How to choose taxi software: 12 questions to ask a vendor

Money

1. How much will I pay per month, and what’s included?

Ask about everything: license, rental, implementation, app, support, updates, telephony. With some software, the passenger app and support are billed separately every month.

UpTaxi: 150 ₽ per day plus 7–10% of driver commission. This covers the software, the driver and passenger apps, updates and 24/7 support. The only extras are a branded app, 20,000 ₽ one-time per platform, and call center services if you use them: 1 ₽ per accepted and 4 ₽ per completed order. The voice robot is included free, so you don’t need your own staff of operators, which is usually a service’s biggest expense.

2. Are there limits on drivers or workstations?

An “up to 10 drivers” plan makes you pay more exactly when your service starts to grow.

UpTaxi: no limits on drivers or operators. In fact, the commission goes down as orders grow: from 501 orders per day, the daily fee is dropped.

3. How much does implementation cost, and how long does it take?

Paid implementation over 2–4 weeks means you pay rental while your service isn’t even running yet.

UpTaxi: implementation and training are free, the server for your service is ready in one business day, and dispatchers learn the console in about 10 days.

Trial and data

4. What do I get during the trial?

A cut-down demo on sample data won’t show how the software handles your orders.

UpTaxi: 30 days of full functionality in the cloud on real orders. Free for services with 50+ orders per day.

5. Where is the data stored, and who makes backups?

If the server sits in your office, maintenance, backups and security are your job. If it’s in the cloud, ask where exactly and how often backups are made.

UpTaxi: each service gets its own server in a data center, and we handle backups and updates. You don’t need any hardware of your own.

6. Can I take my customer and driver database with me?

It’s a question about the future, but it shows how confident the vendor is.

UpTaxi: the customer and driver database belongs to your service and is exported on request. When you join, we likewise migrate the database from your previous software.

Orders and apps

7. What order channels are there besides the phone?

The more orders come in without an operator, the smaller your staff and the fewer night shifts. Ask directly: how much will call handling cost if you have no operators of your own?

UpTaxi: an LLM voice robot answers calls and creates the order itself, plus order bots in Telegram and Max, a passenger app and a website for your dispatch service. All orders land in one queue.

8. How does automatic dispatch work: by road or “as the crow flies”?

As the crow flies, across a river or a railway, the “nearest” driver may be several kilometers away by road. The customer waits longer and goes to an aggregator.

UpTaxi: along the road graph, accounting for one-way streets and banned turns. Our own algorithm, with no Yandex or Google.

9. What about an app under my brand, and who updates it?

Find out the price, the publishing timelines for RuStore, Google Play and App Store, and who pays for updates.

UpTaxi: the shared “UpTaxi Taxi” app is included in the price. A branded app for your service costs 20,000 ₽ per platform, and an update costs 7,000 ₽. We handle store publishing.

10. What happens to drivers with a weak phone or poor internet?

A driver without orders leaves. Ask whether there’s a fallback way to work.

UpTaxi: the driver bot in Max works without installing an app and without GPS, and a backup connection channel keeps drivers online when mobile internet is restricted.

Support and development

11. How does support work, and what does it cost after the first month?

Taxi services work nights and holidays. “Support at standard rates” after a free month is a common line in contracts.

UpTaxi: 24/7 support is included in the price, and our monitoring system alerts us to incidents automatically.

12. Who pays for custom development if I need a new feature?

Large vendors estimate custom work in hours and bill it separately, sometimes with a wait in the queue.

UpTaxi: custom features, updates and fixes are free, and requests go straight to the developers.