If you’ve been watching the United Kingdom private hire / taxi tech space, you’ll know that Argyle Satellite Taxis is one of the more established local players in Wirral, Cheshire, Merseyside. They mix traditional taxi + private hire, with a passenger app, call centre, a web booker, business accounts, and notably their “Taxi Butler” service. Having studied Argyle’s features, operations and customer feedback, I believe there is strong opportunity for entrepreneurs to purchase a ready made Argyle Satellite clone app rather than build everything from zero. Below, I’ll walk you through what Argyle does, what you can learn (both good & bad), how an entrepreneur can benefit from cloning, what to watch out for, and how to roll out in a way that avoids some of their pitfalls. As always, real talk: it won’t be perfect, but you can tilt things strongly in your favour.
What the real Argyle Satellite does, the nitty gritty
Features:
- Advance booking / scheduling: you can order a taxi for an exact pickup time in advance.
- Favourites: save favourite locations or common addresses so booking is faster.
- Business accounts: Argyle supports business clients, offering priority bookings, credit terms (up to ~30 days) in some cases.
- Taxi Butler: this is their device/service for venues (bars, restaurants, hotels etc.) to allow clients / guests to request taxis with a one click or similar interface, directly from the venue, without calling lines. This helps capture bookings from fixed locations in hospitality spaces.
- Airport and railway station transfer focus: they serve airports like Liverpool John Lennon, Manchester, and key stations. They also monitor flights (for airport transfers) to adjust pickup drop off times when flights are delayed.
Also important context: Argyle does many journeys per day (they say they cover more than 3 million journeys per year across their service area).
What customers complain about (which gives us lessons): unreliable pickups (especially for advance bookings), cancellation issues, discrepancies between estimated fare and actual fare, sometimes app / map glitches, delays in driver assignment. Trustpilot reviews are quite negative in many cases.
Why buying a clone model of Argyle Satellite can be smarter than building custom
Starting your own taxi app business in the United Kingdom following Argyle’s blueprint is tempting. But building from scratch is time intensive, risky, expensive. Here’s why cloning (i.e. buying a ready made Argyle Satellite clone app that you can customize) has strong advantages, especially if you’re an entrepreneur who wants to test market quickly and avoid as many pitfalls as possible.
First, time to market is way faster. With a clone, core features—booking, driver app, matching, payments, tracking, scheduling—are already built. You only need to adapt UI/UX, local rules, payment providers, map / tariff settings. If done well, you launch in a city in 3 6 months instead of 9 12 or more.
Second, lower risk of “unknown unknowns.” For example, Argyle’s negative reviews show that advance bookings sometimes don’t get honoured or are late. That indicates that operations & driver supply, dispatch reliability, system scaling are tricky. A clone that has been tested elsewhere means many bugs, edge cases may have already been discovered and fixed.
Third, cost savings. While clones cost up front, the development cost + maintenance + bug fixing + regulatory compliance when you build custom often overruns budgets. With clones, you can negotiate maintenance / SLA terms, perhaps get better pricing given you don’t need the vendor to reinvent core features.
Fourth, learning from Argyle’s mistakes: you can build into your clone things Argyle seems weak in (based on feedback). For example, better fare estimation, stricter driver assignment policies for advance bookings, better communication with users when delays, better cancellation handling, high reliability of driver arriving. Those improvements can give you competitive edge.
Also, Argyle’s local trust, brand heritage, fleet status helps them—but as a newcomer, you can win by focusing on service reliability and customer experience rather than trying to outspend them. A clone gives you the technical foundation; then your differentiation can be operations, service, pricing, UX.
Core features you must build into your Argyle Satellite clone from the start
Unlike bullets that feel like a checklist, this section is more like guidelines, you must embed these features into your product design & business model, not just the code.
You should ensure that from day one, the clone supports multi payment methods: cash, card, Apple Pay, Google Pay. Also, in regions where cashless is dominant, system must be seamless for card/phone wallets. But allow cash because many users still expect it in United Kingdom outside big cities. Also, the vendor must provide good payment reconciliation tools for drivers and for the admin, to manage and settle payments properly. Failed payments or disputes eat into trust fast.
Another thing: real time tracking and driver/vehicle transparency. Users want to know driver name, registration number, and see where the car is; close enough estimates of arrival; push notifications at important moments (booking confirmed, driver en route, driver arrived, delays). Earlier Argyle users sometimes complain about app estimating 3 minutes then waiting 20 minutes. If you get this wrong, people will uninstall.
Advance booking (pre schedule journeys) must be rock solid. Not just allowing the pick up in advance, but making sure a driver is committed, communication is clear if something changes, backup plan if no driver appears. You should design some over booking or driver standby logic, or maybe partner with subcontracted fleets for backup.
Include “venue booking” style features. The Taxi Butler idea is strong: venues that see repeated customers (restaurants, pubs, hotels) might want easy interface to call taxis for guests. If your clone includes a “Butler” device or interface (could be physical or digital) you get extra edge and other revenue possibilities (venue partnerships).
Business accounts may seem secondary, but they matter. Corporate clients, hotels, estates etc. want credit, priority booking, seamless invoicing. If your clone supports business account features (credit terms, invoicing, priority routing), you open up higher margin or more stable revenue.
And fleet features: accessible vehicles (wheelchair), selection of vehicle types, capacity options, luggage capacity (especially for airport transfers), because these are differentiators. Many complaints mention lack of accessible vehicle or driver not able to handle luggage well. Include them to avoid loss of trust.
Finally, feedback & customer support flows. In app feedback, rating of drivers, photo of driver, ability to contact driver via app, support hotline etc. Also, transparency in cancellations & refund policy. Make support operations part of your plan, not late afterthought.
What Argyle gets right, and what they don’t, so your clone can do better
Looking at Argyle Satellite’s real strengths gives clues; but the customer complaints are just as valuable. If you copy what they do well and avoid their missteps, you can outshine them.
What they seem to do well:
- Wide geographic area: they serve many towns in Wirral, parts of Cheshire, covering major demand zones (airports, stations, etc.). That gives scale.
- Fleet diversity (vehicle types and accessible vehicles) is a big plus in United Kingdom regulations and customer expectations.
- Multiple booking channels: app, web booker, call centre = redundancy and customer convenience. For people who don’t use apps, or emergencies, call centre helps.
- Business account & priority booking, Venue / Butler model: these are features that help with stable clients, better margins.
Where they seem weak:
- Reliability of advance bookings. Many users report pre books failing. This suggests a gap either in driver supply or communication. As an entrepreneur, if you can guarantee (or at least manage expectations well) for advance bookings, that’s a differentiator.
- Pricing transparency. Discrepancies between estimates and actual fare, cancellation fees when people believe they did nothing wrong, “you missed your driver” while driver claims otherwise—all erode trust. Your clone needs to lean heavily into transparent fare estimates, clear cancellation policies, maybe even dynamic adjustments with notifications.
- App UX & map interface glitches. Complaints about difficulty picking stations, mapping pin problems, trouble entering address etc. The mapping, routing, address database, map pin accuracy are often overlooked but are vital.
- Customer service responsiveness. Negative experiences often involve lack of help or rude/unavailable support. For example, after cancellation or missed pickup. You want support hotlines, chat / in app communication, quick resolution of refunds etc.
- Driver side reliability & accountability. No matter how good the app is, if drivers don’t accept jobs, cancel, or are delayed, users will blame the system. Having good incentives for drivers, monitoring performance, maybe penalties or rewards needed.
Building your go to market plan for the clone
Here is how I’d plan the go to market rollout if I were launching a taxi business. I’ll go through phases, practical steps, and also how to differentiate early.
Phase 0: Research & Localisation
Pick your target city or region. If you’re in the United Kingdom, maybe begin with a town or county where demand is stable but competition moderate (not totally saturated). Understand the local taxi/private hire licensing rules (PHV vs Taxi, HCV vs Hackney carriage), insurance, vehicle accessibility requirements, payment regulation (PSD2), local tariffs, required safety checks. Local user surveys (or small interviews) to see what people dislike about existing services (often reliability, app glitches, driver waiting times etc.). That gives your position.
Phase 1: Acquisition of the clone & customization
Once you select a vendor, customize UI (branding, colours), local maps, integrate local payment gateways, set up driver app flows, vehicle types, capacity options. Create the business account & Butler venue system. Also build in fare estimation, cancellation policy, advance booking commitments, and dashboard for monitoring these. Important: test these under load (simulate many bookings) to ensure system holds up.
Phase 2: Driver on boarding, fleet building, supply readiness
Before major marketing, ensure you have enough vetted drivers. Apply recruitment campaigns, incentive schemes (bonus for early drivers, higher rates in early period), ensure vehicles meet standards (cleanliness, accessibility, condition). Provide driver training, especially orientation on how your app expects advance booking reliability, customer service.
Phase 3: Soft launch / pilot
Pick a smaller area or partial region. Launch with limited users (friends, business clients, early adopters), ensure that issues like app bugs, driver assignment delays, mapping errors, cancellations are ironed out. Use promo offers, partnerships with local businesses / hotels, airports etc. Gather feedback heavily.
Phase 4: Full launch & differentiation
At this stage, launch broadly in your region. Use promotions that highlight what you are fixing (for example: “book in advance with guaranteed driver”, “transparent fares”, “venues Butler for free”, “accessible vehicles always available”).
Phase 5: Scaling & iterating
Once stable, expand to neighbouring towns or cities. Add features like dynamic pricing, subscription or membership for frequent users (e.g. monthly credits, discounts), features like airport flight tracking so driver arrival adjusts automatically. Improve driver side tools (for example, driver rating, earnings dashboard). Monitor and adjust cancellation policy, customer support, etc.
Conclusion
If you manage to follow these insider tips and get the best on demand Argyle Satellite Clone app, then nothing can come in the way of your success. With this United Kingdom Taxi Booking app, you will surely turn your idea into a successful profitable business.
