Turn-by-turn navigation is one of the services that bunch of companies provide to the clients. They offer a route from point A to point B and navigation instructions that should help the user to get to the selected location.

In this case, we do not consider how the coordinates of the initial, final, and, if necessary, intermediate points get into the navigation engine. Let’s say that at all the previous stages everything was done correctly, and we have the corresponding points between which we are plotting the route. We also have reliable data about the road network, based on which we build the route. Navigation engine offers the optimal (in terms of the available information about the road network) routes.

Who is the user of the navigation?

  • Delivery providers. Navigation helps them build optimal route chains, which is influential for their business. This helps to plan the exact time of delivery of orders to users while simultaneously reducing the cost of one delivery. The drivers already know the area in which they work well, so in this case, the use of navigation is a requirement of the company itself. Although, despite the knowledge of the area, drivers do not always choose the best routes, but rather act more due to the prevailing habits. This is an additional stress factor for drivers who are transferred from freelance work to driving on routes. They believe that companies do not trust them and are spying on them. Hence, not always justified cavils to the proposed routes may arise. The main value of routes is the “last mile”, where there really is a need for turn-by-turn navigation to the destination.

  • Taxi and car-sharing (Uber, Lift, Bolt, Grab, DiDi, etc.).

    • Professional taxi drivers who earn their living as a driver of the taxi. They operate within the same city, which they have already studied well during their work. They know the places where they can take a shortcut to get to the client faster, or vice versa “make a sightseeing tour for visitors” - the longer the route, the higher the cost of the trip. For them, navigation is not a necessary tool. More important for them is information about traffic jams, accidents, locations of speed cameras, and other traffic enforcement. It looks like Waze provides the app they want; where the community helps its members by informing each other about such issues.

    • Car-sharing drivers are not professional taxi drivers, they do not go out on orders regularly. Due to the limited number of trips, they do not know the city as well as professional taxi drivers. This is the main target audience for which turn-by-turn navigation becomes indispensable. Due to the specifics of the car-sharing service, they will no longer be able to drive the extra mileage with the client, since the client has already got an idea of the route in the car-sharing application and can leave a negative review about the trip.

  • Regular drivers who make daily trips on the home-work-home route. This category of drivers does not need turn-by-turn navigation. They thoroughly know their route, all possible obstacles that they may face. Traffic information is important for them, but not critical. When travelling from home to work, they tend to leave a little early, so that even in the presence of unexpected traffic, they can be in time for the beginning of the working day, and returning from work, getting stuck in traffic, they treat this as an inevitable case. They are somewhat distrustful of routes between home and work, which are significantly different from their usual route. But, such drivers completely rely on turn-by-turn navigation in unfamiliar places, for routes that differ from their usual routine trips: home-work, home-shop, home-gym, etc.

  • Travellers are drivers who travel for the pleasure of the trip or because of a business need. They require navigation due to the complete lack of knowledge of the terrain. This category should also include truckers who deliver cargo over long distances and have additional navigation requirements – information about weight and dimensional restrictions along the route.

A clear understanding of which category of drivers the company is dealing with can help it to properly respond to user feedback and improve the service accordingly.