Tainan riders book their ride inside the app they already have
No download, no new account. Booking happens inside LINE — the messaging platform almost everyone in Taiwan uses daily — which removes the single largest barrier to adoption.
- Setting
- City service
- Service model
- On-demand transport
- Booking
- LINE messaging app
Results
Requests made inside the messaging app riders already use.
No new app, no new account, no new interface to learn.
Identical routing, pooling and service rules behind the conversation.
The challenge
The app nobody downloads is the service nobody uses
Shalun is a district of separate buildings with staff moving between them all day. The distances are too short to justify driving and too awkward to walk, so people took motorcycles and cars, then spent the time they saved looking for somewhere to park.
On-demand transport answers that — but only if people use it. Installing an app, creating an account and learning an interface costs more than a short trip is worth, and the riders most likely to give up are the ones the service exists for.
What we deployed
The booking flow moved to where the riders already were
- 01Booking inside LINE
No download and no new account — the booking flow lives in the messaging app riders already use daily.
- 02A conversation, not a form
Destination, time and number of passengers, then a confirmation to check and accept.
- 03Repeat trips
Regular journeys are re-sent in seconds — the 7:30 school run booked the same way each morning.
- 04Shalun district zone
The R&D buildings and the surrounding streets served as one area, with short hops pooled.
Meet riders on the platform they use
Rather than asking a city to adopt Shotl's app, the booking flow was built inside LINE. The same routing, the same service rules — reached through a conversation the rider already has open.
How the assignment rules workOn site
Running in Tainan City Bus livery — part of the city network, not a separate product. 
The next turn, the arrival time, and who is boarding at the following stop. 
Drivers are sent each new pickup as it is assigned, and guided stop to stop.
Sunday TsaiExecutive Officer, Economic Development Bureau, Tainan City Government“We have many meetings between different buildings in the Shalun district. It is quite close — for such a short distance, we wouldn’t even need to drive.”
“It saves time on finding a parking space, and can also reduce some carbon emissions. If we all go together, we don’t have to ride our motorcycles any more, and we don’t have to drive either — which saves a lot of time.”
In a rider’s words
Booking a ride is a conversation, not a form
The rider opens a menu inside LINE and is asked three things: where they are going, when, and how many people are travelling. Regular travellers paste their usual trip and change the time — “it’s 12:30 and I’d like a ride at 1”.
The service replies with the booking to check. Press yes, and the seat is held. No download, no account, no interface to learn — the same routing engine reached through a chat that is already open.
Similar challenges
The problem isn’t specific to Taiwan
What made Tainan hard was not the distances. It was a district of separate buildings where trips are too short to drive and too awkward to walk, and riders who would never install an app and create an account for a short ride.
Business parks, hospital estates and campuses anywhere share that pattern, and so does the barrier: every extra step before the first booking loses riders. Where it holds, so does the model: booking inside the app people already use every day, on the same routing engine as the full service.
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