On-Demand Services: Predicting Arrival Time (ETA) for Customers

In the hyper-competitive on-demand landscape, there is a constant struggle to stay ahead in the game. With speed and convenience being the major drivers of on-demand economy, companies spare no effort to deliver their services, whenever and wherever the customer demands.

The time between a service demand and and its delivery has a crucial role in on-demand ecosystem. This estimated time of arrival (ETA) makes a huge difference in brand-customer relationship, which is the new currency in the system.

On demand transportation and logistics are two major verticals of on-demand model that are highly dependent upon giving their customers a visibility over their order or service arrival. This approach involves real-time monitoring of a car, bus, truck, or fleet so that the exact time of delivery can be estimated.

Predicting Arrival Time (ETA): How it Works?

• Services such as e-hailing, car sharing, car rental, station-based mobility are the drivers of On-demand transportation sector. To predict arrival time of the taxi at the pick-up location, on-demand apps enable users to track real-time movement of the vehicle on maps (giving an idea about areas with traffic and the route followed to reach the defined location). This, not only informs the customers about taxi’s arrival time but also keeps them updated about continuous efforts of the service providers to reach on time, which gradually reduces chances of ride cancellation.
  
  
• Similarly, tracking fleet in real time empower logistics. By tracking the carriers live, it is possible to keep a tab on their current location, check out the route followed by driver to deliver consignment, keep a tab on fleet speed, and therefore estimate the time for consignment delivery. For ETA, fleet management solutions rely upon GPS-enabled tracking of vehicle.

For estimating arrival time, the real time data collected from GPS devices and speed profiles serve the purpose. This ranges from tracking official speed limits, speeds derived from road types, historical speed data over a defined period of time, travel times from previous users, real time traffic info etc.

On-Demand Apps: Estimating Convenience Arrival for Customers

On-demand economy is causing disruption in major domains including transportation, food, logistics, healthcare, home services etc. No matter what industry the on-demand concept is serving, giving users an estimation of service delivery or arrival is imperative.

Have an idea to disrupt the on-demand economy? Contact our expert at Daffodil for 30 minute free consultation service and get more ideas to enhance user experience of your app.