Our ride-hailing system allows customers to schedule rides in advance, but how does the system behave when several rides are scheduled at the same time?
When a scheduled ride is placed, the system offers it to the closest online driver, and they have a chance to pre-select it. At this point, the ride doesn't have an assigned driver. Pre-selecting a ride gives the driver priority to accept it when rides get actually assigned shortly before the beginning of the ride.
What happens at the beginning of the ride?
If the driver does not accept the ride they pre-selected, the system continues searching for a driver, giving priority to the closest ones.
If all drivers have already accepted conflicting rides, any new scheduled ride requests for the same time will be declined automatically due to a lack of available drivers.
The system does not prevent new ride requests from being made, even if all drivers already have scheduled rides. However, the requests will only be fulfilled if a driver becomes available.
Conclusion
The scheduled ride system follows the same logic as regular ride requests, except that it prioritizes the driver who initially pre-selected it. If no drivers are available at the scheduled time, the ride request will be declined automatically.
If you have any more questions, feel free to reach out to our support team! 🚖