Software package

Vehicle rental booking package

A hire desk system built around the vehicle's calendar: quote and book online or at the desk, capture the driver, hold the deposit, record the walk-round with photographs at both ends, and keep servicing and one-way moves out of the bookable days.

Custom build Concept demo

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Who it is for

Built for

A good fit

Car, van and specialist vehicle hire companies from a single depot with eight vehicles up to a regional operator with a few branches and a hundred or so vehicles. Daily users are branch agents who quote, book, hand over and check in, the branch manager who watches the day's pick-ups and returns, the fleet manager who plans servicing and moves vehicles between branches, the owner who wants utilisation and deposits held, and customers who get a quote, book and pay a deposit online, then sign the condition report on a tablet.

Not the right fit

It is not for peer-to-peer car sharing, for a dealership offering the occasional courtesy car, or for a leasing company with contracts measured in years rather than days; and it does not try to be a telematics platform or an accounting system.

The operational problem it solves

How it runs, step by step

Eight o'clock at the city branch.

The agent opens the day board: six pick-ups and four returns, each with the vehicle allocated, the extras booked and whether the deposit has been taken.
A customer arrives for a medium van booked online last night.
The agent checks the licence against the details entered at booking and the age rule for that category, photographs it, and the eligibility check turns green.
The deposit was pre-authorised online, so she goes straight to the walk-round: the condition report on the tablet shows the standard views, she photographs each, marks an existing scuff on the rear bumper, records the fuel and mileage, and the customer signs on the screen.
The report is emailed to the customer before he leaves the yard.

At ten the fleet manager at head office sees that a long-wheelbase van at the north branch has its annual inspection due in nine days and sets a two-day maintenance block, which removes it from availability for those dates at every branch.

At noon a customer books a one-way hire online from the city branch to the north branch for next week; the system shows the van available at the north branch from the return date onwards, so the north agent can book it the following day.
At four a return comes in with a new dent on the sliding door.
The agent photographs it in the check-in report beside the check-out photograph of the same panel, costs the damage from the price list, and the deduction and release are applied to the pre-authorisation with the two photographs attached to the customer's receipt.
The owner closes the day with utilisation by category, deposits held and vehicles off the road.

Features

What the package does

The package ships as modules that follow a hire from quote to release: fleet and availability, rates and booking with deposits, and the handover layer of driver checks, condition reports and damage. Each module below lists what it does; the comparison table shows which package variant includes it.

Stock and inventory

Fleet in categoriesEach vehicle is keyed by registration with a category, home branch and status.
Driver eligibility checksCapture licence details and check them against your eligibility rules before a hire.
Maintenance blocks and hire historyBlock vehicles for maintenance by date or mileage, and see each customer hire history.

Staff and capacity

Availability by category, date and branchCustomers and staff see what is available by category, date and branch.
Online and desk quotes and bookingsOnline and desk bookings run on the same rate logic, so the price does not depend on the channel.
One-way hires between branchesAllow one-way hires, with availability that knows where each vehicle will be.

Billing and payments

Rate cards with extras and additional driversPrice by duration and season, with extras and additional drivers added to the quote.
Deposit and damage excess handlingTake and hold the deposit and damage excess, then release it or deduct from it.
Account customers and monthly invoicingSet up account customers who hire against purchase orders and are invoiced monthly.

Documents and cases

Check-out and check-in condition reportsRecord vehicle condition with photographs and a signature at check-out and again at check-in.

Messaging and notifications

Return and pick-up reminders by SMSRemind customers by SMS of pick-up and return times.

Package variants compared

Website
Business Software

Which features each package variant includes
Feature	Website	Business Software
Fleet in categories	Included	Included
Availability by category, date and branch	Included	Included
Rate cards with extras and additional drivers	Included	Included
Online and desk quotes and bookings	Included	Included
Driver eligibility checks	Not in this variant	Included
Deposit and damage excess handling	Not in this variant	Included
Check-out and check-in condition reports	Not in this variant	Included
Maintenance blocks and hire history	Not in this variant	Included
One-way hires between branches	Not in this variant	Optional
Account customers and monthly invoicing	Not in this variant	Optional
Return and pick-up reminders by SMS	Optional	Optional

Roles and permissions

Who does what

Owner
- See utilisation by vehicle and category, revenue by branch and deposits held
- Set deposit, excess and damage pricing rules
- Manage branches, categories and user accounts
- Approve refunds outside the standard rules
Branch manager
- See the day board of pick-ups and returns for the branch
- Allocate and swap vehicles on bookings
- Resolve damage disputes within the rules
- Run end-of-day reconciliation of deposits and payments
Rental agent
- Quote and book at the desk or by phone with the same rates as online
- Check driver eligibility and capture licence details
- Complete check-out and check-in condition reports with photographs and signature
- Take payments, deposits and damage charges
Fleet manager
- Add and retire vehicles and assign home branches
- Set maintenance blocks by date or mileage
- Plan one-way repositioning and see where each vehicle will be
- Record servicing, inspection dates and repairs against the vehicle
Customer
- Get a quote and book online with extras and additional drivers
- Enter driver details and pay or pre-authorise the deposit
- Receive the condition reports and receipts by email
- See hire history and open deposits in their account

Example screen

Concept demo

Concept demo of a vehicle check-in condition report comparing check-out and check-in photographs with a damage line and deposit release.

The check-in condition report as the agent sees it on a tablet: each standard view with the check-out photograph beside the new one, a marked dent on the sliding door with its costed line, fuel and mileage fields, and the deposit panel showing the deduction and the amount to be released.

Scope and options

What is included and what is extra

In the base package

Fleet in categories, each vehicle keyed by registration with home branch and status
Availability by category, date and branch
Rate cards by duration and season with extras and additional drivers
Online and desk quotes and bookings with the same rate logic
Driver eligibility rules with licence details captured and checked
Deposit and damage excess taken, held and released or deducted
Check-out and check-in condition reports with photographs and signature
Maintenance blocks by date or mileage and customer hire history

Common add-ons

One-way hires between branches with location-aware availability
Account customers with purchase orders and monthly invoicing
Return and pick-up reminders by SMS

Needs custom work

Telematics or tracking integration for mileage and location
Specialist vehicle categories with their own compliance documents
Integration with a specific accounting or insurance system

See the custom development service

Ownership, maintenance and pricing

After the build

Deployment and ownership

Runs on your own hosting or on hosting we manage; the choice is made in the proposal and can change later. You own the code and your data, including fleet records, bookings, condition reports and photographs, which can be exported at any time in standard formats. Nothing in the package stops a move to another provider.

Maintenance

Maintenance is optional and scoped separately from the build. When taken, it covers security updates, monitoring of payment callbacks and reminder sends, backups of bookings and report photographs, and a monthly window for small changes such as a new category, a seasonal rate band or a changed excess rule. Larger changes are quoted as change requests.

Pricing model

Priced per proposal.

Sold as a one-off setup and customisation with optional monthly maintenance and hosting as separate recurring lines. The setup figure depends on fleet size and branches, whether one-way hires and account customers are included, rate card complexity, the payment provider\'s deposit handling, the devices used for condition reports and how much fleet and booking data is migrated. The proposal states each line separately so recurring costs are never hidden in the build.

Software package

Custom build Concept demo

Variants

Fleet in categories, each vehicle keyed by registration with home branch and status
Availability by category, date and branch
Rate cards by duration and season with extras and additional drivers
Online and desk quotes and bookings with the same rate logic

Priced per proposal. A written proposal is the only binding figure.

Get a quote for this package Prefer a fully custom build?

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Does the online quote match the desk quote?

Yes. Both use the same rate card, season bands and extras, so a customer who was quoted online is given the same figure at the counter, and the agent can see how the quote was built line by line.

Is the deposit taken or pre-authorised?

Either, depending on what your payment provider supports and what you choose per category. A pre-authorisation holds the amount and is released or partly captured at check-in; a taken deposit is refunded less any deduction. The customer sees which applies before paying.

What if the agent forgets to photograph a panel?

The condition report has required views per category, and the report cannot be signed until each has a photograph. Extra photographs of specific marks can be added at any point and are stored with the view they belong to.

How are one-way hires reflected in availability?

With the one-way add-on, each vehicle's planned location is known for every date, so a van ending a hire at another branch is bookable from there the next day and no longer bookable at its old branch for those dates.

Can the fleet manager stop a branch hiring a vehicle out?

Yes. A maintenance block removes the vehicle from availability for the dates set, and only the roles you allow can lift it. Agents see why the vehicle is unavailable so they can offer an alternative.

Is this a finished product I can see running?

Not yet. The readiness badge on this page shows the real state: the package is a custom build assembled from our bookings, capacity, orders and forms modules for each hire company, and the condition report above is a labelled concept demo rather than a live client system. Needs beyond the listed options go through custom vehicle rental development.

Get a quote for Vehicle rental booking package

Tell us about your locations, the people who will use it and the add-ons you need. We reply with a clear, competitive proposal.