Book a ride

Booking a ride follows the same steps on iOS and Android: choose where and when you want to travel, adjust the passenger details, then pick and confirm an offer.

Choose start and destination

Set your start and destination in any of these ways:

  • enter an address and pick a result from the search suggestions
  • move the map to place a pin
  • use your current location as the start, if you granted location access
  • pick a saved favorite, such as Home or Work

Depending on the product, you can also choose from fixed stations or points of interest. If the product uses fixed stops, the app shows the nearest usable stop rather than a door-to-door location.

Where the product supports it, you can search for stations by name, and the map can show all stations so you can pick one directly.

Pre-assigned locations

An administrator can pre-assign user locations to your account, such as a home or work address. The app shows these locations in the start and destination search under Favorites, next to the favorites you saved yourself.

Pre-assigned locations behave differently from your own favorites:

  • You can’t add a star to them, and they aren’t saved to your favorites.
  • They appear only while the search field is empty. They disappear as you type and reappear when you clear the field.

To use one, tap it. The app selects the location and continues the booking like any other address.

Choose when to travel

You can request a ride in two ways:

  • Now. An ad hoc booking. You ask for the next ride available and the offer shows the calculated pickup time. This is not always immediate: depending on where vehicles are, the pickup can still be several minutes away.
  • Later. A prebooking for a specific time. You choose whether the selected time is the departure time or the arrival time.

Which of the two ways are offered, and the times you can pick, depend on the product’s booking settings:

  • A product can offer both ways or only one of them.
  • Prebooking needs a minimum amount of notice. If the time you pick is too close to now, the request is treated as an ad hoc booking instead. The exact threshold depends on the product.
  • Prebooking is limited to a maximum window, so you can only book up to a set time ahead—for example, seven days.

Set passengers and options

Before you request offers, you can adjust who is traveling and any special requirements:

  • add or remove passengers, and set passenger types such as adults, children, and infants
  • add accessibility and space requirements—depending on the product, for example a wheelchair, a walker, a blue badge, a pushchair, luggage, a bicycle, a child seat, or a dog
  • add a note for the driver

The passenger types and options that appear depend on the product’s passenger types, passenger options, and ride options.

Review and pick an offer

After you request a ride, the app shows one or more offers. Each offer can include:

If no shuttle offer is available, the app can show public transport alternatives instead, where the product supports them.

Confirm the booking

To confirm, select an offer and choose a payment method. Some products require a payment method even for a ride that starts at no cost, because extra charges can arise later. See Pay and manage money for details on payment methods.

After you confirm, the app shows the booking together with a short booking code. Read the code to the driver, or have it ready at pickup, so the driver can identify you.

Book several rides at once

Depending on the product, you can create a serial booking to book the same trip for several dates in one flow. The app then shows the status of each ride in the series, so you can see which dates were booked successfully.