Ride-Sharing and On-Demand High-Capacity Transport

The provided document is an assignment that revolves around the concept of ride-sharing and on-demand high-capacity transport systems. It includes a list of references to relevant research papers and studies on the topic, covering aspects such as dynamic trip-vehicle assignment, quantifying the potential of ride-sharing using call description records, and the benefits of vehicle pooling with shareability networks. The document aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter, including its applications, advantages, and challenges.

Running head: BID TAXI SERVICE
BID TAXI SERVICE
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author note

1BIDTAXI SERVICE
Introduction
Considering the recent scenario, where public transport system is over burdened
with huge number of travelers it is necessary to outline a solution for coping up with the
large number of city dwellers. Daily passengers are found struggling to find a cab to
reach their destined location, thus increasing the dependence on private vehicles
(Stiglic et al., 2015). The Bid taxi aims to facilitate the ride-sharing services in the city.
The BidTaxi aims to improvise the existing cab system. Apart from allowing customers
to avail pre-paid services, BidTaxi utilizes bidding services for the prescribed rides. The
taxi service given by the BidTaxi incorporates a system where a customer could enter
his/her pick up location and the destination location. This gets broadcasted to the
BidTaxi drivers who could then bid for the passengers. The customer and driver could
avail the necessary information such as cost estimation, routes and required time with
the help of the BidTaxi mobile application or through the BidTaxi website. The customer
will be reverted back within ten minutes. The system will keep a track on the entire
journey of the traveler and the customers have to make the necessary payments once
they reach their destined location (Stiglic et al., 2015). This report mainly discusses the
advantages that the BidTaxi service can provide to the present date city dwellers and
focuses on the fact that why it is essential to incorporate such services in public
transportation.

2BIDTAXI SERVICE
Why should one opt for BidTaxi service?
Secure and Safer
In normal taxi booking services it is mostly seen that the travelers are not
satisfied with the rides. There is no option for the customer to file a complaint or avail
compensation for poor service but in case of the BidTaxi, the drivers are required to be
certified. Other than that, each of the vehicles of the BidTaxi is strictly checked
beforehand for the purpose of road worthiness. Thus, there lies very less chance of
mishap during the journey. BidTaxi services can ensure their customer’s safety and
comfort during the journey period (Ma, Zheng & Wolfson, 2013). Such improved
services will attract more people to opt for carpooling rather than using their personal
vehicles.
Considering the present date pollution rate it is essential to reduce the emissions
due to vehicles. Such ride-sharing could reduce the number of private vehicles on the
main roads. One of the main reasons for heavy traffic in some cities is the unavailability
of the car parking; if people choose to ridesharing rather than using private vehicle this
can reduce congestion up to some extent (Furuhata et al., 2013). As per the reports of
the surveys, the overall percentage of greenhouse gas emission can fall down if people
switch to ride-sharing (Johnson, 2015). It is essential that the governing bodies of the
city should enact plans so that the customers have a wider option of selecting the mode
of transport because that could reduce the number of vehicles in the city. BidTaxi with
its much secured and safer services have a potential to attract a number of travelers. A
typical four-wheeler vehicle emits nearly 4.7 metric tons of CO2 every year (Seinfeldn &
Pandis, 2016). Considering this huge amount of emission it is necessary that more and

3BIDTAXI SERVICE
more people is encouraged to opt for public transportation system. Incorporation of the
BidTaxi service to the public transport system can make the transportation system
hassle free for the everyday passengers. The concept of ride-sharing will increase the
reusability of the vehicles thus reducing the number of vehicles in the cities. Thus, ride-
sharing can be effective in reducing the pollution rate up to some extent.
Simpler and faster mode of service
In the recent times, it can be seen that Smart phones have became the part and
parcel of the city dwellers. Keeping this context in mind, the BidTaxi enable its
customers to avail the services through mobile applications or through the official
website of the BidTaxi, thus providing the customers with easier access to the
carpooling service. The customer could book the ride by inserting the name of the
destination location and all the necessary information regarding the ride will be
displayed in their smart phones (Goel, Kulik & Ramamohanarao, 2017). In order to
ensure a pleasant journey it is essential that the rider and the driver maintain a cordial
relationship. Keeping this context in mind, the BidTaxi also allows the driver as well as
the customer to rate or comment about each other. In other words, the BidTaxi have an
inbuilt system for star-rating which will appear in the online IDs of both the customer and
the driver. In case the driver is given a poor rating he/she could get a scope for
improving. The existing ride-sharing models in the market are mainly customer-centric,
which means their main focus is to gain customer satisfaction but in the case of BidTaxi
the view of the drivers are also taken into account, even they are given chance to give
ratings regarding the customer (Cici et al., 2013). The BidTaxi ride-sharing services are
supposed to be of two-sided nature which includes the passengers and the drivers. The

4BIDTAXI SERVICE
passengers will be provided with much greater availability of cars as well as shorter
waiting duration. The type of vehicle could be easily chosen from the concerned mobile
application. The greater availability and the faster service would attract more number of
customers. The more number of customers sign up the mobile application will lead to
the more profit to the drivers as they would get a chance to pick up more number of
passengers (Alexander & González, 2015). The easy mode of payment offered by the
BidTaxi service will also attract more number of customers. The customer could make
the payment with the help of debit card or could avail the gift cards from the
supermarkets. Customers who do not have credit/debit cards could opt for other mode
of payment such as Osko, where the customers have to book the services from the
BidTaxi office (Teubner & Flath, 2015).
Consumer welfare
Ride-sharing platforms such as BidTaxi can provide the city dwellers with ample
number of transportation option thus enhancing the consumer welfare. In other words,
the customers could choose from the range of vehicles such as cheaper cars or a
luxurious car. This will also ensure higher utilization of the already existing vehicles in
the city. This would enable all the categories of customers to switch to ride-sharing
(Cohen & Kietzmann, 2014). The BidTaxi also aims to encourage the travelers by
various means to choose ridesharing over their personal vehicles. Some of the
approaches of the BidTaxi involve giving the customers with status points for booking
their rides. The customers can utilize these points for availing discount in their
consecutive rides, providing tips to the drivers or can contribute to the charity; this will
facilitates service loyalty to the customers. Such schemes will encourage more number

5BIDTAXI SERVICE
of customers to participate in ride-sharing. In the process this will ensure more number
of passengers for the BidTaxi drivers (Santi et al., 2014). Considering the amount of
private vehicles in the cities, it can said that the normal taxi drivers run out of
passengers as the passengers finds the manual process of searching and negotiating
with the cab driver time consuming (Veer, 2017). Amidst such circumstances, ride-
sharing services as that of BidTaxi will ensure a healthy income for the cab drivers as
well. The ride-sharing business of BidTaxi gives equal opportunities and scopes to the
passengers as well as the cab drivers. It provides the passengers with cost effective
quality service as well as provides the cab drivers with a wider scope to earn more.
Conclusion
Considering all these aspects of the BidTaxi ride-sharing services it can be said
that the BidTaxi have huge future scope. Booking a ride with the help of Smart phones
is considered to be much convenient for the passengers. This business will also provide
the drivers with wider opportunities as at the present era of Smart phones people tends
to avail online services rather than the age-old process of cab booking where the
customers have to bear the nagging of the taxi drivers. BidTaxi with its quality service
will ensure that the more and more passengers opt of BidTaxi service rather than the
manual process of searching for cab, negotiating the fare and convincing the cab driver.
The GPS based location tracking and the mobile application of the BidTaxi makes the
operation and the services much simpler and faster for both the drivers as well as the
passengers. Such ride-sharing services will provide the daily passengers with ample
number of advantages such as faster, comfortable and easier mode of service. Apart
from these, incorporation of such innovative ride-sharing transport as one of the means

6BIDTAXI SERVICE
of public transport can lead to the economic uplifitment of the cities. Although more
innovations can be brought in the BidTaxi services in the near future but considering the
present day scenario it can be concluded that the such ride-sharing services is the need
of an hour.
Recommendation
In-trip entertainment
None of the passengers will desire to get stuck in a taxi for a prolonged boring
ride. In order to keep the customers entertained the BidTaxi could incorporate
entertainment service in the tenure of the ride. In other words, in-trip entertainment can
kill customer boredom in case the cab gets stuck in the traffic for a long period. In order
to implement such system the BidTaxi will be required to install a touch-sensitive
console such for the driver as well as the passengers. The console will consist of
number of options regarding entertainment such as music, videos, news and games, a
browser connecting to the internet and trip-based features (Lesh, 2013). The passenger
could sync the inbuilt system with his/her smart phone so that they can avail the
services such as Sony LIV or Apple music. The BidTaxi can also launch its own playlist
for providing the customers with a soothing travelling experience (Buckley, Fishman &
Kaufmann, 2015). Apart from this, in-car WIFI connections are highly recommendable
for the BidTaxi ride-sharing business. Such in-car innovation could bring a huge
transformation in ride-sharing services and can also improve the customer experience.
Considering the business point of view it is essential for the BidTaxi to earn customer
satisfaction thus it is highly recommendable that the BidTaxi incorporates such

7BIDTAXI SERVICE
innovation in its car ride that makes it distinguishable from the existing carpooling
services in the market (Alonso-Mora et al., 2017). Providing a pleasing experience in
the form of in-car entertainment can prove to be a success for BidTaxi in the long run.
Pre-riding training for the drivers
It is highly recommendable that the BidTaxi provides its driver with special
courses in order to cope up with the technological advancement in the recent times. The
BidTaxi service involves the handling of mobile applications, GPS tracking. It is
essential that the drivers are well trained regarding the various operations of the
application as well as the system software. Well-trained drivers will also ensure a
smoother and safer travelling experience to the passengers (Azevedo & Weyl, 2016).
The driver should also be trained on how he should attend the customers as there are
number of customers. The session can be conducted for a prolonged time period and
each and every query of the trainee drivers should be addressed in details. Other than
this, it is highly recommendable that all the features of application starting of rating the
riders, viewing the customer feedbacks and picking the customers all the process
should be explained in depth during the training session (Rassman, 2014). This will only
improve the service quality of the BidTaxi service. The pros and cons of the business
should also be explained in detail to the BidTaxi drivers. Apart from this, it is suggested
that as the BidTaxi provides easier access of servicers to the customers, it can also
provide a simpler option to the drivers for enrolling as the BidTaxi driver such as
launching a mobile application where the driver could apply for the BidTaxi service
could engage more number of drivers in the profession.

8BIDTAXI SERVICE
References
Alexander, L. P., & González, M. C. (2015). Assessing the impact of real-time
ridesharing on urban traffic using mobile phone data. Proc. UrbComp, 1-9.
Alonso-Mora, J., Samaranayake, S., Wallar, A., Frazzoli, E., & Rus, D. (2017). On-
demand high-capacity ride-sharing via dynamic trip-vehicle
assignment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(3), 462-467.
Azevedo, E. M., & Weyl, E. G. (2016). Matching markets in the digital
age. Science, 352(6289), 1056-1057.
Buckley, L. E., Fishman, J. K., & Kaufmann, M. D. (2015). THE INTERSECTION OF
INNOVATION. Wyoming Lawyer.
Cici, B., Markopoulou, A., Frías-Martínez, E., & Laoutaris, N. (2013, February).
Quantifying the potential of ride-sharing using call description records.
In Proceedings of the 14th Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and
Applications (p. 17). ACM.
Cohen, B., & Kietzmann, J. (2014). Ride on! Mobility business models for the sharing
economy. Organization & Environment, 27(3), 279-296.
Furuhata, M., Dessouky, M., Ordóñez, F., Brunet, M. E., Wang, X., & Koenig, S. (2013).
Ridesharing: The state-of-the-art and future directions. Transportation Research
Part B: Methodological, 57, 28-46.

9BIDTAXI SERVICE
Goel, P., Kulik, L., & Ramamohanarao, K. (2017). Optimal pick up point selection for
effective ride sharing. IEEE Transactions on Big Data, 3(2), 154-168.
Johnson, T. V. (2015). Review of vehicular emissions trends. SAE International Journal
of Engines, 8(2015-01-0993), 1152-1167.
Lesh, M. C. (2013). Innovative concepts in first-last mile connections to public
transportation. In Urban Public Transportation Systems 2013 (pp. 63-74).
Ma, S., Zheng, Y., & Wolfson, O. (2013, April). T-share: A large-scale dynamic taxi
ridesharing service. In Data Engineering (ICDE), 2013 IEEE 29th International
Conference on (pp. 410-421). IEEE.
Rassman, C. L. (2014). Regulating rideshare without stifling innovation: Examining the
drivers, the insurance gap, and why Pennsylvania should get on board. Pitt. J.
Tech. L. & Pol'y, 15, 81.
Santi, P., Resta, G., Szell, M., Sobolevsky, S., Strogatz, S. H., & Ratti, C. (2014).
Quantifying the benefits of vehicle pooling with shareability
networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(37), 13290-
13294.
Seinfeld, J. H., & Pandis, S. N. (2016). Atmospheric chemistry and physics: from air
pollution to climate change. John Wiley & Sons.
Stiglic, M., Agatz, N., Savelsbergh, M., & Gradisar, M. (2015). The benefits of meeting
points in ride-sharing systems. Transportation Research Part B:
Methodological, 82, 36-53.

10BIDTAXI SERVICE
Teubner, T., & Flath, C. M. (2015). The economics of multi-hop ride sharing. Business &
Information Systems Engineering, 57(5), 311-324.
Veer, D. V. D. (2017). Public transport and mobility on-demand Research on the
efficiency of on-demand taxi service Abel.