The spectrum of technology has grown exponentially over the years and delivered us numerous applications that make our lives easier. There is hardly anything that you cannot order online. Cars and other automobiles can be ordered at your doorstep; you just have to know which buttons to push. Talking about cars and other automobiles, they are machines with a lot of parts, and sometimes, these parts stop functioning. You never know when you need help with your vehicle. Thanks to technology, now we have a roadside assistance app.
No matter where your vehicle is stranded, you can always order or, should we say, ask for help online through these intelligent apps. Most of the time, these apps will ask you some pointers about the situations and tell you the basic info about the problem that has been occurred. You can either fix it yourself or ask for more help or tow your vehicle to the nearest service center. The number of vehicles on the road has grown exponentially over the past years, and so does the number of breakdowns on the road. If you are thinking of investing in something that is a necessity for every vehicle running on the road, this might be the right time. Let’s start with the development process of the roadside response app.
What is On-demand Roadside Assistance App?
The name of the app kind of explains everything about it, but not all the functionalities it delivers. Typically, these apps are used to get help on the road in case of any emergency or breakdown of the vehicle, but now most of the companies are treating it as a towing service. The functionality of the mobile mechanic app differs per company and region. It might be possible that some companies offer you mechanics on the road to fix your vehicle; on the other hand, some will only offer tow service to the nearest service center then fix your vehicle. Roadside assistance services are in existence since the year 1902, when American Automobile Association (AAA) launched the first service. It usually answered calls that reported emergencies on the road and tow the vehicle to the nearest shop.
The services of AAA would include mobile auto maintenance services, fixing a flat tire, and much more. They have a network of repair shops all over the USA; if you are a member, you can easily check-in in any of these shops to get a free checkup for your vehicle. Since 1902, the technology of automobiles has changed drastically; AAA has also changed, and so does these services. They now come in handy in the form of an on-demand service app.
How Does On-demand Roadside Assistance App work?
The working of these roadside response apps is extremely simple; they usually have a simple user interface with fewer complications as these are only used when someone has an emergency on the road. Mind you, a flat tire on the freeway is still an emergency. The functionality and the number of features in such apps have drastically enhanced with the evolution of the technology.
The working of these apps is extremely simple; for instance, someone faced an emergency on the road, they would just open the app, analyze the complexity of the situation and choose the option further. If one has a flat tire, they can either choose to have a mechanic over or a tow truck based on the need. Once the user has filled in all the basic details such as their location, vehicle information, and some personal information, they can choose the service they want to avail.
The app will notify the service provider and return an expected time when the help will arrive. After the help arrives, the necessary actions are taken. Once the problem is either solved or the vehicle is being towed, it is counted as service completed. After the service is completed, users can pay the amount of the service availed by any of the inbuilt payment methods, and both user and the mechanic rate each other on the app. That’s how simple is the working of such mobile auto maintenance services.
Why Invest in a Roadside Response App?
Investing in something is quite a risk sometimes, but you can be sure of the profit when you see the working principle of the project unfold in front of your eyes every day. Answer this, how often do you get an available parking spot in the mall parking or anywhere? Yeah, exactly! The number of vehicles has grown much larger than in the last couple of years. The larger number of vehicles on the road increases the chances of accidents and breakdowns on the road.
Everyone wants to get to their destination fast, especially to work. During rush hours, there are more breakdowns. Society is in need of such apps as, until now, they only have one option, call to the services provider, and that would create a million confusions about the location, problem in the vehicle, etc. From an investor’s point of view, the global market of the roadside assistance app would reach a valuation of 29 billion US dollars by the year 2026.
The main reason behind such a market size growth is simple, it’s a universal service, everybody has cars and other automobiles such as trucks, SUVs, etc., and they all broke down just like any machine. People prefer the quick response of these services in time of an emergency.
Development Process to be Considered for an On-demand Roadside Assistance App
The development of any app that is related to emergency services is kind of a big deal. One thing you should do before starting the process is the tie up with a reputed tow company or a team of mechanics that are available for remote jobs. If you happen to be a service provider, that’s just the cherry on the top. You can either develop the app in-house or hire reliable on-demand app development services.
Market Analysis
Whenever starting a new business or launching any software, it is always better to listen to what the market says about that product. Surveying the market gives you a ton of insights that helps you along the process. Since the roadside response app is a universal service and everyone with a vehicle will somehow use it at any point, it solves the problem of your potential audience. However, the majority of people also own heavy vehicles such as a trailer, truck, etc.; they are constantly on the move, you should also target them.
Now the next step involves digging deep into the market with diligent research. You can either complete it by yourself or hire a marketing team that does the task for you. However, there is a third option; you can always purchase a market report based on your criteria and pay for the same. These market researches are divided as per various categories to give you better insights such as:
Based on the Service Provider
- Automotive repair clubs (like AAA)
- Motor insurance
- Auto manufacturer
Based on Service Provided
- Towing
- Jump-start or pull-start
- Fuel delivery
- Tire replacement
- Battery assistance
- Replacement key service/ lockout
- Navigational assistance
Based on the Type of Vehicle
- Passenger vehicle
- Light commercial vehicle
- Heavy commercial vehicle
No matter what option you choose to gather insights, just make sure it should consist of the competitor’s details such as strategies, business plans, features, and future prospects. The report should also describe the expectations of the users from a new roadside assistance app.
Map Out the Process
Now that you have all the relevant data sets, you need to proceed to map out the process. The development process becomes much easier when you plan ahead. Since the mechanic to your door service app is kind of a big deal, you should make sure the final product is flawless.
There are three things that you should always consider to include to solve the problems of the user even further. The first thing includes shortening the wait time; if your app is delivering the services within a record time, your app can be the next big thing. The next thing includes the list of problems, don’t just offer the repeated list of solutions that your competitors deliver.
Get in deep in analyzing the problems on the road and offer a range of services that generally your competitors will not deliver, such as oil change on the road; lubricants refill, etc. The final thing remains the simplicity of the app; you have to make it as generic as possible since, in the case of panic, nobody notices the UI of the app; they just want a quick solution.
Features to be Considered
While being stuck on the road, your user will ask for options that you can deliver him. Integrating ultra-modern features in the app can drastically enhance the performance of the app. Here are some of the features that should be considered during the development of such an app.
In-built Calling: When you are stuck on the road, you need a support who tells you to hang in there; help is on the way. Believe it or not, a call in the time of distress works wonder. Apart from that, in-built calling can also help in coordinating during a breakdown.
DMV Support: In case of an accident or any minor damage, it is mandatory to have the correct details of the vehicle on the report. With DMV support, you can fetch the details of any vehicle in minutes and move ahead in the process.
Flawless Navigation and Tracking: You never know when you get lost, one wrong turn, and you will be lost in the spirals of the modern roads. Apart from the navigation, in case of an accident, users are concerned about the mechanic on the way; in-built navigation will help them track the person and locate properly.
Service List: The users should be aware of the fact, which services they are choosing while being stuck on the road. The list of services also them aware of the possible outcomes.
In-built Payment: Running out of cash is the last thing your users will wish for while being stuck on the road. Integrating seamless payment options will significantly improve the overall performance of the app.
Price List: Make sure your prices for the services offered are reasonable. For your customer’s satisfaction, you should deliver a list of costs for them to determine which service to avail of as per the price.
Real-time Notifications: When somebody is stuck on the road, they are always searching for options rather than being on their phone all the time. Real-time notifications will aware the customers about the progress of their help status and also help in reducing panic.
Tech Stack to be Considered
The tech stack is responsible for the overall functioning of the app. Your dream app for delivering help to people stuck on the road can be made more flawless in terms of performance by choice of a sturdy tech stack.
Major mobile auto maintenance service providers use some of the best technology stacks available in the market, such as Stripe & Braintree (split fare option), PayPal’s Card.io, Terraform, Hadoop
Redis with Twemproxy & Celery workers, Storm and Spark, SVG, Canvas 2D, and WebGL, JavaScript, React, Flux, D3, Mapbox, Kafka, Packer, Vagrant, Boto, Unison, Puppet, Go, Java, C, C++, Python, Node.js, etc.
There are numerous programming languages available in the market, but most of the on-demand service app developers prefer React.js, Standard flux, Gulp.js, Browserify, etc. In case you want an app on the iOS platform, you can use Objective C and Swift.
For the purpose of routing, discovery, deployment, documentation, you can always use Java, Nagios, Express.js, Docker, Mesos, Aurora, HAProxy, Ringpop, TChannel, and HyperBahn, Thrift, Protobuf, Phabricator, OpenGrok, Jenkins, Packer, Vagrant, Boto, and Unison, Sphinx, Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana, PostgreSQL, Riak, Cassandra, Hive, MapReduce, HDFS, Elasticsearch, and much more.
Testing and Cost Involved in the Process
After the completion of the coding and final development, the only thing left before launching the app is testing the app as many times as possible. Remember, you cannot roll out the app with some errors; it has to be flawless. The quality of the testing depends on the choice of your development partner, as various companies don’t bother to follow an iterative series of tests. At Matellio, we have an intelligent system of app testing. Our engineers test the app with every possibility and remove every bug and error before delivery of the app.
The cost involved in the development of the roadside assistance app depends on a number of factors. The cost of the on-demand app development services should be considered as an initial investment in a business. However, this investment can be regulated by managing a number of factors of the development process. The number of features integrated into the app will affect the price of the development. There are some advanced features that require a different tech stack that may hike up the price.
The number of platforms on which you want to launch your app also increases the cost as cross-platform app development is more costly as compared to single-platform development. Even after the delivery of the app, you have to spend on the marketing strategies and the distribution of the app. The app publishing on the App Store or Google Play store will also cost you a decent amount of money. However, there are companies that offer various hiring models that are extremely feasible for your budget.
Choose the Best On-demand App Development Service Provider
Roadside assistance apps are on the rise for the last few years, and the future seems extremely promising. All the mechanic shops around the world are going online with their services and extending help to the people stranded on the road. However, these services are also available for the vehicles that are stranded in the garages of the customers. Delivering mechanics to your door is not a new concept, but it is quite promising in terms of revenue generation.
Matellio is referred to as the leading on-demand app development service provider. We have a team of highly skilled engineers and experts with a diverse and vast experience. We have delivered several on-demand applications which have grabbed the limelight in the market. Our hiring models are extremely feasible and are made to fit perfectly with your business needs. Book a free 30-min free consultation call with our experts to discuss more. Fill the form now!!!
