The ride-hailing company Uber opened its API for 11 launch partners back in 2014. The results were stunning; companies like Starbucks, Google Maps, OpenTable, and Trip Advisor implemented an Uber call-button into their software products, bringing increased customer satisfaction and many new business opportunities.

Lyft has followed Uber’s footsteps and partnered with PayPal, Slack, HERE WeGo, and Amazon. They also followed Uber into a partnership with Google Maps.

The most popular rideshare APIs are Uber Ride Requests API and Lyft Concierge API. By integrating with a rideshare API, businesses receive benefits like improved effectiveness, cost-saving, expanding user experience, improved infrastructure, building customer loyalty, and others.

Below we support the above-mentioned benefits of rideshare API implementation with brilliant success stories. See below how the world’s most famous companies won by partnering with rideshare services, and why you may want to consider something similar.

The Benefits of a Rideshare API Implementation

Improved Effectiveness

Implementing a rideshare API streamlines transportation services for companies where fast and effective delivery of customers to endpoint destinations is a crucial need. Institutions like medical services whose primary task is to care for elders and people with limited abilities may benefit greatly from partnering with services like Uber or Lyft.

The perfect example of such collaboration is Lyft partnership with LogistiCare, the US largest manager of the non-emergency medical transportation provider. The company has integrated Lyft API into their proprietary platform, that allowed for seamless logistic operations in 276 cities, which averages in 69 million non-emergency medical trips per year.

Cost-Savings

Twenty Four Seven Hotels, which manages properties for reputable hotel chains including famous names like Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, and IHG, announced 58% cost saving thanks to inviting Uber as a third-party vendor for their shuttle transportation.

Alison Sansone, the VP of marketing and communications at Twenty For Seven Hotels, says: “It’s easy for our staff to use–at the touch of a button–reducing logistics and ensuring quick and responsive service to our guests.”

Customer satisfaction is strongly tied to the overall Uber’s fame as a cheap, comfortable, seamless, and reliable services. The feeling of comfort is supported by the fact that Uber is the only way of transportation; a millennial-minded customer would trust in a foreign country.

David Wani, a CEO of Twenty Four Seven Hotels, says that partnering with Uber “has definitely been a game-changer, providing a scalable way for us to deliver a reliable transportation service when our guests need it the most.”

Expanding User Experience

The Google Maps service integrated an Uber option in 2014. The button was multifunctional. It showed possible routes with an Uber cab and allowed launching a ride and paying from it from the Maps app.

Later, Maps added Lyft API to its functionality as well, allowing its customers to choose between Lyft and Uber riding services. The functionality expanded customer experience considerably by allowing users to visualize the journey and see estimations of the ride’s cost and duration.
Yet as of in mid–2019, Google has restricted Uber functionality, possibly because of Alphabet’s (Google subsidiary) large investment into Lyft.

Improved Infrastructure

Walmart needs to have a well-developed logistic system to organize last-mile grocery deliveries. This is of great importance to the company since groceries make 50% of Walmart’s income.

The company is moving fast in the eCommerce sector, but it needs to build a robust infrastructure for grocery delivery. Since customer demands are evolving and changing quickly, Walmart decided to use an existing network and partner with Uber and Lyft. This move also increased customer convenience and saved infrastructure costs.

Building Customer Loyalty

Starbucks makes sure anyone wishing for a cup of coffee will hit a destination fast and cheap. The company announced an affiliation with Uber back in 2014, and both of the companies have benefited.

Now, if a customer clicks on the Uber button in the Starbucks app, the Uber app gets launched, allowing a user to get a quick drive to the coffee-shop nearby.
In late 2019, Starbucks also promised integration with UberEats to arrange product deliveries. Roz Brewer, a Group President and COO for Starbucks, says: “Partnering with Uber Eats helps us take another step towards bringing Starbucks to customers wherever they are.” In this way, the company wants to increase customer loyalty by creating new “digital experiences that are meaningful, valuable, and convenient for our customers.”

How to Integrate With the Uber API?

Now that we’ve seen some examples of successful rideshare API implementations, how can you go about integrating with one? Usually, companies like Uber and Lyft openly share information about the implementation of their APIs. Lyft’s support team can be contacted directed to ask for this access. The users need to register on their Uber’s dashboard and get the approval to use their API. Below, we’ll review some specific steps for Uber.

Services like Uber do a great job of streamlining the whole process of implementing their APIs into third-party apps. Uber Developer Dashboard, for example, gives a detailed guide on how to implement their API:

1. Go to the Uber Developers tab and learn the general conditions of partnering with Uber.
2. A user can choose between two options: Ride Requests and Ride Promotions. Ride Requests API lets users request rides from a third-party app. Ride Promotions allow to automatically apply for promotions for users that are signed in their Uber accounts.
3. You can implement Ride Request API in three different ways, either by Ride Request Button, Ride Request Deep Link, Ride Request REST API. Ride Request and Ride Request Deep Link do not require high development efforts. Ride Request REST API needs a more complex development process.
4. Also, implementing Uber API requires authentication of the third-party app, and that needs registering an app with Uber.
5. Your application needs to set scopes of the amount of user data it can access. Uber guide gives detailed information about Scopes.
6. Further, Uber gives access to the developer Sandbox to test the API functionality.
7. You can check the most spread developer errors in the Error tab.
8. There is a possibility to get notifications about the changes in the API through the Webhooks.
9. Uber gives access to Client Libraries that make it easier to implement Uber API into applications.
10. Uber continuously releases changes to its apps. You can learn about them in the Versioning tab.
11. To avoid hitting data request thresholds, check out Uber’s guidelines on Rate Limiting.
12. You can set timezone and language specifications in the Localizations tab.
13. Further, you can check out the details about the design specifications of Uber functionality within your app in the Design Guidelines.

Although it is not easy for a non-techy person to complete the Uber API implementation, the guidelines simplify the procedure so that less extra effort is required on the development side.

Summing Everything Up

The number of businesses that aim to win customer loyalty by predicting their needs and offering seamless solutions grows. In this condition, a Rideshare API integration may be a breaking point in a race with competitors. It will be extremely beneficial in such business niches as the trip and food industry.

Yet, the area of applications grows throughout the whole world. Any user will be happy to easily launch a ride to the dentist’s office, grocery, school, bank, or a nail salon. And although such integrations are already traditional in hotel and restaurant apps, adding ridesharing functionality in less conventional business areas may be a crunch point in the competition.