Are you planning to make a taxi booking website in WordPress? If yes, then you are on the right blog.
Hiring a taxi cab using WordPress website is very convenient for taxi business.
In this blog post, you will learn how to make a taxi booking website in WordPress.
This blog post provides a comprehensive walkthrough for building a taxi booking website in a few steps. Whether or not you are an expert in WordPress, this walkthrough will simply solve your query.
The good news is that we will use a completely free plugin, which is the best taxi booking plugin for WordPress.
It’s called Taxi Booking Manager for WooCommerce or eCab for short.
But before diving into the walkthrough let’s know about the Ecab plugin.
What is eCab?
eCab, or Taxi Booking Manager for WooCommerce, was created by Mage People. It is a lightweight taxi booking plugin powered by WooCommerce. If you plan to quickly create a taxi solution for your business or your client, this is the ultimate plugin you can trust. The plugin is compatible with WordPress version 5.3 or above, and it is constantly updated to the latest WordPress version.
What are the features of eCab?
eCab has both free and paid features.
Its free feature makes it an exceptional taxi booking plugin where you get many premium features from its free version.
Let’s find out which features are available in which version.
eCab Free features
- You can create taxi details, extra service and add global settings to your booking
- Allow Google Maps API to show accurate coordinates of your location
- You can set custom rate plans based on different location zones, distance and time
- All fares will be automatically calculated based on time, distance and other criteria
- You can create distance as Google maps booking to select pickup and drop location
- Allows you to add Fixed rate bookings and manual bookings for your passengers
- Your passenger can choose from immediate pickups or pre-scheduled rides
- Manage all the taxi booking like view, modify or cancel from your WordPress dashboard
- Support multiple payment gateways
- Fully responsive
- Add shortcode to display your booking on any of your pages
- Your passenger can select a ride by filtering the number of passengers, bags and extra hour
- Built-in WooCommerce Custom Checkout Integration to enable payment methods, notes and discounts
- Before boarding a car, you can add, edit or delete a custom field from your personal information
- Multilingual Support
eCab Paid features
- Get notified via email after each booking
- Ticket confirmation via PDF generation
- You can generate advance reports for your booking
- Manage taxi order lists from backend
- You can set geofence for your taxi service
You can find more information about eCab on its website.
Well, these features are great for starting a taxi booking website.
Let’s create one.
Also Read this: A Guide to Building a Taxi Cab Booking System.
How to make a taxi booking Website in WordPress?
We need to install eCab from the WordPress directory.
Go to the WordPress dashboard.
Now look for the Plugins tab and click Add New Plugin.
Now type ecab on the plugin search and click Install Now.
After installation, activate the plugin.
Once you activate eCab, a new tab called Transportation will appear on the left.
Go to the Transportation tab and select Quick setup
At first, you will be welcomed by eCab, and ask you to install WooCommerce.
If your WooCommerce is already installed, proceed to the next step.
Now it will ask you to change the label of your taxi booking page label and slug.
Click Next and tap the Finish & save button to finish the setup.
Now it’s time to check the global settings.
Navigate to Global settings and you will find the map settings first.
You need an API key to get accurate locations, you can get it from Google Cloud Platform.
If you have a Google Cloud API key, simply place it in the Google Map API field.
Add your latitude, longitude, and country location or you can set it without maps and click Save Changes.
Now move to Transportation Settings
You can enable or disable the filter, return date, and waiting time options. Change the label, and redirect the user to a different page.
Even you can set your interval time for taxi booking.
For example here you can set your interval time to 30 minutes.
Which means you can set driver to drive taxi after 30 minutes.
You can set payment system by checking pay on service and WooCommerce payment.
If all your Transportation settings are done, click Save Changes.
If you have checked payment system as pay on service you need to set WooCommerce payment as cash on delivery.
For that go to WooCommerce tab and click Settings -> Payments -> Cash on delivery -> Save Changes.
Now again go to the Transportation tab and check the Global Settings.
Here you can enable or disable the block editor for editing taxi booking, changing seat booking status, and changing date format.
Under Slider settings, you will find the option to display your taxi booking in slider format or thumbnail format.
You can further customize the frontend look using the style settings and custom CSS.
Well, if you have configured your settings perfectly, let’s add a location, extra service and Taxi information.
To add a new location, go to your Transportation tab and navigate to the Location option.
Add your location, slug and description.
Under the Extra Service option, you can add a new service for taxi booking.
Now go to the Add New Transportation option.
You will find a general information field.
Here you can add a Taxi Name, Car name, model, Engine and fuel type.
After that go to the Date option.
Under Date settings, you can change the Date type to repeated or you can set any particular date for taxi booking.
If you choose the repeated date type, derive your start date and repeat after the date.
You can also set advanced day booking for a taxi, for example, here the date is set as 10 days.
Once you have configured the date, you need to select the start time and end time for each day.
If you set a default date and time, you don’t need to add any day. But you can change the default time for each day.
If you have an off day for your taxi booking service, you can select that from the checkboxes.
Even you can set your holiday also by adding a new off date.
Now go to the Pricing tab.
This is the main tab, where you can set your taxi booking system based on maps, fixed hours or manual options.
How do I add a taxi to Google Maps?
You have already added your Google Maps API.
Now from the Pricing tab simply select pricing based on Distance as Google Maps.
Set price per kilometer, and price per hour to calculate your booking price based on distance and time.
Here price per distance is set to 12 and the price per hour is set to 10.
Now click Publish and let’s check the front end.
To add the front end, you need to copy the shortcode first.
For that go to your Transportation tab and look for the Guideline option.
Now copy the shortcode of maps.
Now create a new page or post from your dashboard.
Give your Taxi booking page a name and click the + icon.
Type “Shortcode” to add the shortcode block from the block editor.
Paste the shortcode and click Publish.
Now check your front end from the view.
Wow, you have a very dynamic map view.
Select your pickup date and pickup time.
Then type your pickup location and drop-off location name, which will be auto-suggested from the API after typing the location name.
Choose your transfer type as one-way or round trip.
If you want to add waiting time, you can set your extra waiting time.
Now click Search.
After clicking search, you need to select the cars, which are available in your selected time and date.
If you have selected a filter from the backend global settings, a filter will be displayed to choose the number of passengers and bags
Select the car you want to choose and your pricing will be shown on the left side panel.
Now click Book Now.
When you click Book Now, you will be redirected to the checkout page to Place Order.
Check if everything is okay or not before placing the order, if everything looks fine click the Place order button.
After placing the order you will redirected to the payment option, if you have selected cash on delivery then you need to make the payment after the service.
If you want to get email receipts and pdf tickets, you need to buy the pro version of eCab.
How to create a manual taxi booking system based on location?
Go to your Pricing option from your Transportation tab.
Select Pricing based on Manual as fixed Location.
In this setting, your price per kilometre and price per hour will not work.
Only the initial price and waiting time will work.
Now you need to add the price.
Your price will be calculated based on the route.
Derive your start location, end location and price.
Now copy the shortcode from the guideline option and paste it on the page you want to display.
Now click publish and check it on the view.
Select your pickup date, pickup time, pickup location, drop-off location, transfer type and extra waiting.
Then click search.
You will get the car available based on your route.
Select a car and check your order.
If everything looks fine, you can place the order.
How to create a fixed hour taxi booking system?
Go to your transportation tab and select the Pricing option.
You need to select pricing based on fixed hours.
In this setting only the initial price will work, waiting hour and kilometers won’t work.
Now from the guideline, copy the shortcode for fixed-hour booking.
Paste the code on the shortcode block.
After that Click Publish and check the frontend view.
Now Select the pickup date, pickup time, drop-off location and the hiring hours you want to book.
Click search and check the vehicle available in your desired query.
Select the car and check the price before adding it to the cart.
If the price is okay with you add the information.
Now click place order.
You will get a receipt to pay cash on delivery.
After learning all the functionality, it is time for you to customize the website.
Give your taxi booking website a professional look.
Final Thoughts
Taxi booking websites and apps are high in demand. That’s why it is demanding business for taxi owners. For this reason, you are learning how to make a taxi booking website in WordPress. Now you can add a booking function based on google maps, fixed hour and fixed location.
Thanks to eCab or Taxi Booking Manager for WooCommerce plugin. With its robust set of features, it offers a seamless and user-friendly experience for both customers and taxi operators. The plugin’s integration with Google Maps API ensures accurate distance calculations, while its support for multiple payment methods and customizable checkout fields enhance the overall booking process.
If you purchase its pro version you can generate PDF tickets and invoices. Which provides a secure and convenient way to manage bookings and accounting.