Find your cab companion using a Free iPhone app.

Ever since we redesigned our blog, I have been asked to write an article so that my profile page does not look empty! With little experience in writing on topics other than SEO, I have been hesitant to take liberties with publishing my thoughts about the cab industry. But with the recent completion of the first phase of development of our iPhone application, I am more compelled to write about the app and some of its cool features.

Similar to our web platform, the mobile platform for iPhone users (blackberry and android coming soon) allows cab riders to search & share rides that are heading in the same direction. If there are no rides available, a rider can post his own ride and wait for someone else to join him. Here is a quick walk through our upcoming cab sharing iPhone app.

Find & Join the rides
The application starts by asking you if you want the application to either locate you or if you would prefer to input your geographical location or the place where you want to search for existing cab rides.

You are able to either choose your current location or manually select the city name from the selection box.

Once you select the location, you will see a list of existing rides denoted by “pins” on a map. These pins represent the starting location of each existing ride. You can simply click on the pin to see more details about the ride, like date, time, estimated fare and the rider’s profile. There is a direct link to join this ride which takes you to the login/registration page.

We have used Google maps API and integrated it within the iPhone application.

HotSpots
HotSpots are sponsored retail stores throughout the city to help match riders. We use retail stores as meeting points and refer to them as “HotSpots” — to provide users with special offers, such as coupons, deals, and discounts, which can be redeemed prior to sharing your cab ride. In other words, this is how we make money!

HotSpot tab in the iPhone app will automatically detect your current geographical location and show you nearby HotSpots. Or you can enter an address manually and the app will show you all the HotSpots near that address. You can then choose that HotSpots address as your starting or destination address for your intended cab ride.

Fare Calculator
This is my favorite feature of this app. Even if you don’t want to share a cab, you can still use this feature to get an estimate fare of your cab ride from Location A to Location B. Our advanced algorithm takes care of different rates at different times of the day and will give you the most accurate fare for your ride so that you know the cost of your cab ride before hopping in.

This module also uses the Google Maps API to calculate distance between starting and destination address inputted by the user. Entry fare and unit fare of yellow cabs in all cities has already been taken care of with our back end management system.

Search rides
This is where all the magic begins. Our auto-corrected address tool make sure that the address that you enter is always a legitimate address. We used Google Maps API to implement this functionality. Once you enter your start & destination address along with other parameters like date and time and press submit, our innovative search algorithm finds the cheapest cab ride based on your selected preferences, e.g. some people as a matter of safety, may only want to ride with a female companion. Our application will only find rides with female riders or only allow female companions to join thier ride.

Another important technology that should be mentioned here is the use of Reverse Geo coding API that allows us to find the nearest cross section address to your entered starting location. The application also shows the best corner to hail a cab on, using Sense Networks API, we are able to provide the cab volume ratings for each pickup location. These ratings indicate how easy it will be to find a cab on that particular corner.

Once someone joins the ride, other riders of that ride will be notified via email and a push notification aka sound alert on their iPhone. This is a great way to alert people when someone else joins their ride. You can see thier profile picture along with a user name and you are able to send an in network message if you would like to contact him/her before meeting up. App also allows you to connect with that person through his Facebook or twitter profile. (we do not share personal information like emails or phone numbers for privacy reasons).

If there are no rides available, the application will ask you to create a new ride for others to join you. It takes less than 3 minutes that may save you 10 bucks or more and who knows, you may gain a new friend.

Last but not the least - if you ever change your mind and decide not to take the cab ride which you already joined, you can easily quit the ride at any time and all other riders will be notified with their new estimated fare instantly.

To quit the ride, please go to the “Account” tab, click on “Upcoming rides”, select your ride and click on “Quit ride” button as shown on this screen -

If you are as excited as we are for the launch of this app, please create an account on our website and we will notify you as soon as the app is approved and made available on iTunes store.