Top Apps and Tools For Drivers
Top Apps and Tools Every Monochrome Driver Should Know About
As a Monochrome driver, having the right apps and tools at your fingertips can make a big difference in your efficiency, safety, and overall driving experience. From navigation to finding the best fuel prices, these apps can help you make smarter decisions, save time, and increase your earnings. In this article, we'll highlight the top apps and tools that every ride-share driver should know about to maximize their productivity on the road.
1. Navigation Apps
Accurate navigation is crucial for getting your passengers to their destinations quickly and efficiently. Monochrome’s Driver app is fully integrated with both Google Maps and Waze to make that effortless.
One-tap, seamless navigation
When you’re heading to a pickup, stopover, or drop-off, just tap the Google Maps or Waze button inside the Monochrome Driver app.
We’ll auto-launch your chosen app and start navigation to the exact point—no copying, pasting, or typing addresses.
Once you’re done navigating, a single tap returns you to the Monochrome app, ready to swipe to the next destination.
Google Maps (Integrated in our driver app)
Why It’s Great: Among the most reliable navigation apps, with real-time traffic, multiple route options, and clear turn-by-turn directions.
Bonus Features: Street View, public transport overlays, and quick search for nearby petrol stations, coffee shops, and more.
Waze (Integrated in our driver app)
Why It’s Great: Community-powered updates on traffic, hazards, and police locations help you avoid jams and find the fastest routes.
Bonus Features: Live, driver-reported incidents and closures to save time and keep ETAs accurate.
Bottom line: Choose your preferred navigator with a tap, get guided instantly to pickups and drop-offs, then jump back into Monochrome in one tap—fast, accurate, and zero address entry.
2. Fuel Price Apps
Saving money on fuel is essential for maximizing your earnings as a ride-share driver. Fuel-saving tools (often called “fuel apps”) matter because they reduce your biggest variable cost, help you plan smarter routes, and give you visibility into where your money goes. Here’s how they help:
Live price comparisons: See the cheapest stations nearby in real time, so every fill-up costs less.
Community updates: Driver reports keep prices fresh, helping you avoid outdated or “too good to be true” listings.
Trip cost calculators: Estimate fuel spend before you drive, choose the most profitable jobs, and plan breaks near low-cost stations.
Expense & MPG tracking: Log litres, price, and odometer to monitor fuel economy, spot waste, and stick to a budget.
Maintenance reminders: Record services, tyres, and oil changes—small tune-ups can improve efficiency and prevent costly breakdowns.
GPS trip logs: Review routes and habits (idling, hard acceleration) to cut unnecessary fuel burn.
Receipts & exports: Keep clean records for taxes or reimbursements with downloadable reports.
Alerts & trends: Get notified about price drops and track long-term consumption to see what really saves you money.
Bottom line: With accurate prices, smarter planning, and clear visibility into your fuel usage, these tools turn small daily savings into a bigger monthly paycheck—without adding extra hours on the road.
3. Rider Communication Apps
Clear communication with your passengers is essential for providing great service. Here’s an app that helps make the interaction smoother:
- Zolmai, Monochrome's new chat app (Integrated in our driver app)
- Why It’s Great: An in-built messaging app that allows you to communicate with passengers quickly and easily. It’s perfect for sending quick updates or responding to questions.
- Bonus Features: The app supports text and images which can be useful if you need to guide your passengers to your pick-up location.
4. Dash Cam Apps and Tools
Why they’re important: A front-and/or cabin-facing recorder protects you during accidents, false claims, or fare disputes. Clear footage shortens investigations and can deter bad behavior.
Driver benefits
Evidence for incident reviews and insurance.
Faster resolution of rider complaints or collisions.
Peace of mind on late-night or high-traffic trips.
Some tools flag risky driving so you can improve and lower vehicle wear.
5. Music and Entertainment Apps
Creating a pleasant atmosphere for your passengers can make their ride more enjoyable. Here are the best apps for background music and entertainment:
- Spotify
- Why It’s Great: Spotify offers millions of songs, playlists, and podcasts, allowing you to create a great ambiance for your passengers. It’s easy to find the right music to suit any mood or time of day.
- Bonus Features: You can create playlists specifically for your rides or let your passengers choose their favourite tunes during the trip.
- Apple Music
- Why It’s Great: Apple Music is another great option for music streaming, providing personalised stations based on your favourite artists, genres, or songs.
- Bonus Features: It adapts to your preferences the more you use it, ensuring that you always have fresh music to play during your rides.
6. Weather Apps
Knowing the weather conditions can help you plan your driving routes and stay safe during bad weather. Here’s a top weather app for drivers:
- The Weather Channel
- Why It’s Great: The Weather Channel app provides accurate weather forecasts, live radar maps, and severe weather alerts. It helps you prepare for sudden weather changes that might affect your driving.
- Bonus Features: The app also offers hourly and 10-day forecasts, so you can plan your driving schedule around the weather.
7. Parking Apps
Finding legal, convenient parking in busy areas is hard—and every extra minute circling burns fuel, delays pickups, and risks fines. Parking tools solve this by showing real-time availability and letting you reserve a spot before you arrive.
Why they’re beneficial
Save time: Reserve in advance near pickup or drop-off points, cut circling, and keep ETAs tight.
Reduce stress: Know exactly where you’re going to park—no last-second guesswork on crowded streets.
Lower costs: Compare prices instantly; many tools surface promotions or off-peak rates that beat drive-up pricing.
Avoid tickets: Clear guidance on restrictions (hours, loading bays, resident zones) helps you stay compliant.
Improve safety: Park in vetted, well-lit locations—especially useful for late nights or unfamiliar neighborhoods.
Boost ratings: Smooth, punctual stops and shorter curbside waits create a better passenger experience.
Increase earnings: Less time hunting for spaces means more trips per shift and fewer interruptions.
Pro tips to get the most value
Filter by height limits and in/out privileges if you make multiple stops.
Book near, not at, the hotspot—one block away is often cheaper and faster.
Track your parking cost per trip to spot patterns and optimize where you stage between rides.
9. Other ride share apps
Why multi-apping benefits your earnings
Fill the gaps: If one platform is quiet, another may be busy. Running more than one reduces idle time and increases trips per hour.
Surge & bonus arbitrage: Different apps surge at different times/areas. You can accept the best-paying job available in that moment.
Wider coverage: Events, airports, or late-night pockets might light up on one platform first. Being present on multiple means you catch more of those spikes.
Downtime resilience: If a platform has an outage or geo-specific slowdown, you’re not stuck waiting.
Data for smarter shifts: Comparing earnings across apps shows which hours/areas pay best—so you can plan future shifts for profit, not guesswork.
Monochrome’s stance
We care about your earnings and we’re open about it: Monochrome encourages drivers to use other platforms if it helps you make more. Our goal is to be your most reliable, highest-quality option—not to box you in.
How the Monochrome Driver app supports multi-apping
Background operation: You can keep Monochrome running in the background and stay online/ready for jobs—even while another ride-share app is in the foreground.
Instant resume: When a Monochrome trip comes in, you can switch back with one tap and continue as normal.
Designed for quick-switching: We’ve optimized flows so you can accept, navigate, and complete trips without losing your place when you return.
In short: you can be on another app while still awaiting a Monochrome trip. These choices reflect our commitment to keeping your earnings at the center of our product decisions.
Best-practice setup (so it works flawlessly)
On iOS
Settings → Monochrome → Background App Refresh: ON
Location: Always Allow (with Precise Location: ON)
Notifications: Allow (Alerts + Sounds + Badges)
On Android
App info → Battery → Unrestricted (disable battery optimization for Monochrome)
Location: Allow all the time
Notifications: Allow (enable sound/vibration)
If your device has a vendor “battery saver,” add Monochrome to the Do-Not-Optimize/Protected list.
Workflow tips to avoid conflicts
Only accept one trip at a time. If you’re on a job with another platform, temporarily go offline until you’re free.
Use distinct notification sounds per app so you can tell who’s pinging you without looking.
Stage smartly: Wait in zones where multiple platforms tend to ping (near transit, event exits, nightlife corridors).
Track your metrics: Log acceptance rate, cancellations, and earnings per hour by app/area/time. Keep what pays, drop what doesn’t.
