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Developing a Mobile Application for a Taxi Service

Company in Nigeria

Adewole Adewumi, Victor Odunjo and Sanjay Misra

Department of Computer and Information Sciences
Covenant University
Ota, Nigeria
{wole.adewumi, victor.odunjo, sanjay.misra}@covenantuniversity.edu.ng

Abstract— Transportation is an issue of concern in big cities of paper is thus structured as follows: In Section 2 a review of
many developing countries today. Due to the large population in existing systems is conducted. In Section 3, we focus on the
these cities, there is constant traffic congestion and pollution. As design of the proposed system using the Unified Modeling
a result taxi services are common. In Nigeria, companies offering Language (UML) diagrams. In Section 4, we discuss the
these services have discovered that they can better serve the large implementation of the mobile application and we compare it
population by providing their services through the mobile with the existing systems in Section 5. Section 6 concludes the
platform. Given the wide spread adoption of smart phones in paper.
these regions, we designed, developed and deployed an Android-
based application for one of the taxi service company called Red II. REVIEW OF EXISTING SYSTEMS
Cab. The application makes it easier for Red Cab to cater for its
current customers and also reach out to newer ones. Easy Taxi was founded in Brazil and has since been
expanding. Bankole Cardoso introduced the company to
Keywords- Android, Mobile application, Taxi booking, Nigeria in July 2013 [11]. Its main goal is to create efficiencies
transportation in the Nigerian transportation network by changing the
perception of Nigerians about taxis. With Easy Taxi, users can
I. INTRODUCTION call a taxi anytime and anywhere and the app would
Transportation plays a vital role in the day-to-day activities automatically search for the taxi closest to the vicinity of the
of the society. In most communities, a large fraction of the customer. As soon as a taxi is selected, a live map of the taxi’s
working population commutes to work daily [1]. Commuting movement is shown on the screen of the customer’s mobile
may not only be for business purposes but also for relaxation, device. The drawback of Easy Taxi however is that because it
shopping and other social activities. Of all the means of is new, Nigerians are still rather skeptical about its ability to
transportation, land transport, comprising of the use of vehicles always deliver hence it is not yet widely used.
– both private and commercial is common especially in Afro Cab is another Nigerian based taxi hailing app, which
developing countries of Africa [2]. However, a key advantage emerged in 2012 [12]. The company is currently servicing
of commercial transportation over owning a personal vehicle is Lagos and Abuja with plans to expand their reach to more
that it is less expensive and economical considering the high major cities in the country. The company has over 600
poverty rate in this region [3]. registered drivers in Abuja and Lagos. The application works
Taxi services are becoming prominent especially in big by allowing users to input their location and then a menu of
cities of sub-Saharan Africa [4] [5]. Prior to this time, the registered locations/streets are shown. If the location keyed-in
companies offering these services have not been able to reach is not known, an alternative pickup location is shown. The type
out to as many people as they would have desired especially of car the user wants to ride is listed and the user is also able to
remote locations [6], [7], [8]. However, given the wide spread specify the range of amount that s/he is willing to pay before
adoption of mobile devices (particularly smart phones) in this tapping the Get Cab button. The app sends the request to a
region, there is a pressing need to reach out to more customers number of the drivers within the vicinity. A driver can either
and also better cater for existing ones [9], [10]. Some of the accept or reject the request and the feedback is fed to the
companies based in Nigeria – the nation with the largest black customer in real time. However, once a driver accepts the offer,
population in sub-Saharan Africa – have already deployed a live map view of the taxi’s movement is shown on the screen
mobile applications to better serve their customers but Red Cab of the user’s mobile device. A drawback of this application is
Taxi is yet to successfully deploy a mobile app to support their that it fails to recognize some locations and so customers
services. Instead the company relies on its Web-based taxi requiring the services in those areas may be denied the service.
booking system. In order to maintain a competitive edge with Uber Taxi on the other hand can be described as a taxi
its competitors, Red Cab Taxi has recognized the need for a service for the elite. It portrays its users as successful
mobile version of its taxi booking service. The aim of this individuals who have style, class and elegance [13]. The Uber
paper therefore is to discuss the development of an Android- smartphone application that is available on all mobile platforms
based mobile app for Red Cab Taxi Company. The rest of this
connects passengers to drivers in an area. All passengers have
to do is to download the Uber application on their smartphone.
When a request is made, a GPS based dispatcher feature simply
sends the location of the requesting passenger as pinpointed on
a Google map, in specifics to the country. The user then selects
the type of car s/he wants to use. A picture of the driver and the
vehicle's registration detail is sent so the passenger and a
suitable price is then agreed upon. When a passenger is in the
car, s/he can send a link of an online map to a friend or loved
one, who can track their entire journey via GPS. Driver rating
is also a feature of the app, in which a rider can rate the driver
and also give a testimonial on the service provided by Uber.
However, this service is not yet functional in Nigeria.
Tranzit, unlike other mobile enabled taxi service is not just
a transportation service, but also a delivery service that helps a
person locate required and interesting places, events, by
suggestions based on the person’s current location. It can also
be described as an intermediary between passengers and Figure 1. Use case diagram of the Red Cab Mobile Application
drivers [14]. Tranzit claims that with a few taps, goods can be
delivered to a customer’s doorstep, and can with those same TABLE I. USE CASE NARRATIVE
taps find a license-vetted taxi. Tranzit, which was first called
Red Cab
Taxi Park, was launched in August 2013, bridging the gap
between passengers and drivers. Tranzit was borne of the This Use Case describes how a user places
desire to better serve our steadily growing database of client. Brief Description an order to a Taxi driver and how the user
The service is currently running in Lagos, though there are monitors the taxi until its arrival
plans to expand the coverage. Lagos traffic is legendary and Actor The owner of the mobile phone (the user)
booking a taxi with ID and details of drivers unknown is very
risky. Tranzit’s plan is to change all this, is by developing a Basic Flow
The use case starts when the actor inserts
system of service that moves people and objects from one place his details on a registration page which is
to another in the city of Lagos. displayed on installation
1. The actor can update the initial
Red Cab Taxi, which is one of the leading taxi service registered details
companies in Nigeria currently, has no mobile application that 2. The actor places an order,
allows for booking as seen in the other existing systems. The tapping the icon on the application menu.
company relies on its website for providing customers with a 3. A page with different text fields
means of booking taxis. In order to maintain its competitive is displayed requiring the user to insert his
location and its description.
advantage, the need for such a mobile application that would 4. Details of placed orders are
complement their website was identified. The process of displayed in the order history on the
developing the initial version of the application is the subject of application menu
discussion in this paper. Flow of Events 5. The location of the Taxi man
can be viewed on a Google map by tapping
III. DESIGN OF THE RED CAB MOBILE APPLICATION the ‘Where is taxi’ button on the
application menu
Based on interaction with relevant stakeholders (customers, 6. A call can be made to a taxi
personnel in the company) and a study of similar existing man
applications, we identified the following requirements as core 7. A user double taps the exit
button to exit
for the application:
• A module for registering on the platform Alternative Flow
If in the Basic Flow when Registering and
• A module that allows a user to update his/her profile Placing an order, the actor clicks the Save
or Submit button without having filled out
• A module for placing order for a Taxi the compulsory fields, an error message
will be flagged.
• A module for calling the Taxi man Special
None
Requirements
• A module for locating the Taxi
The actors must have filled the Place Order
Pre-Conditions
A use case model was used to capture these basic functions requirements completely.
and is shown in Fig. 1. Table 1 is use case narrative describing Post-Conditions
A message would be received by the user
the flow of activity in the mobile application. from the assigned driver

Extension Points None

 IV. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MOBILE APPLICATION B. Place Order Module
The mobile application was implemented using Eclipse This module is the core activity of the mobile application. It
IDE for the Android platform and was deployed to the Google allows a user to input his/her current location with specific
Play Store. It can be retrieved at details. This information is then sent to a potential driver’s
(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.red.redcab phone as text message. This is depicted in Fig. 4.
&hl=en). Android is officially the most widely used mobile
operating system in Nigeria [15]. The application is able to
interface with Google maps to provide detailed information
about a Taxi’s location. The modules of the mobile application
include: a menu page - that is displayed right after the
application loads. If a user is downloading the application for
the first time then s/he would have to register but subsequently
the menu screen is displayed as shown in Fig. 2.

Figure 4. Red Cab Place Order Module

C. Order History
This module shows in ascending order, the various orders
previously placed. The user can also delete an order history by
pressing down an order for three seconds that is to be deleted.
The module is depicted in Fig. 5.

Figure 2. Red Cab Menu Screen

A. Registration Module
This is the first interactive screen that is displayed after the
splash screen if the user is downloading the application for the
first time. It provides fields that capture the name (surname) the
mobile phone number and password for login to the
application. This is depicted in Fig. 3.

Figure 5. Red Cab Order History Module

D. Taxi Locator
This module is integrated with Google Maps showing the
location of the assigned driver on the map. It is used to monitor
the position of the driver as shown in Fig. 6.

Figure 3. Red Cab Registration Page

 V. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
To check that the mobile application developed in this
study provides features that can compete favorably with the
existing mobile applications, we compare the application with
the existing systems discussed in Section 2. The comparison is
done based on the following criteria namely: whether or not
registration is required in order to use; the size of the app when
installed on a device; whether or not it works with Google
Maps; the support for call services as well as the support for
short messaging services (SMS). Table II gives the
comparative analysis between the Red Cab app and similar
existing apps.

TABLE II. A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE RED CAB APP AND
OTHER EXISTING APPS

EasyT Afro Uber Red

Tranzi
Criteria axi Cab Taxi Cab
t
Taxi
Requires registration
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
to use
App size when 10.68 11.52 40.11 17.52 2.60
installed MB MB MB MB MB

Payment Integration No Yes Yes Yes No

Works with Google

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Maps
Call services
supported within the
Figure 6. Taxi Locator Module Yes No Yes No Yes
app (to driver and
customer care)
E. Call Module SMS messaging
No No No No Yes
support
The application can allow a user to call the Taxi man that
receives his order or the Customer Care of the company. It is
depicted in Fig. 7.
From Table II, we observe that all the mobile applications
considered require their users to register initially after the
application is downloaded from the store. The various mobile
applications also integrate Google Maps. When installed on a
device, Red Cab App happens to occupy less space compared
to the other applications and so requires far less time to
download. For payment integration, EasyTaxi app de-
emphasizes payment focusing rather on hailing a taxi. Also,
given that the application developed in this paper is an initial
version, payment module is yet to be incorporated compared to
the other existing mobile applications (Afro Cab, Uber Taxi
and Tranzit) that incorporate payment. For call services within
the app, Red Cab app makes it possible to call the driver
assigned as well as customer care. Call services are also
obtainable in Tranzit and Easy Taxi. SMS messaging is
supported in the Red Cab application in instances where it
might be impossible to get across via mobile data due to low
signal strength.
VI. CONCLUSION AND FURTHER WORKS
This study has shown the process of designing and
developing a mobile application for Red Cab Taxi Company
based in Nigeria. Prior to this time, the company has had to
rely solely on its website to provide user's with the booking
Figure 7. Red Cab Call Module
functionality. To ensure that the possible deployment of this
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