Software for taxi business owners with dispatch by text, driver settlements and the books.
Taxi business software for a small cab company in one offline file: a dispatch board that texts each ride to the driver with a map link, rider confirmations and card payment links, weekly settlements for commission and lease drivers, monthly invoices for hotels and clinics, maintenance by mileage, and accounting software for a taxi business that shows profit per cab and what to set aside for taxes. Bought once, with no monthly fee per car.
Most dispatch software for taxi businesses is rented by the month for every vehicle, and the records live on somebody else’s server. This one is a file you own, and your drivers need nothing but their phone.
Key benefits
One-time payment
No monthly fee, no charge per vehicle and no yearly renewal. The price you see is the whole price.
Dispatch by text
Assign a ride and the text to the driver is already written, with a Google Maps route link.
Monday, settled
Who you pay and who hands in cash, worked out from the shifts, tips, fuel, tickets and leases.
Profit per cab
Income, costs, miles and a tax set-aside estimate, with a Schedule C worksheet for your preparer.
What this taxi business software does
Everything a small cab company runs on, in one place.
You get a dashboard, a dispatch board, rides, online booking by text with a QR code, customers and monthly accounts, drivers, vehicles, a shift log, maintenance, renewals, tickets and incidents, driver settlements, a lease ledger, account invoices, expenses with receipt photos, and reports with taxes.
It works in dollars by default with other currencies available, exports CSV and a full backup file, and prints a dispatch day sheet, driver statements, invoices, a booking card and the profit and loss report.
Dispatch board for a small fleet
One column per driver, each with a status you set (available, on a ride, off duty), plus a column for the rides nobody has yet. Assign from a drop-down and the text to the driver opens with the time, pickup, drop-off, passenger and phone, fare, payment, cab and a route link.
A ride booked less than 45 minutes after the driver’s previous one is flagged. Confirm with the rider, send a payment link and mark the ride done from the same card. Print a day sheet for the office wall.
Booking by text, with a QR code
The app makes a booking link and a QR code for your website, Google profile, business cards and cab stickers. Riders scan it and their phone opens a text to your dispatch number with a booking form already typed.
Paste the reply, or a plain sentence like “tomorrow at 7pm from Lynn St to the airport, 2 of us”, and it becomes a ride with the addresses, time and passengers filled in. Regular customers get their phone, usual pickup and fixed fares on their own.
Accounting software for a taxi business
Each shift records cash, card and app payouts, card tips, odometer miles, fuel and tolls, and the company share follows how the driver is paid: owner-driver, commission, lease or employee. Drivers can text back a shift form at the end of the day, and you paste it in.
Reports show profit and loss, costs by category, profit per cab, fares per hour by driver, a tax set-aside estimate with the standard mileage rate or actual vehicle costs, and a Schedule C worksheet. Expenses keep a photo of the receipt.
Driver settlements every Monday
For commission drivers: their share of the fares, card tips, fuel and tolls they paid and their share of account rides, minus the cash they hold, app payouts paid to them and tickets charged to them. Pay or collect, then mark the week settled.
Print a statement for the driver to sign or send it by text.
Lease ledger for rented cabs
Charge every lease driver’s weekly lease in one click, record payments, deposits, damage deductions and late fees, and see each running balance. It never charges the same week twice.
Monthly account invoices
Hotels, clinics and offices ride all month. Pick the account and the dates, and every unbilled ride lands on one itemized invoice with optional extras and sales tax. Record full or partial payments and see what is overdue.
Maintenance by the odometer
Oil changes, tire rotations, brakes and filters come due by miles from the shift log, or by months. Items turn amber as they get close and red when overdue, and marking one done books the cost as an expense.
Renewals, tickets and incidents
Registration, insurance, inspections, medallions or permits, meter calibration and hack licenses, with alerts and a calendar file. Parking tickets, toll violations and damage can be charged to the driver.
Taxi business software, honestly
Built for the cab company that dispatches by phone and text.
If your rides come in by phone, text and street hail and your drivers already carry a phone, this replaces the notepad, the group text and the spreadsheet. It should also say where its limits are.
Texts go out from your own phone number
The app writes every message and opens your messages app: Messages on iPhone, iPad and Mac, Phone Link on Windows, or WhatsApp if you prefer. You press Send, so riders and drivers see your number, not a stranger’s.
Card payments through your own account
Paste a payment link from your own Stripe, Square, PayPal or Venmo account and the app texts it with the fare. The money goes straight to you; the app never sees a card number and takes no cut.
Works with no signal
The file runs offline in your browser on a laptop, desktop or tablet. A connection is only needed at the moment you send a text or open a map.
What it does not do
No driver app, no live GPS map, no automatic ride matching, no passenger app, no messages sent without you pressing Send, no card processing of its own, no payroll, no bank feeds, no state tax figures and no two people editing at once.
How a ride runs
From the booking text to the Monday settlement.
Book it
Paste the rider’s text, or type the ride. Regulars and accounts fill in their phone, pickup and fixed fare.
Dispatch it
Pick a driver on the board and send the ride by text with the map link. Confirm with the rider in one more tap.
Close the shift
Mark the ride done or send a payment link. At the end of the day the shift is filled from the rides or from the driver’s texted report.
Settle and bill
Monday: pay or collect from each driver and charge the leases. Month end: one invoice per account. Profit and taxes update on their own.
Why cab companies switch
Taxi business software you own, or dispatch software you rent per car.
Subscription dispatch systems bring GPS, driver apps and passenger apps, and charge for every vehicle every month. Spreadsheets are free but cannot text a ride, settle a driver or tell you which cab is due for an oil change.
This taxi business software is a file you own, with the cab-company parts built in.
| OwnDesk Taxi | Subscription dispatch software | Paper & spreadsheets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Original price was: $179.00.$129.00Current price is: $129.00. once | Monthly fee, usually per vehicle | Free, but it costs your evenings |
| Rides to drivers with a map link | By text, from your phone | Through a driver app | Phone calls and group texts |
| Weekly settlement for commission and lease drivers | Built in | Varies | Your own formulas |
| Monthly invoices for hotel, clinic and office accounts | Included | Usually | Typed by hand |
| Profit per cab, maintenance by mileage, tax set-aside | Included | Varies | A separate sheet |
| Works offline | Yes | Needs a connection | Yes |
| Your records if you stop paying | Still yours | Access ends | Still yours |
| Live GPS map, driver app, passenger app, automatic matching | Not included | Often included | No |
| Several dispatchers at once | Not included — one computer at a time | Usually included | Only through a cloud drive |
The subscription column is a general description of taxi dispatch software sold by the month, not a claim about any single company — features and pricing differ, so check each site.
OwnDesk Taxi is single-computer software: it does not sync between devices, track cars by GPS, send messages without you, process card payments or file tax returns.
From payment to your first ride
Three steps, about two minutes.
Pay with card
Checkout runs on Stripe. Your card details never touch this site.
Download and open
The link appears the moment payment clears. Double-click the file — it opens in your browser, no install, no internet needed after that.
Look around, then start fresh
It opens with a sample five-cab company already loaded. Remove the sample data from Settings, run the setup wizard and add your cabs and drivers.
If OwnDesk Taxi isn't right for how you run your cab company, email me and you get a refund — no questions. If something's confusing, you're writing to the person who built it, not a queue. English and Spanish, both spoken here.
Custom build
Need it to work exactly the way your cab company does?
I can adapt OwnDesk Taxi to the way your taxi business works: your own fields, your fare rules, your reports, or two OwnDesk products combined into one. It’s still a one-time payment, it still runs offline, and it’s yours. I built the software, and I build your version myself.
- Your city’s meter rates and zone fares worked into every booking
- A trip sheet or driver log in the exact layout your city asks for
- Medical transport trip logs with the fields a broker or clinic needs
Custom builds start at $490, paid in two halves: 50% to start, 50% after you’ve tested it.
Tell me about your businessQuestions
Before you buy.
What is the best software for a taxi business?
Is this dispatch software for taxi businesses?
Is it accounting software for a taxi business?
What would you recommend in taxi business software?
Is it software for a traditional taxi business?
Does it work as taxi rental software for a limo business?
Is it customer management software for taxi businesses?
Is there a free trial of this taxi business software?
Who answers customer support for this taxi business software?
How do drivers get their rides? Do they need an app?
How do riders book and pay?
How does it settle with commission and lease drivers?
Does it track maintenance, renewals and tickets?
Can several people use it at the same time?
Where are my records stored, and is there a subscription?
Can you customize it for my taxi business?
Dispatch a ride in it before you decide.
The live demo has real screens and a sample five-cab company loaded — no sign-up beyond your name and email, no credit card. If it fits, buying takes about a minute.
14-day money-back guarantee · instant download · one-time payment