Vehicles and machines in classes, self-drive or with driver
Every car, van or machine is its own bookable item, grouped in classes your customers recognise. Each item says whether it goes out self-drive, with your driver or operator, or both, and what a driver needs to hire it.
PLANSEvery plan
The problem it solves
- The fleet lives in a spreadsheet, so the counter promises a car that is already out or still being cleaned.
- Customers ask for "an SUV" or "a 20 t excavator", but your system only knows plate numbers.
- A 23-year-old drives off in a supercar because nobody checked the age rule for that car.
- Stock items such as barriers or generators are hired by the dozen and counted by hand.
How it works
- Make your classes under Rental > Configuration > Places and Items > Classes: Supercar, SUV, 20 t excavator, with a picture and a description customers see when they book.
- Add each car or machine under Rental > Vehicles, or bring it in through Onboarding. Choose Vehicle or Equipment, the class, the depot (Branch) and Hire: Dry Hire, Wet Hire or Dry and Wet.
- On the Vehicle tab link the fleet vehicle and the serial or fleet number. Add the tank, AdBlue and battery sizes, and the youngest driver and licence years the car needs.
- Fill the Showroom tab (highlights, specifications, video) for cars sold online by name.
- Book by class or by the exact item. When you confirm a class booking, the first free ready item of that class is given, your depot first.
Everything it does
The item
- Name, Code (fleet number, used once per Entity), picture and description
- Kind: Vehicle or Equipment
- Hire: Dry Hire (the vehicle only), Wet Hire (with your driver or operator) or Dry and Wet; Dry Hire to start with
- Class, Branch (depot) and Invoice As (the product on invoices; empty: the class or the Entity's rental product)
- Quantity: 1 for one car; more for a stock of the same thing hired by quantity (barriers, chairs)
- Ready: only ready items are offered; an item is not ready while it is cleaned, checked or repaired
- Use Counted In: Kilometres, Miles or Engine Hours; equipment starts on hours, a vehicle follows its fleet odometer unit
Vehicle tab
- Fleet vehicle with plate, year, colour, seats, gearbox and fuel type
- Serial / Fleet Number, so each car is a stock serial in your depot
- Fuel Tank (litres), AdBlue Tank (litres), Battery (kWh): used to charge what is missing at the return
- Youngest Driver (years) and Licence Held (years): checked against the drivers on the order for self-drive cars
Showroom tab
- Highlights, one per line, shown on the booking page ("0-100 km/h in 2.9 s")
- Specifications and a Video Link
- Shown Online, for the online booking page
Classes
- Name, code, picture and a description shown on booking pages
- A class with no Entity is shared by every Entity
- Rate plans, price rules and check templates can be set per class
Finding and booking
- Rental > Vehicles > Availability > Find Free Items: from, until, class, branch, quantity and Ready Only (on to start with)
- Search by name, code or plate; filters Vehicles, Equipment, Out of Service and Papers Expiring; group by where it is in the yard
- Buttons on an item: Rentals, Checks, and the item's Blocks
- Two bookings of the same item in the same time are refused, with the clash named. Buffers before and after each rental are kept free when you set them
Who uses it
Rent ManagerSets up classes, items, buffers and the rental invoice product.
Rent UserFinds a free car, books it by class or item, and marks it Ready after cleaning.
CustomerSees the class picture, highlights and specifications on the booking page and in the app.
Where you use it
- Web: Rental > Vehicles > Items > Vehicles, Find Free Items and Blocks; Rental > Configuration > Places and Items > Classes
- The SmartMy Rental Staff app: Vehicles, to search, filter by yard state or scan a car's QR label. Built and in testing, not in the app stores yet)
- Online booking page and the SmartMy Rental app: classes and cars shown online
- Not a vehicle tracker: where the car is on the map comes with SmartMy Transit tracking
What you control
Settings
- Buffer before and Buffer after (hours) each rental: 0 to start with
- Rental product: the invoice product when neither the item nor its rate plan names one
- Distances in: Kilometres to start with, or Miles
Notifications
- No message of its own
Works with
SmartMy TransitWhere Is It on the item and readings from the tracker, when Transit tracking is installed.
Questions
Can one car be both self-drive and chauffeur-driven?
Yes. Set Hire to Dry and Wet. The driver checks (age, licence years, verification) apply when it goes out self-drive.Can we hire out things by quantity, like barriers?
Yes. Make one item with a quantity, for example 200 barriers. Each order line takes how many it needs, and the system refuses a booking when not enough are left in that time.Can we keep time free to clean a car between rentals?
Yes. Set Buffer before and Buffer after in hours in the settings. That time around each rental is kept free when bookings are checked.Related features
FLEET AND DEPOTSDepots, yard places and transfers with checksEach depot keeps its own yard: on hire, inspection, turnaround, out of service, in transit and own use. Cars move between those places by themselves as they go out, come back and are checked. You move cars between depots with a check at both ends.FLEET AND DEPOTSNew cars into the fleet: fit-out parts, Go Live and QR labelsBring a new car or machine into the fleet in one record: model, serial, plate, depot and the parts fitted to it. Go Live makes the fleet vehicle and the bookable item at once. Print a QR label so staff open the car with one scan.FLEET AND DEPOTSVehicle papers with expiry datesKeep the registration, insurance, permits, fitness and other papers of every car and machine with their numbers, dates and files. The depot manager is reminded before each one expires, and an expired paper stops the car going out.RATESRate plans by hour, day, week and month with the cheapest mixPrice each class or car by the hour, day, week, month or year in one rate plan. For every rental the system works out the cheapest mix of those periods. The same plan holds a shortest rental, a grace time on return and the deposit.HIRE ORDERSPlanning board: drag to move, click to bookSee every car and machine by day on one board, with bookings, cars out, call-offs and blocks as coloured bars. Drag a reserved booking to another day or car, and click a free day to start a booking for that car.DRIVERS AND DELIVERYDriver licences, IDs, age rules and blocklistKeep each driver's licence, international permit and ID with photos, verify them once. A self-drive car goes out only when every driver on the order passes. Each needs a licence valid for the whole hire, old enough, licence held long enough, and must not be blocked.
See your fleet on it.
Tell us how many cars or machines you hire out, from how many depots, and how bookings reach you today. We will set up your fleet with you on SmartMy Rental.