Insights and news from the ATOM Mobility team

The world of taxi apps is booming, but the idea of building your own from scratch can be daunting.

What if there was a faster, more cost-effective way to launch your ride-hailing service?  

Enter white label taxi apps.

These pre-built solutions provide a shortcut to your business while skipping the lengthy and costly software development process.

In this guide, we'll explore the many advantages of white label taxi apps, from quicker launch times to features that help you attract and retain riders. We'll also guide you through the process of building your vision, from defining your target audience to crafting a unique selling proposition.

Why build a taxi app using white label software?

The answer is simple – white label taxi app solutions help to bridge your business idea with reality. There’s no need to build a taxi app from ground zero, since the solutions are already there – tried, tested and waiting for your branding.  

If you’re still not sure about the benefits of using a white label taxi platform over building your own, consider these advantages:

1. Faster development and launch time 

White label apps are pre-built, allowing you to launch your service much quicker and skip the lengthy and expensive process of custom development. In addition, such mobility software is continuously updated and developed, complying with the latest regulations and meeting user demands in specific markets. 

2. Cost-effective solution

Building a custom app requires significant investment. White label solutions like ATOM Mobility offer a cost-effective alternative, allowing you to test and refine your concept without breaking the bank.

Once your app is up and running, white label taxi app platforms help you reduce operational costs by automating tasks and increasing operational efficiency for your taxi business.

3. Customizable features to match your vision

Don't be fooled by the "white label" – your branding can make your taxi app unique. A white label platform gives you the freedom to completely customize the app's look and feel without worrying about the technical intricacies of the app’s operation. 

How exactly do you personalize your app’s brand identity? It’s simple and fun – start by adding your logo, choosing your color scheme, and creating in-app copy to match your brand’s voice. Think about creating a seamless user experience that reflects your unique concept and resonates with your target audience.

4. Scalability to accommodate future growth

White label solutions are designed to be scalable, allowing you to easily add features and accommodate a growing user base. If you choose to build your taxi app with ATOM, you get a user-friendly booking and dispatch software and a powerful admin panel to manage drivers, customers and follow the stats. With time, you can quickly expand to other business verticals and create your unique superapp, keeping it all customized for your brand.

5. Improved customer satisfaction & loyalty

Gone are the days of hailing cabs or waiting on hold. Your white label taxi app should have the option to get a ride in seconds, with features that are meticulously designed to be as intuitive as possible. With just a few taps, customers should be able to create accounts, book rides, and track their driver's arrival in real time. 

When building custom taxi fleet software, this level of convenience and sense of control can take years. White label taxi apps have refined their features to enhance customer satisfaction and build loyalty. Thus you won’t have to lose customers due to technical glitches or slow features.

How to make your white label taxi app stand out?

Before you take the first steps in building your white label taxi app, take a moment to solidify your vision.  What will be special about your app and who will be its target users? This roadmap will guide your decisions and ensure your app caters to a specific need within the market.

Lay out a plan including important aspects of your vision, such as:

Define your target audience 

It sure is tempting to offer your services to all the taxi riders on the market, but in reality, differentiation works much better. We recommend defining a user segment that would be the primary target audience for your taxi app. Will you focus on budget-minded students, busy business travelers, or families with young children? Choose a niche that's large enough to be sustainable, but targeted enough to stand out.

Choose your unique selling proposition (USP) 

Your USP is what will differentiate your app. For example, are you known for eco-friendly vehicles, flat fares, or focusing on specific areas? Maybe you’re a kid and pet-friendly company that offers extras like different-size booster seats and cartoons on board.

Determine key app functionalities and special features

It’s also important to consider what app features are imperative for your business. Which functionalities should definitely be there besides having a rider app, driver app, and admin panel? For example, do you want to offer in-app chat, rider verification options, multiple payment options, etc., or any other special features?

Beyond launch: how to market your app and get loyal customers

Let’s imagine you’ve already launched your white label taxi app by selecting the right platform (like ATOM Mobility), choosing your branding and integrating the desired functionalities. What next?

To ensure long-term success, ongoing marketing and customer acquisition strategies are crucial for the success of your ride-hailing business. 

Here's how to hit the ground running:

Know your riders

Leverage built-in analytics within your taxi fleet software to understand rider behavior and preferences. This allows you to create detailed user personas – representations of your ideal customers. By understanding their needs and habits, you can tailor your marketing efforts for maximum impact.

Targeted acquisition

Armed with your user personas, launch targeted advertising campaigns across relevant channels. Social media platforms, local publications, and strategic partnerships with businesses frequented by your target audience can be effective avenues for reaching potential riders.

Loyalty programs to stay top-of-mind

Entice new customers with attractive introductory offers and discounts. Once you've hooked them, implement loyalty programs that reward repeat rides. This could include points systems for free rides, different memberships with exclusive benefits, or referral programs that incentivize existing riders to spread the word.

Harnessing the power of "deals"

Don't underestimate the power of discount codes and promotions. Strategic use of these tools can attract deal-conscious customers and encourage them to try your service.

Top taxi fleet software, like ATOM Mobility, offers various marketing tools, from loyalty and referral programs to integrated email marketing and push notifications that help stay top of mind and re-activate users.

Bring your dream taxi business to life

The world of taxi apps is brimming with potential, and white label solutions empower you to claim your share. 

If you’re ready to turn your dream into reality, choose trustworthy taxi fleet software like ATOM Mobility to eliminate all technological headaches. Instead, you can focus on marketing and operations and grow your business with unlimited possibilities.

Contact ATOM Mobility today for a free consultation and explore how we can transform your vision into a thriving ride-hailing business.

What is Mobility-as-a-Service and why MaaS matters for your mobility business?

MaaS is short for Mobility-as-a-Servive, and simply put, it combines various mobility options into a single unified mobility app for a city or region.

Today, we have more options for getting from point A to point B than ever before. Vehicle-sharing, ride-hailing, and all sorts of rental services for all types of transports have grown deeply ingrained in our day-to-day lives, fundamentally changing how we choose to move and commute through cities. 

But, as we all know, quantity doesn't necessarily equal quality. Just because there are many more options for transportation, doesn't mean that they're the most effective for getting where you want to go: 

• Crossing an entire city on a scooter will quickly become costly and exhausting. 
• Renting a car may still have you stuck in traffic.
• Commuting with a rental moped may be less environmentally friendly than potential alternatives, e.g. public transportation. 
• Managing half-a-dozen applications to find the best deals also gets tiresome.

That's where MaaS comes in. 

In what follows, we'll take a closer look at what is Mobility-as-a-Service, explore some examples of MaaS implementations, and how MaaS may impact your own mobility business. 

Mobility-as-a-Service definition

MaaS solutions integrate various forms of transport services into a single multimodal mobility service accessible on demand. These different transport forms include public transport, as well as ride, car-sharing, and bike-sharing, and others. 

Multimodal simply means that users can combine various types of mobility when planning their journeys, e.g. taking a bus for the first leg of the trip and then hopping on a scooter for the last mile. 

MaaS has been the talk of the mobility industry for years now and the Mobility-as-a-Service market size is projected to grow explosively over the coming years, especially in the Asia Pacific region. 

What are the benefits of Mobility-as-a-Service? 

Multimodality is one of the main ones for end-users. Others include a single payment system and general ease-of-use made possible by having multiple mobility services under one roof. 

Typically, there are different payment plans available – a monthly subscription model with a fixed monthly fee or “pay-as-you-go” model, where each booked trip is priced separately.

But MaaS is not JUST a mobility service aggregator for city dwellers. 

The primary client of a MaaS solution is the municipality. A MaaS solution is first and foremost intended as a way for a city to modernize and gain control over its mobility networks and data. 

MaaS lets the local government offer a convenient mobility solution, while equipping the city with insight on transit data, movement flows, and mobility preferences. It also empowers the city to nudge desirable traveler behavior, i.e. promote certain modes of mobility. 

For example, the city might subsidize discounts for an integrated bike rental solution during the summer to encourage people to choose cycling over other types of transportation. 

MaaS brings together both public and private players – MaaS platform developers, mobility service providers, public transport authorities, and others – and project ownership typically lies with a public institution, hence it may be inaccurate to speak of a general Mobility-as-a-Service business model. 

While individual mobility providers may profit from integration as it allows them to reach a broader audience, the MaaS project as a whole will usually operate at a loss. After all, at its core lies public transportation and its core purpose is to improve quality of urban life, not make profit. 

Still, MaaS comes in all shapes and sizes, so what are the models of Mobility-as-a-Service? Let's explore this through some examples. 

Mobility-as-a-Service examples

One textbook example of a MaaS solution is Berlin's Jelbi. Created by Trafi and Berlin's public transport authority BVG, it brings together every kind of public and shared mobility – ready to be booked in a moment’s notice right from the app. 

With Jelbi, Berliners can easily plan multimodal journeys, buy public transport tickets, and pay for services with all the most popular payment methods. With public transport as the backbone, Berlin has built mobility hubs – physical stations across the city, where people can switch from public transport to shared mobility – to facilitate convenient multimodal transport and encourage people to leave their cars at home. 

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Trafi was also behind yumuv in Switzerland, which was one of the first that trialed a regional MaaS solution with subscriptions connecting the three cities of Zurich, Bern, and Basel. Though it was only a research project, its ambitious scope spells the potential future of MaaS – a country-wide mobility solution accessible from a single app.

In fact, such a solution has already seen the light of day – glimble. Created by another major player in the MaaS development scene, Moovit, glimble enables easy travel within the Netherlands, offering most of the same benefits as Jelbi, but on a national scale. 

A MaaS solution done differently

Technically, if we look at MaaS as a unified multimodal mobility app, then Google Maps also qualifies as a MaaS solution, though it stands out for its global scope and not being tied to any particular city. 

Google has proactively partnered with micro mobility partners in various regions, has integrated public transport timetables, and done more to offer a convenient route planning solution. However, the lack of payment integrations and minimal adaptation to local markets makes Google Maps more of a map application with some MaaS capabilities, rather than a full fledged MaaS solution. By the way, are you aware that ATOM Mobility customers can easily showcase their vehicles on Google Maps for free?

Why does MaaS matter to your shared mobility business? 

If you're a micro mobility service provider and your city is mulling over launching a MaaS solution, it may be wise to get your foot in the door. Having your service integrated within the city mobility app confers various benefits. 

For one, it enables you to reach more people. Being on the city's MaaS app will expose your service to commuters that might otherwise elect to choose other modes of transportation. It also helps overcome a critical adoption barrier – people will be able to conveniently use and pay for your solution, without having to download and sign-up on your individual app. 

Secondly and continuing the previous point, it's potentially free advertising. Cities are invested in maximizing their MaaS solution's adoption and spend significant resources in popularizing it. As a result, partnering service providers can piggyback on the marketing efforts of the public transport authority. 

Thirdly, it embeds your business with an additional layer of legitimacy. Namely, your solution being chosen by the city gives it an air of “official”ness, especially if your competitors aren't on it. Once again, this may help attract more users. 

MaaS – an evolution in urban mobility

MaaS lets cities and their citizens take control over a rapidly evolving mobility landscape. With so many different types of transportation and dozens of companies competing over customers, it can all get a bit hectic. 

At the end of the day, finding the best way – be it quickest, cheapest, or environmentally friendliest – is in the interests of both cities and travelers and that's exactly what MaaS tries to offer. 

Whether MaaS will become a standard across cities is yet to be seen, as MaaS companies, much like other large-scale mobility businesses, continue to struggle to reach profitability with Finnish startup MaaS Global recently filing for bankruptcy. Still, the technology behind it was snatched up soonafter by Dutch MaaS company umob, signalling faith in the MaaS project at large. 

So, if you're a mobility service provider, MaaS is something that you shouldn't ignore. 

The shared mobility industry has seen immense growth within the past few years, and shared micromobility vehicles, such as shared bikes, are no exception. Various reports on the shared mobility market have emphasized that revenue from bike-sharing is projected to continue rising, with the sector expected to reach US$12.68 billion by 2027. 

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Data and statistics speak for themselves – the bike-sharing market's future is bright and shiny. But are there any disadvantages to bike-sharing? And what are the biggest benefits of this micromobility type? Read this article to find out.

What is bike-sharing?

Before we discuss the pros and cons of bike-sharing, let's define what this term actually means. 

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Also known as bike rental or public bicycle sharing, bike-sharing is a system where individuals can use bikes on a short-term basis. Bikes that are available for sharing are commonly placed in designated areas or docking stations, mainly in urban environments. Bike-sharers rent and return the micromobility vehicles for a certain fee, depending on the bike-sharing service provider. 

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An equally important part of the bike-sharing system are the various mobile applications and payment systems that enable users to grab a shared bike when needed and conveniently pay for the service.

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As you can likely guess, bike-sharing is primarily an urban phenomenon. It has become one of the key components of sustainable transportation strategies in cities around the world. Plus, it's convenient, cool, and… well, continue reading for more pros.

Advantages of bike-sharing

Besides making urban areas look hip, bike-sharing systems have a bunch of advantages that range from user convenience to sustainability and beyond.

1. It benefits the environment

Those who care about sustainability have all the reasons to love bike-sharing. It provides an alternative mode of transportation that is also environmentally friendly. Access to bike-sharing helps make greener choices (read – drive cars less often), which helps reduce air pollution and carbon emissions. Moreover, riding a bike for a short trip around the city is an amazing way to reduce your personal carbon footprint.

2. It helps reduce traffic congestion

Traffic congestion is a common issue in many cities and urban areas. Bike-sharing systems can significantly help deal with this problem, as they provide a convenient way to complete short trips around the city. Biking instead of driving a car, taking public transport, or paying for a taxi during rush hours also shortens the time spent on the road and improves the traffic flow overall.

3. It promotes public health

Cycling is not only a convenient way to get around but also benefits one's health. Just think about it – you're commuting while getting some exercise at the same time. How cool is that? Well-built bike-sharing systems such as Tretty can encourage people to bike more often, contributing to overall public health as a result. 

4. It's cost-effective

And cost-effective not only for bike-sharers but also for micromobility service providers. The growing demand for shared micromobility vehicles, bikes included, clearly shows that it's a profitable niche. Plus, today, there are plenty of ways to start your bike-sharing business quickly and easily. For example, with ATOM Mobility, you can launch a bike-sharing platform in 20 days. We offer a fully customizable white-label solution for all kinds of sharing businesses. You'll love it, and your bike-sharers will, too.

5. It's a scalable micromobility business model

Another advantage of bike-sharing from the perspective of micromobility businesses or businesses-to-be – it's scalable and has relatively low operational costs. Bikes require less maintenance than, for example, e-scooters and have no fuel expenses, contrary to car-sharing. Moreover, bike-sharing businesses can be easily expanded to new locations – cities or even countries, and it's relatively easy to grow the bike fleet in response to user demand. 

Bike-sharing disadvantages

As with all seemingly perfect things, there are always at least a few downsides to them, and bike-sharing is no exception. What are its disadvantages? Scroll down.

1. It poses some safety concerns

Despite being a relatively safe way of getting around a city, bikes raise some safety concerns, mainly when interacting with motorized vehicles. Not all roads have bike lanes, and not all drivers are used to sharing the road with cyclists, which can lead to heightened accident risk. Moreover, those new to bike riding may be particularly vulnerable to accidents and injuries. 

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Increasing safety for cyclists requires the involvement of public authorities. However, if you're a micromobility service provider, you can customize your app and add information on safety concerns and things to remember when cycling around the block. 

2. It can be subject to theft and vandalism

It's no secret that bikes are a catch loved by thieves and vandals. Even the best safety locks and docking systems can sometimes get hacked, resulting in financial losses for operators and inconvenience for bike-sharers. What can be done is adding GPS tracking to shared bikes, picking extra resistant locks, and placing surveillance cameras around bike docks to prevent theft and purposeful damage.

3. It's not for all weathers

Of course, there are cyclists who ride their bikes in rain or thunder, but the usual bike-sharing client may not be up for cycling in a snowstorm, rainfall, or extreme heat. Hence, bad weather can decrease bike-sharing, and if it sticks for long, bike fleet owners may feel it financially. 

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Whether you're a municipality thinking of implementing a bike-sharing system or a micromobility business owner looking towards bikes, consider the weather of your location. As simple as that.

4. It requires diligent maintenance

Yes, we mentioned low maintenance costs among the benefits of bike-sharing. However, bike fleet maintenance requires quite a lot of work. A bike is not a complex ride, but if the fleet is used constantly, the rides wear out fast. Regular check-ups – cleaning, inspections, repairs, and parts replacement – are essential to prevent mechanical failures and ensure a positive user experience. Doing so requires both human and financial resources. 

Build your bike-sharing empire with ATOM Mobility

Now that you're familiar with the main bike-sharing advantages and disadvantages, you can take the next step and look for ways to start your micromobility service or improve your already existing one by adding bikes to the game. 

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But solid rides are not the only crucial thing – bike-sharers love convenient bike-sharing apps, too. And that's where ATOM Mobility comes in. Our software is suited for any type of vehicle-sharing and has 200+ features to bring you to the top of the bike-sharing game. What are you still waiting for?

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It's easy to get lost in today's mobility landscape. It feels like every year a new type of vehicle hits the streets, and with it comes some weird new term or category adding to an already deeply confounding list – ride-hailing, ride-sharing, carpooling, car-sharing, on-demand rentals, micro-mobility rentals, shared transportation, Mobility-as-a-service,...

No wonder people prefer using and verbing brand names, e.g. “Uber to the airport” or “grab a Bolt”. 

In reality, it's not that complicated. Virtually all of the terms listed above are self-explanatory and by the end of this article you'll have a firm grasp on the industry's terminology. 

Understanding the distinction between these various concepts is important for entrepreneurs and anyone else looking to set foot in the industry, as using the correct terms:

• Ensures everyone is on the same page, 
• Is relevant for regulatory compliance,
• Matters in all your business endeavors from market research to strategy development. 

Since the two terms that people get most hung up on are “ride-hailing” and “ride-sharing”, we'll take a closer look at those, and then follow it up with a disambiguation of the other terms on our list. 

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What is ride-hailing?

Ride-hailing is – surprise, surprise – the hailing of a ride. Much like with a taxi, it involves hiring a person with a car to pick you up and take you to your destination. 

So why don't we just call it a taxi service? 

When mobility startups like Uber came to prominence in the early 2010s, they did so by disrupting the cab industry through digitalizing the hailing experience and introducing transparent pricing. 

Read more: Uber's company history.

In other words, you could now hail a ride through an app on your smartphone and see exactly how much it would cost. Whereas previously, you had to call a taxi service or try to hail one on the street. 

So the term “ride-hailing” was coined to distinguish this new type of on-demand app-based taxi service from the more traditional one. However, over the years, the ride-hailing service portfolio has evolved beyond just taxi-like operations and includes things like hiring drivers for moving, or even taking your kids to school. Traditional taxi companies also increasingly make use of a ride-hailing app. 

Accordingly, the meaning of ride-hailing is the hailing of on-demand transportation services via an app. Most often it's used in the context of taxi-like services, but it's an umbrella term that can include other services, too. 

Fun fact: did you know that Uber was originally named UberCab? Its founders dropped the “Cab” part since they didn't see themselves as a traditional cab service.

What is ride-sharing?

Again – the hint is in the name. At the most basic level, ride-sharing is sharing a ride. But, as with ride-hailing, there's some nuance that's important to understand. 

Today, ride-sharing typically refers to multiple passengers sharing a single private ride on a route that passes their various destinations. You can think about it as on-demand carpooling. 

Let's unpack this. 

Though there are many similarities between ride-sharing and carpooling, they generally differ in terms of ride organization and journeys. Carpooling often happens informally, in the sense that a group of neighbors or coworkers traveling or commuting on the same route will agree to share a ride to, for example, save on gas. Carpooling can also be very sporadic and is primarily organized through private channels or local bulletin boards. 

On the flipside, ride-sharing allows a person to carpool with others by simply finding an available seat through an app – drivers digitally share their route and seat availability and passengers can hop into a suitable ride for a small fee. 

Notably, ride-sharing is often most popular with busy routes and times of day, as that's when there's highest demand. 

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There's a reason why a lot of confusion arose regarding the difference between ride-hailing and ride-sharing, namely, the terms were used interchangeably early on. To this day, “Ride-sharing” is sometimes used as an umbrella term for all app-based mobility solutions, though this is going out of fashion, given the clearer differentiation between solutions. 

So, while both ride-hailing and ride-sharing are app-based on-demand mobility solutions for getting to a destination in a private vehicle, they differ in passenger count, cost, route, availability, and popularity. 

One key component further distinguishing ride-hailing from ride-sharing is the use of advanced software, designed to optimize operations and enhance user experience. Ride-hailing software supports companies in efficiently managing bookings, payments, and communication between passengers and drivers. To explore how this software can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of ride-hailing services, visit our detailed ride-hailing software use cases page.

Other terms commonly used in the mobility industry

Though ride-hailing and ride-sharing are categories you'll hear most often, it's almost inevitable that you'll encounter other terms, which may sow further confusion. 

Let's avoid that – here are some quick explanations of other popular terms.

Car-sharing

Car-sharing or vehicle-sharing is most often confused with ride-sharing, but despite sounding similar, they mean completely different things. Car-sharing refers to the app-based short-term rental of cars. The easiest way to remember it is that with ride-sharing people share a single ride, whereas with car sharing people share a single car – again, it's all in the name. 

On-demand rentals

On-demand rentals is a category describing vehicles that are instantly available for rent, usually through an app. This includes both micro mobility solutions, like scooters and bikes, as well as larger vehicles like mopeds and cars. For those following along – yes, car-sharing is a type of on-demand rental! 

Shared transport

As mentioned in the previous sections, “ride-sharing” is often incorrectly used as an umbrella term for all on-demand app-based mobility solutions. The correct term is shared transport or shared mobility. Shared transport is a broad category that includes both multiple people sharing a vehicle simultaneously (i.e. ride-sharing), as well as individual people sharing a vehicle over time (i.e. car-sharing/on-demand rentals). 

Ride-hailing and other on-demand services related to mobility are also often categorized under the shared mobility umbrella. 

Mobility-as-a-Service

Mobility-as-a-Service or MaaS is an approach to urban transportation that seeks to integrate a variety of mobility options (both public and private) into a single super-solution that answers a traveler's every mobility need. Often, MaaS solutions are sought out by local municipalities to provide effective alternatives to car use and minimize a city's carbon footprint. 

Is the terminology really that important? 

As you can see, a lot of the confusing mobility terms are simply categories and categories of categories – don't worry if you can't remember them all. If you know the difference between ride-sharing and ride-hailing that's already plenty. 

Anyone in the mobility industry will tell you that it's perfectly acceptable to ask for clarification when talking specifics, as it's common for people to interpret these terms differently, and language barriers can be particularly troublesome for getting on the same page. 

That said, you SHOULD pay close attention to the terminology if you're doing research for your own mobility business. A ride-hailing business is completely different from a ride-sharing one, and it's important not to compare apples to oranges during market research, as it can undermine your business from day one. 

Other than that, all you have to remember is that ride-hailing is hailing a ride and ride-sharing is sharing a ride. Simple as that.