About the Client
The client is a leading taxi service provider in Qatar, created exclusively for online cab operations by a consortium of over 180 limousine operators. Today, the consortium supports a network of over 10,000 taxis. Its unique operating model keeps rides affordable for passengers while remaining highly beneficial for drivers by charging only a nominal commission to sustain the platform.
Business Situation and Requirements
In Qatar, many limousine businesses initially partnered with global ride-hailing platforms to reach more customers. While this expanded their market presence, high maintenance costs for luxury vehicles, rising platform commissions, and lower fares quickly squeezed profit margins. The mounting financial pressure forced numerous operators and drivers to exit the market, leaving a notable gap in the industry.
Determined to regain control, a group of limousine businesses formed a consortium with a bold vision: to create their own ride-hailing app, enabling customers to book directly from registered operators. To bring this vision to life, the consortium sought a technology partner capable of not just developing the app, but delivering a market-ready, scalable solution that could compete effectively and sustainably.
Their key requirements were:
Product Discovery: Conducted product discovery to define user needs, workflows, and core features for a scalable taxi booking application.
Scalable Architecture: Design a robust system capable of supporting growth and onboarding additional travel businesses.
Passenger & Driver Mobile Apps: Build separate apps for passengers and drivers. Passengers can locate nearby drivers, send ride requests, book rides, complete trips, and make secure payments, while drivers can view ride demand, navigate, accept requests, and manage trips efficiently.
Real Time Ride Matching: Implement algorithms to efficiently match passenger requests with nearby drivers for quick response.
Admin Panel for Fleet Owners: Provide a dashboard for car owners to track total rides, revenue, trips, cancellations, and registered passengers and drivers.
Secure Payment Integration: Enable seamless in-app payments for passengers and instant fare processing for drivers.
Analytics & Reporting: Provide insights on trips, revenue, cancellations, and driver performance to support data driven decisions.
Solution
The development of the limousine booking platform began with close collaboration with the client through a structured Discover & Frame workshop. This process helped capture key insights on app concepts, target users, personas, business models, competitive landscape, and potential revenue streams. These insights informed a comprehensive feature set and user experience strategy, ensuring the platform aligned with both business goals and user needs.
Following this, the project moved into technical architecture and planning, where a cloud-based AWS infrastructure with elastic, pay-as-you-go resources was recommended to ensure high performance. The backend was designed with 10 microservices, managed via Kubernetes and AWS EKS, enabling the platform to efficiently handle over 100 booking requests per minute while remaining scalable and reliable. The platform consists of three interconnected applications: native Android and iOS apps for passengers and drivers, along with a web-based admin dashboard for business owners.
Core Features of the Passenger App
Ride Booking & Management:
Riders can easily schedule rides for themselves or on behalf of others, add multiple stops along the route, and view detailed driver information such as name, vehicle type, rating, and contact details. This ensures convenience, transparency, and control over every trip.
Driver Matching Algorithm:
The platform matches riders with drivers based on proximity while using factors like driver ratings and the number of completed rides as tiebreakers. If no suitable driver is immediately available, notifications guide riders to expand their search radius, ensuring efficient and fair matching.
Trip History:
Riders can access a complete record of all past trips, including date, time, pick-up and drop-off locations, fare details, and driver information. This feature helps riders track their travel patterns and maintain accurate records for reference or expense reporting.
Ride Feedback:
After completing a trip, riders can provide feedback on their experience, rating driver performance and leaving comments. This feedback helps improve service quality, maintain accountability, and foster a better overall experience for all users.
Core Features of the Driver App
Driver Onboarding & Verification:
Drivers can register on the platform by submitting their license, vehicle registration certificate (RC), and a profile photo. Once submitted, all details are verified and approved by the admin to ensure compliance with regulations and maintain trustworthiness. This process helps maintain a secure and reliable driver network while preventing fraudulent accounts.
Availability & Ride Management:
Drivers can easily go online or offline to indicate their availability. Ride requests are automatically assigned based on proximity and other factors, while system alerts prevent multiple activations for the same vehicle, ensuring smooth operations and minimizing conflicts in ride allocation.
Trip Handling & Navigation:
Drivers can accept ride requests quickly and access detailed rider information. Integrated navigation provides real-time directions and updates, including estimated time of arrival (ETA) notifications, helping drivers reach destinations efficiently and improving the overall rider experience.
Performance Tracking & Demand Insights:
Drivers can monitor their trip history, earnings, commissions, and rider feedback through a comprehensive dashboard. The platform also displays high-demand areas on a heatmap and provides real-time notifications for ride requests, cancellations, and arrivals, helping drivers make informed decisions and maximize their productivity and earnings.
Core Features of the Admin App
Dashboard Overview:
Admins can monitor the overall performance of the platform in real time, including total and active vehicles, ongoing trips, driver earnings, and commissions. This centralized view enables quick insights into operational status and helps identify areas that may require attention or optimization.
Trip Fare Configuration:
The system allows administrators to define how fares are calculated, taking into account factors such as base fare, distance traveled, vehicle type, ride duration, demand levels, and applicable tariffs. This ensures accurate and consistent pricing for every trip.
Vehicle Tariff Management:
Admins can set detailed pricing rules for each vehicle type, including minimum fare, extra charges for additional kilometers, waiting time, number of stops, and cancellation policies. This flexibility allows the platform to accommodate different vehicle categories and operational scenarios while maintaining fairness for riders and drivers.
Dynamic Pricing & Surge Control:
Fares can be adjusted in real time using dynamic or surge pricing based on demand, traffic conditions, or other operational factors. This feature helps balance rider demand with driver availability, maximizes revenue, and ensures that riders can find rides even during peak periods.
Impact
Unthinkable’s strategic approach helped the client launch the platform on schedule, driving strong adoption and positive feedback from both partners and end users.
Built on AWS using a microservices architecture and Amazon EKS, the platform delivers scalable, high-performance operations with self-healing containers and spike prediction. This reduced development effort by 77% and operational costs by 40%, while supporting 180+ travel businesses, 10,000+ taxis and drivers, and over 100 bookings per minute.
180+
travel businesses associated
10,000+
taxis and drivers registered
100+
bookings handled per minute
