The Mobile App For Uber And Taxi Drivers

Goal

• Build a mobile assistant to optimize routes, increase earnings and manage drivers' finance.
• Check the app in Google Play Store‍

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Challenge

The whole idea that has evolved into a software project was based on a simple observation. The founder's legend: when a big concert in our hometown was finished (around 1 am) and the whole crowd was looking for options to get back home it became impossible to order a taxi or Uber. People were waiting for ages to find a driver and neither taxi companies drivers nor Ubers seemed to work that night. It was a big surprise for us, because we thought it was a good chance to earn extra money for all of the drivers, but apparently we were wrong and they decided to have a good sleep that day.

After a quick chat about it on the next day, we agreed to spend more time on this case and we conducted a series of interviews with rideshare drivers. Finally, we noticed that all of them complained about three issues:

1. They usually go in the same spots, because it costs too much to explore unknown city zones. They preferred predicable income over risking time and money to find more attractive places.
2. It was problematic for them to find news about mass events or big parties, so they missed a lot of good chances - and this way they didn't come to pick people up from our concert.
3. Many drivers were confused about their profits, because they didn't pay enough attention to their costs and bills. They knew their revenue, but money spent on gas, repairs and other expenses were given as approximates.

None of the existing apps at that time were addressing the issues listed above, so we felt like there was a niche for us and we decided to build a MVP and validate our idea with real users.

Drively aimed to be a toolkit for all Uber drivers who wanted to work smarter.

Scope of work

• Discovery phase
• Business analysis
• UX/UI design
• Mobile app development

The project started from discovery phase that was a bit challenging, because we had to order Ubers for short rides (limited budget and time) and ask them questions while they were driving. At the end of each ride we were showing them the wireframes and mockups to ensure that our features were addressing their problems and user interface was user-friendly. When we gathered enough feedback we turned it into a backlog and then split it in epics and stories.

The development phase of Android app started small - with one developer and one BA + partly engaged UX/UI Designer. Over the collaboration course, the scope of work has been extended with additional functionalities and features. After 4 months, we had a team including three full stack developers, a BA and a full-time UX/UI Designer. Our team was responsible for the entire project (product backlog, team management and budget).

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Solution

Finally, after months of work we managed to deliver the MVP that included the following features:

1. Drively made it easy to identify position of other rideshare drivers so thet got a real-time insight on what was going on in their cities.
2. Drively was providing a listing with all the events happening in all the Polish cities, so our users could plan their schedule and add reminders to their calendars to not miss any important football game or .... a concert. ;)
3. We enabled them to create chats in our app, so they could get to know each other, share advises etc (the sad truth was that Ubers and taxi drivers were using this feature to have arguments, so we turned it off after a short time).
4. What's more important, they had a dedicated place to track all of their spendings while driving for Uber.

Effect

Drively received a very positive feedback from early adopters and investors, as the app proved to make a difference for the rideshare drivers. The MVP was released to Beta program on Google Play Store.

The app was ready to be taken over by an investor and our plan assumed to leverage Drively in a digital product offered by a major player on the Polish taxi market. But this case doesn't have a happy end, as our plan failed when Facebook closed its API due to Cambrigde Analytica scandal.

Drively was a clear evidence that our team was capable of turning an idea into a software project and shipping the working MVP of the mobile app with a small team and limited budget.