A step-by-step guide.

Taxi as a line of business is not easy. It is very specific, widespread and labor-intensive. Even so, it is the kind of business that does not require much financial investment at the start.

Below we look at two ways to open your own dispatch service on UpTaxi software.

1. Define your niche.

The taxi business can be classified by several criteria. Deciding at the very beginning who you will be over the next few years and where you are headed is very important, because it will help you work out the best development strategy, see and understand your client, identify direct and indirect competitors, and make the best offer on the market.

2. Analyze the market.

Gather information on demand for taxi services in your city and study your competitors: their prices, their ways and methods of working, their marketing activity, and where in the city they are located. Find out what attracts drivers to a particular service, on what terms they work and, without fail, what they are unhappy about.

Gathering information is not hard. Talk to friends and acquaintances, pay attention to advertising, and look up information on relevant topics online. And finally, order a taxi for yourself, then listen and watch.

3. Register your company.

When opening a dispatch service, it makes the most sense to register as an individual entrepreneur (IP). When registering, choose and specify the types of activity that suit you. Remember that you will be providing information services, not passenger transportation services.

4. Choose automation and buy a phone number.

Today it is hard to imagine a dispatch service or taxi service working on two-way radios. It would be like people still using pagers or sending telegrams instead of text messages alongside today’s mobile gadgets.

There are plenty of offers on the market now, so you can compare them. If you don’t have a large financial cushion, cloud solutions for automating a dispatch service will suit you better. You won’t have to buy the software outright or in installments; you can simply rent it from the developer. But even then, connection terms differ from company to company, and so does functionality.

UpTaxi is a hardware and software suite with extensive functionality, very affordable connection terms and a free 30-day period.

Getting an advertising phone number won’t be hard. It should support multi-line connection.

Prices for vanity numbers can be sky-high, but not always. In practice, telecom operators are willing to compromise: they are ready to find a suitable option or lower the price.

5. Renting premises. Equipment. Hiring staff.

To start a dispatch service, you won’t need large premises, high-performance equipment or a lot of employees.

The criteria for choosing premises are: a location within the city limits (not necessarily downtown, but not on the outskirts either, of course), easy access and parking, because drivers will come to you to get hired and to sort out issues.

Since drivers may visit often, an office building with a security checkpoint, where you have to issue one-time or permanent passes, show a passport and so on, could become something of a problem for you.

Equipment for launching on UpTaxi software won’t be a costly step for you either.

To handle 20 calls at the same time, a computer with a 2 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM and an 80 GB hard drive is enough.

At first you can do without operators by using third-party call centers connected to UpTaxi. But if you have the opportunity and the desire to develop independently, at the initial stage you will need to hire three operators to keep your service running around the clock.

6. Advertising and marketing.

Without advertising, a dispatch service will have an incredibly hard time. Clients need to find out about you somehow.

When choosing promotion channels, recall and pay attention to what your competitors do.

This is not about copying everything exactly; sometimes that is simply unaffordable. But analyzing competitor activity will help you avoid spreading yourself too thin.

7. Financial plan.

The figures used for the calculation are averages and may vary slightly by region and city. But they give a fair overall picture.

• Working in the cloud with a call center.

This option does not require hiring your own operators and eliminates the need to rent a large office. Strictly speaking, you can do without an office at all. Some do. But drivers are much more willing to get hired at an office. The calculation includes the rent of minimal premises.

At first you will have to take on the role of the service administrator yourself.

One-time costs

* If you already have a spare computer or laptop that you can use for work, the only cost left in this item is the VoIP-GSM gateway.

** Connecting and setting up UpTaxi is free, as is the first month of work (free trial period).

Recurring (monthly) costs

* Charges start only from the second month of using the software. The cost is calculated from the number of successful orders per day.

So, depending on what you already have when you set up your business, your costs for opening and the first month of working in the cloud with call centers can range from 65,000 to 120,000 rubles.

• Working in the cloud.

A more expensive option. Here you will need to hire staff from the start, which means larger premises and more equipment for workstations.

One-time costs

Recurring (monthly) costs

* Charges start only from the second month of using the software. The cost is calculated from the number of successful orders per day.

With this option, the costs of setting up the company and running it for the first month will start at 267,000 rubles.

Don’t expect lightning-fast profits. Don’t get discouraged or give up when, in the third month of your work, you still see a loss. The fastest you can realistically get to is breaking even after 4-5 months of work. And profit will definitely come! Reaching profitability in this business takes on average from six months to a year and a half.

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