600 hours searching for the software, 10x one-hour demo calls, and a $30k loss for my taxi business. Here’s my story.
I own a small transportation business in Ibadan, Nigeria. For two years, I managed taxi orders through WhatsApp, connecting drivers and customers. I managed orders by texting drivers, answering customer calls, notifying customers upon the driver's arrival, and confirming pickups with drivers.
With time, my business started to grow: the number of customers and drivers was increasing. Through word-of-mouth, our service was becoming quite popular.
However, I couldn’t let it grow. I only had so much time in a day and very limited resources, and I was already struggling with the never-ending operation tasks. Manually distributing orders took place throughout the day, from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. every day, including weekends.
Some orders were getting lost because customers grew impatient waiting for messages about which car would arrive. At the same time, drivers occasionally struggled to locate customers, as they did not always stay at the specified location in the order. I was constantly overworked, and I barely had time to see my family.
Finally, I realized that if I wanted my business to grow and still have time for anything else, I needed to automate some parts of taxi operations. So it became clear that I need mobile apps to automate what I’ve been doing manually.
My key competitive advantage was a pool of loyal drivers who were willing to accept 94% of incoming orders — something my competitors with mobile apps couldn’t achieve. It was important to keep the drivers while switching their work to mobile apps.
Challenge
Using WhatsApp worked well for processing a small number of orders, but growing as a business without mobile apps was impossible.
Switching to mobile apps seemed like a challenge for a one-man business. I didn’t have a team of developers to support me, and I am not a tech-savvy person myself.
My business goal was to grow both my customer and driver base, spend minimum time on operations and never lose any orders
I wanted a set of familiar features: maps, cashless payments, notifications for when the driver arrives, a screen with estimated driver’s arrival time, etc.
I thought this was my biggest challenge, but I was wrong.
The real challenge was investing in the right tech solution - and I failed.
I spent months comparing taxi software providers, their features, and their terms and conditions. It was a time-consuming process that distracted me from running my business. Still, I believed this was an investment in a brighter future. After attending 10 demo calls, I finally made a decision.
Negative experience
I got my apps, and everything looked promising in the beginning. Especially, I was happy with the price. I chose Uber-clone apps that had all the features I needed for my apps.
They didn’t seem to require any extra development, and the price was much lower than how much I would’ve paid for developing my own custom apps. Also, they didn’t come with any responsibility from my side and didn’t require me to sign anything other than a standard, click-to-accept license agreement.
The apps looked really good, but the downsides became visible almost immediately.
The system started crashing every time we had a spike in orders.
The provider’s support team charged for any additional services - branding, bug fixes, etc., but always disappeared when the apps were down. Eventually, I lost many of my customers and drivers and $30k in profit from the number of times the apps didn’t work. Instead of growing, I had to focus on getting back what I’d lost with this experiment.
New solution
I started searching for alternatives, but the idea of starting from the beginning was making me sick. I was afraid of losing time, money, and the rest of my business.
After doing some research, I found a tool that helps choose taxi software based on your answers to some questions. I was asked a few questions about my goals and business requirements, and in a couple of minutes, I got an email from a recommended taxi software provider. My recommended taxi software based on my main goal - growing my taxi business - was Onde. In three weeks I had new mobile apps, an admin panel, a web app, and a dispatch system.
The result
Six months later, I’m still recovering and rebuilding my business performance after my initial failure.
Although a significant share of my customers switched to competitors, we’ve started to grow again. Today, we accept orders within 10 seconds and gain around 50 new customers daily. We’re now processing five times the daily orders compared to the WhatsApp period. I feel fortunate to be equipped with software that helps my taxi business grow and frees me the time to do other tasks.
User-friendly apps for drivers and customers
My own branding of apps included at no extra cost
All apps have been launched on App Stores by the tech provider
Support team that helps with launch and implementation
Zero app crashes even during peak hours
Cashless payment methods available
Regular updates and new features included in a monthly subscription
Referral programs, push notifications, and other tools that helped me attract new customers
Conclusion
For me, the road to the right automation solution wasn’t easy, but it was still worth it. I can see my business grow, and I know that the sky is the limit. I finally have free time that I can spend with my family.
It would have been much easier and cheaper, however, to start with the right automation solution straight away, so I recommend SolGen if you’re looking for free outside help with choosing automation software for the taxi business and Onde if your main goals are going and taxi business automation.
This New Year, my resolution is to focus on what truly matters and simplify everything I can.
Don’t repeat my mistakes, learn from them.
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