Car Sharing On-Demand Services | Niche Trends & Development Tips

What Are On-demand Services

In the technology domain, on-demand apps are web or mobile solutions that allow users to receive or schedule services immediately, or instantly buy products from a specific company. On-demand service appscan also compare offers available from multiple providers to help you choose the best offer.

A good example of an on-demand services app is Uber, as it has revolutionized service delivery. Its business model connects people who want a car service to drivers without the company having any assets other than mobile and web platforms. Different domains also use this model, which has resulted in Uber-like apps such as Zomato for food delivery or Airbnb for accommodations.

Below are our tips on how to develop rideshare, carshare and carpool on-demand apps.

Carsharing, Carpooling, and Ridesharing: What’s the Difference?

Environmentalists have always been concerned about how the automotive industry can cause damage to the environment. Despite the introduction of electric-powered vehicles in recent years, there has been a significant increase in sales of cars with gasoline engines, which causes damage to the environment and accelerates negative processes in our ecosystem related to global warming. That’s why developed countries try to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels.

There are different ways to do this, based on budget and personal preferences. Some people have replaced their cars with bikes for daily commutes, while others buy electric vehicles or ones with propane engines. Switching to public transportation can also help reduce emissions. But these options are not the most convenient, and many people that switch to one of them miss having a personal vehicle.

This article examines the concept of peer-to-peer car sharing from several perspectives, exploring current trends and touching on the mobile software industry development of ridesharing apps.

Carsharing

Carsharing is what it sounds like. You share a car with others and do not own it. Instead, you rent a car with a few users. Carsharing is an excellent way to cut the expense of buying a vehicle, but it still allows you to enjoy the benefits of having a car. There are several types of transport ownership.

1. Personal

The car owner provides several pre-assigned users with the opportunity to use the car when not in use by the owner or on a specific schedule for a fee. Modern technologies and mobile terminals allow one to track the current position of the vehicle and its usage, as well as compiling and controlling the schedule. There is also an option to share the car with someone else who needs it for a fee.

2. Communal

In this case, several car sharers take one or more cars in joint possession to use the vehicles similarly to personal ownership described above.

3. Private (Corporate)

Car sharers acquire a fleet of cars, place them in parking lots and enable car renters to use them. It is a specific car renting opportunity where the company can hire courier drivers who can act as agents and deliver a car to the renter or pick up vehicles where users left them.

4. Municipal/State

It is very similar to private rideshares, but the ownership and jurisdictional boundaries may differ. Large cities have these services or plan to offer them. For example, Washington DC, Vancouver, Canada and Bremen, Germany have such pilot programs.

Carpooling

Carpooling services involve the sharing of a private vehicle using online travel companion search services. In this case, fuel costs are distributed proportionally. Also, the driver (who is the car owner) chooses the path according to passengers’ wishes with minimum deviations from his main route. Unlike a taxi, where the direction of travel is not limited and only the driver is allowed to drive, during ridesharing, it is possible to transfer control of the car to one of the passengers, though that does not happen often.

These are the types of carpooling:

• Classic – a long trip of 100 km or more that lasts from one day to several months.

• Dynamic – moving in an urban space over short distances (1–100 km) with the car and alternative transportation that can include public transport, taxi, bicycle, or walking.

Ridesharing

Both car share and carpool belong to ride-sharing industries. Most often, people use this word when speaking about a car service allowing a person with a smartphone app to arrange a ride in a usually privately owned vehicle. Therefore, the answer to the question “How does rideshare work?”will be the same: you share the car with other people. The rest is in the details.

App Development: Platforms for Efficient Car Sharing

On demand software can provide a vehicle rating system in which users can rate their own experience with specific vehicles or on-demand services.

If you choose to create the best car sharing app available to the public on the Internet or platforms such as the App Store or Google Play), it should be preceded by a study of the intended consumer market, a definition of the target audience and an analysis of competitive solutions.

The good news is that the target audience of rideshare software has been well studied. Best practices can be accessed easily by reviewing popular choices like DriveNow, CityBee and uberTrip. Moreover, the custom mobile app development of an effective carsharing application cannot do without a detailed assessment of the capabilities and disadvantages of its competitors.

These on-demand services began to appear in the market in 2015, having transformed the auto industry. To stand out among the competition, you need a team of experienced professionals who will help you identify a winning set of application features for sharing rides.

How to Develop a Successful on-demand Service App

There is no major difference between creating an on-demand app or a traditional app, except for one feature, an on-demand approach. On-demand apps are very competitive but are also very much in demand.

To develop an on-demand app, you need to:

• Research your target audience and think about their needs and why competitors have not met those needs.

• Monitor competitors and existing solutions. You should research existing products in the market and competitors. The need for on-demand apps is very competitive as it can be a lucrative business.

• Choose a development partner. It is critical to start your app development journey with the right technology company. Choose an agency that already has in their portfolio the type of app you want to develop. And check product reviews on the Internet to determine what people like or would like to see.

• Prioritize features. Before developing an on-demand app, you should consider what features you will have in it and what problems they solve.

• • Create a minimum viable product (MVP). Creating an MVP is essential when entering a highly competitive environment, as it will help you gain an advantage. Once your MVP is launched, you will have the opportunity to collect feedback from your target audience and use those ideas to continue product development and make improvements.

Following the Lean approach, consider updates, and don’t focus simply on improving the product. You should always test and validate every new idea before moving on to technical implementation.

Carpooling Mobile App Development: What Are the Mandatory Functions?

Car-sharing mobile application development involves creating a mobile solution with fairly standard functionality. In 9 out of 10 cases, developers come up with a way to make a ridesharing app like Uber that relies on maps and geolocation data. If you want something like that, have a look at the features such an application would need:

• Maps. To employ them, developers connect appropriate application program interfaces (APIs) for geolocation data processing; in the case of Android, this is Google Maps or Google Places API. In the case of iOS, it is CoreLocation.

• Timer routines. Provide the opportunity to turn down a car booking or payment method with special timing procedures in the application.

• Calendar. It allows you to plan a trip based on dates or develop a queue for the vehicles’ use.

• Electronic payment gateway. For this, you will also need to create your own gateway to securely process payment data (which would be a difficult task by itself) or integrate your application with an existing solution (for example, stripe).

• Customer profiles. In addition to developing profile fields (contact details, photos, etc.), you also have to think about quick authorization (for example, Facebook Oauth or Google Oauth2).

• Pop-up notification. To notify users about the status of their order or tell them which cars are available for their location (in cases when your software is not the property of a particular company for hire), you will need to connect an API to send push notifications. For these purposes, Apple Push notifications are used for iOS and Google Cloud Messaging for Android.

Also, you can add useful functions to your car application, such as:

• Support for various locations. If you strive for global success, it would be great if the application was available in several languages.

• Rating system based on user feedback. It helps your customers choose a suitable car, company or location. To inspire confidence in your service, create a rating system in the application, which will contain feedback from users about particular cars, rental stops and/or companies involved.

• Internet messages. You can provide users with the opportunity to contact the owners of cars or car rental employees on the Internet.

• Ability to order a callback. It is another somewhat simple option that significantly improves the quality of on-demand services.

• Regional price monitoring. It is helpful when your application is not connected to a particular company, organization, or individual.

Conclusion

As you can see, mobile applications are the basis of organizing on-demand services. However, to make such software convenient and easy to use, it is better to trust professionals. At Cprime, we are ready to offer you favorable terms for research and development. As a result, you will receive a fully prepared solution meeting the most stringent user requirements in less than a year.