For years, Mex Rent a Car relied on a third-party mobility platform to manage trip calculations and customer routing. "Before we had our own system, we depended on an external platform that was very expensive. That provider kept up to 50% of the trip cost, which really limited us. Building our own solution was the only way to reduce that cost and gain flexibility," says Oscar Moran, IT manager.

Foreign travelers unfamiliar with Mexican cities often found it difficult to identify pickup and drop-off points, which led to confusion and frustration during their rental experience.

“We started with only four developers. In just 18 months, we had built the entire system — applications, backend, and website integrations — proving we could deliver at speed,” adds Joseph Barradas, chief media officer at Mex Rent a Car.

On the backend, Firestore powers real-time data management. Each trip is logged instantly, giving both customers and operators visibility into routes, arrival times, and completed rides. For drivers, the integration means live tracking and route recalculations if conditions change, helping maintain both safety and efficiency.

An example of this in practice is the MiCab corporate ride service. When an employee requests a ride, Firestore immediately processes the request, and the Maps APIs (including Directions, Places, and Roads) calculate the best route. The driver’s location is then shared in real time. Dispatchers no longer rely on manual updates: The entire flow is automated and scalable.

"We’re always looking for ways to innovate, even going to international fairs to find new ideas we can bring in-house," Barrada says. "What started with four developers has grown to a larger team, and with Google Cloud, we now have the capability to experiment and deliver solutions ourselves."

Internally, the shift has changed the way technology is developed and managed. Owning the platform means the team can build new features — such as multilingual support for foreign travelers, advanced pricing logic, or safety improvements — without relying on external vendors. The company is also exploring how it can use Firestore data to improve forecasting and optimize fleet availability during peak seasons.

"For us, the most important outcome of our Google Cloud implementation was regaining control," Moran says. "We no longer depend on external systems to tell us what we can or cannot do. That freedom lets us improve at our own pace and deliver what customers actually need."