Driving Transformation: Gett’s Driver Portal Migration Journey

Setting the Stage

In the dynamic landscape of transportation technology, adaptability is paramount. So when faced with the challenge of aligning Gett’s Driver Portal ecosystem with the company’s broader R&D infrastructure, a migration project was not just an option — it was a necessity. As an integral part of Gett’s R&D Engineering, the Driver Portal team embarked on a transformative journey to enhance reliability, scalability and efficiency. This article marks the beginning of a multi-part series, shedding light on the context, challenges and outcomes of this amazing teamwork effort.

Background and Context

Arriving at Gett in February 2023, my role initially involved leading the R&D Billing Backend Team. However, in September of that same year, I assumed leadership of the Driver Portal Fullstack Team. This transition coincided with significant organizational hurdles, including the departure of a key developer in the team, and a lack of comprehensive documentation for the Driver Portal ecosystem — a network of ten microservices responsible for various functionalities, including: driver account management, commission plans, car branding updates, generation of monthly driver summary statements and a call-center management service. Below you can find a schema demonstrating how a driver accesses the portal from within Gett Drivers App.

In a broader organizational context, the Driver Portal team was historically aligned with Gett’s Israel operations, reflecting the traditional development focus on operational needs. This alignment resulted in the team’s being a part of the Operations department, rather than the Systems department where R&D personnel primarily operated. As a matter of fact, it led to the existence of another system in maintenance mode for the UK, and previously, one for Russia, which was shut down along with our Russian line of business. This division resulted in disparate tools, infrastructure, and processes, hindering seamless integration with Gett’s overarching R&D structure, characterized by its continuous learning, growth and improvement over time.

The technical disparities were obvious from the very start: the Driver Portal code resided in a separate GitHub account, and its AWS cloud infrastructure operated in a different cluster from that of Gett’s Production R&D AWS account, lacking the support enjoyed by the broader R&D domain, with dedicated DevOps/Infra and DBA engineers responsible for its smooth operation. And the disparities extended beyond the technical aspects, encompassing procedural misalignments as well, as the Driver Portal product management function wasn’t integrated properly either.

Finally, and to complete the bigger picture, Gett had just secured a significant victory by winning the Israel Airport Authority (IAA) tender, set to launch in early 2024. As part of the agreement, Gett would provide exclusive taxi services from Ben Gurion Airport to destinations across Israel while aligning with standard practices observed at international airports worldwide. At its core, the tender aimed to address longstanding challenges in the taxi industry, particularly concerning passenger safety and fare transparency.

As product management worked through the requirements of the IAA tender, the pivotal role of the Driver Portal in facilitating crucial flows was immediately recognized, including:

• Driver registration for IAA plans: all drivers, Gett and non-Gett drivers, would need to enroll in the ride plan of their choice via the Driver Portal
• Handling IAA fee payments for non-Gett drivers during checkout step by facilitating the upfront payment for their airport pickup rides
• Future order registrations, mandating all upcoming rides to be pre-registered in the system to ensure smooth access for drivers to the airport premises

Challenges and Drawbacks

The existing setup posed multifaceted challenges. Code management complexities were compounded by over a hundred GitHub repositories, many of which were deprecated or lacked clarity regarding their relevance. Instances of deploying development branches to production highlighted the absence of robust deployment procedures.

Furthermore, the microservices operated on individual EC2 instances without auto-scaling capabilities or disaster recovery protocols, leading to manual intervention for service restarts and heightened operational risks. Shared RDS databases exacerbated performance issues and inflated infrastructure costs, while inadequate monitoring and alerting mechanisms impeded timely error resolution.

Integration hurdles with other R&D services necessitated post-production testing, limiting agility and increasing development cycles. In the illustrated schematic provided below, an instance of the Driver Portal is accessing driver information from the Driver Service — this interaction entails additional authorization headers, along with interfacing through Gett Public API.

From a business/tech support perspective, all event data were collected but stored separately, hindering their accessibility for generating the required dashboards for daily operations and data-driven decision-making processes.

And so it became evident that the system in question could not exhibit the same level of reliability, availability, scalability and monitoring as other components within Gett’s system, and served as a great justification for the underlying investment, as well as its urgency: the only dependable course of action involved a complete migration of the entire Driver Portal ecosystem, ensuring its alignment with the modern technological framework of Gett’s R&D department.

Project Impact

Despite numerous challenges, the migration project yielded transformative outcomes. Five months of collaborative efforts, involving diverse stakeholders ranging from developers to project managers, culminated in the successful completion of the migration ahead of schedule. While the immediate benefits for the IAA tender were evident, the project’s impact transcended its immediate objectives.

By integrating the Driver Portal ecosystem into Gett’s unified R&D infrastructure, the project elevated reliability, scalability and efficiency across the organization. Streamlined code management, automated deployment processes, and optimized resource utilization not only enhanced operational efficiency but also reduced overhead costs. Moreover, improved monitoring and data integration capabilities empowered data-driven decision-making and enhanced customer experience.

In the forthcoming continuation part of this series, we will delve into the technical intricacies and challenges encountered during the migration journey, offering insights into our methodology and lessons learned.