How we review rideshare services
Our scoring methods for assessing ridesharing and taxi booking apps.
We booked rides with Uber, Ola, Shebah, Rydo, Ingogo, GoCatch and Bolt (previously Taxify) to assess the quality of the apps and any additional services they offered.
Booking
We assess the booking process:
- Ease of use when entering a destination, selecting a vehicle and booking a ride
- Cancellation options, costs and related policies
- Supplied information about the driver and vehicle to help identify your ride, e.g. name, registration, vehicle type and colour
- Other available features such as adding multiple stops
Riding
We assess information and features that are available in the app during a ride:
- Driver and vehicle information
- Trip tracking features
- Rating and feedback systems
- General ease of use in navigating the app during a ride
Safety
We look for safety features in the app that can be accessed during a ride if there is a safety issue or emergency. We assess:
- Whether the app has safety features
- Whether they're easy to identify and locate, e.g. is there a clear, obvious "safety" button or are these tools hidden in a menu
- Whether the safety features are simple and easy to use, or too complex
- Available tools including access to emergency services, company representatives, user-nominated emergency contacts (such as family and friends), the ability to share your ride in realtime with user-nominated contacts, and any other features that can improve the safety of your ride.
Setup
We assess:
- How easy it is to set up an account
- User data requirements (name, address etc)
- Payment options
- Whether the service requests any strange permissions (aside from location, contacts and so on)
General ease of use
We assess remaining features and functions in the apps, including:
- Filing reports/claims/payment disputes
- Settings and account features
- Whether you can use your account overseas
- Any other general impressions
Scores
The overall score is made up of:
- Booking (25%)
- Riding (25%)
- Safety (20%)
- Account setup (20%)
- General ease of use score (10%).
Read more
- If you want to compare ridesharing services and taxi booking apps in detail, check out our ridesharing services reviews.
- If you haven't used ridesharing services or taxi booking apps before, and you'd like to learn more, head over to our ridesharing services buying guide.