Smartrak Pool Booking Implementation Guide

Introduction

In order to implement Pool Booking, a process of discovery is required to gather client requirements and data necessary to configure Smartrak. 
Some configurations are mandatory (and have minimum requirements); some are extended with optional functionality.

A Smartrak representative will work through the Global set up of this document with the client.

Then the client will perform (with Smartrak’s guidance):

• Vehicle details set-up (Admin Set up), and

• User set up (where the customer’s process should dictate the rules).

High Level Questions

When beginning the journey of implementing, an organisation-wide Pool Booking system it is important to consider the following questions before and during implementation:

• Will the system be rolled out to the whole organisation or a small portion?

  • How will training and support be handled (especially important for a whole organisation rollout)?

  • Who has access?

  • How will you handle user management?

    • Active Directory Integration? (Will take some effort from client’s IT Department)

    • Spreadsheet of users?

    • Single creation?

    • Do you have the right people available to assist with implementation?

      • Project Sponsor (senior leader to identify and recruit those below).

      • IT for directory and/or signoff.

      • HR for personal details and policy sign off.

      • Project manager to manage implementation.

      • Fleet Manager for vehicle use details and locations.

      • Team to deliver training.

Global System Rules

Will you use any of the following functions?

1. Enable Categories

- An additional field for managing vehicle categories – This could be used to allocate a fuel efficiency rating to a vehicle, indicate 4WD vehicles, indicate manual or automatic vehicles, etc.

2. Enable Cost Centres

– Can be attributed to a person (automatically) – but can be overridden if required at the time of booking. This information is used in some reporting.

3. Enable multiple cost centres for a booking - If ticked, will you use multiple cost centres per booking?
          (Allows for use of 2 or more cost centre allocations in a booking e.g. attribute a % of the total trip to each cost centre).

4. Enable Job Numbers

– Creates a free text field for each booking with a 25 Character Limit – can be used as a replacement, or supplement, to Cost Centres.

5. Use vehicles with highest odometer first

– Automatically allocates vehicles with highest odometer first – NB: This option only works if the “Choose a Vehicle” option (number 8 below) is not chosen.

6. Allow user to book a ride with an existing trip

– Make seats available for users in vehicles going to the same destination on the same day/ time.

7. Enable Approvals:

                    a. Auto Approval (occurs if box is left unchecked).
                    b. Approval Required (occurs if box is checked)– Can be set globally or to individual vehicles.
                    c. Approval is by any user who is a booking administrator (an email will be sent to all Booking Admins), unless a vehicle custodian is set (one per vehicle) on the plant details page (see below).

8. Allow users to choose the vehicle when making a booking

– Allow users to choose a particular vehicle when making a booking. NB: Overrides’ Highest Odometer option (number 5 above).

– Enabling this feature allows Booking Users to “click and select” a timeframe for a booking, anywhere on the calendar

9. Enable approvals for overnight bookings

 - Approval is by any user who is a booking administrator (an email will be sent to all), unless a vehicle custodian is set (one per vehicle) on the plant details page.
10.     Allow user to create new people on the fly – Allows users to create new users within the system. This is typically used where there is a flexible workforce.
11.     Allow user to indicate the booking is for private use – Check Box allows you to distinguish Private Bookings from Business Bookings – can be used for FB Tax reporting purposes (confirm with your accounting team!).
12.     Allow user to create virtual units - Allows creation of virtual plant, to manage vehicles that are not installed with Smartrak. Without GPS, the system will not work as intended for these units.
                    a. Adding a virtual unit will add a line item on the booking chart.
                                  i.      Recommended to use for important assets such as a Mobile Generator.
13.   Validate offroad when making a booking – Asks you to validate that “Off-road training” has been undertaken prior to making a booking – Specifically developed for a customer but available to be used if required.
14.   Validate NZ licence number format on ‘My Details’ page – Automatically checks that the licence format entered is correct (NZ Only).
15.   Enable recurring bookings – Allows you to set recurring bookings.
16.   Allow only booking admins to manually check out a booking – If the vehicle is needed for purposes other than driving (for instance, to load the vehicle during first hour of booking), this will override Auto Cancelations (“Cancellation Time” below).
        If selected, only Booking Admins can manually checkout a booking, the driver will need to request this each time.
17.   When a vehicle is not back 15 minutes before a booking - A set of options are available, for vehicles that are installed with Smartrak.
                    a. Allocate a new vehicle (driver will be notified of change - txt & email).
                    b. Notify the driver (vehicle will not be reallocated).
                    c. Take no action.
18.   Minimum time between bookings –can be set to 0, 15 or 30 minutes between an existing booking finishing and a new booking starting.
19.   Cancellation time  - Automatic cancellation time settings – 30, 45, 60, or 90 minutes – In case the vehicle booked hasn’t departed, how long after the booking start time do you want to automatically cancel a booking.
        (Avoids whole day bookings or people sick that wont utilise it).
20.   Maximum time for all bookings – How long in advance can your users book a car (minimum 1, maximum 12 weeks). NB: If activated, you cannot utilise “Maximum bookings” (option 21 below).
21.   Maximum time for recurring bookings (disabled by Smartrak) – Maximum time allowance for recurring booking can be set to any number of months you require – i.e. 3 months to avoid people forgetting about a recurring booking.
        Cannot work in conjunction with “Maximum time before booking” (option 20 above). Please note that this feature has been disabled by Smartrak, if you wish to change this please create a service desk ticket with this request.
22.   Minimum charge out time periods – Utilised for Inter departmental charging, e.g. a 1-hour booking can be rounded up to and charged internally for minimum 2 hours and above
        Specifically developed for a customer but available to be used if required.

23. Default Pool (read, “reserve pool fleet”) To be created in Admin first – When no vehicle is available in user’s pool(s), the system will allocate a vehicle from the “default pool”. This could be used for vehicles that are not typically “Pool Vehicles” (management, supervision etc.). In the event that a whole pool is booked, a vehicle from the “Default Pool” is offered. This is to avoid a System Administrator having to go through all groups and finding a vehicle for the person attempting to book. It also allows the client to use 100% of their fleet. Recommend adding a “custodian” for management vehicles that are part of the “default pool”.

24.   Vehicle Policies and Vehicle Procedures – Allows you to upload a Vehicle Policy and/or Vehicle Procedure. Users will be required to accept these prior to being able to create a booking.
25.   Booking Message – A free text message highlighted in blue and permanently displayed on the “make a booking page” or on the “Booking Chart” for all users to see – Max 80 characters. Examples include:

“Remember the cars are no smoking”, “Fuel card pin is”, “Refuel prior to returning”.

Vehicle Determination Strategy

The system allows you to define the generic rules for allocating a vehicle to a booking – three separate check boxes and another option available which is administered via the Smartrak Admin system.

1. Promote vehicles with highest odometer first (No. 5). If not ticked the lowest odometer is automatically chosen.

2. Allow user to choose a specific vehicle (No. 8).

3. Allow the system to allocate a vehicle automatically based on user requirements (Not selecting No. 8).

4. Using mileage manager (via Smartrak Admin site)

Other System Set up Requirements

This is handled by the client’s internal System Administrator who has Pool Booking Admin access.

The list below has the maximum options they may have to filter through - if all options were selected in Global Setup stage above.

Manage Categories (Optional, only if selected during Global System Rules)

If using categories, enter a list of categories (max 25 Characters).

For example, allocate a Fuel efficiency rating to a vehicle, indicate 4WD vehicles, indicate manual or automatic etc…

Manage Plant Types (Mandatory)

This is handled by the client’s internal System Administrator.

This is often used to describe the type of vehicle (Sedan, Wagon, Ute, or Electrician Van, Plumber Van etc…) (max 25 Characters).

For each vehicle/ plant, you are then asked to enter the following:

• Is a Vehicle? Y/N (This allows you to book non tracked assets such as trailers, pumps, and tools.

• If No, how many items at each location?

• Can go Off-Road? (vehicle only), specifically developed for the Otago Regional Council.

• Requires Tow Bar? (vehicle or not vehicle).

• Restrict to assigned users.

• This allows you to restrict which users are able to book certain items (vehicle or non vehicle), if ticked, you are then asked to allocate the users who are able to book that resource.

Manage Cost Centres (Optional, only if selected during Global System Rules)

If you decided to use Cost Centres, you need to provide here:

• Cost Centre Codes (12 characters max.).

• Cost Centre Description (for each code, no character limit).

Manage Locations (Mandatory)

This is where we define the locations that vehicles are commonly located (every piece of plant, vehicle or non vehicle must have a base location). This is a two step process where you:

• Create a Geofence in Maps for all your locations.

• Allocate a location name to a Geofence (in Pool Booking – Locations).

  • The location name can either be the same or different to the Geofence name.

• This will also list all locations that have been entered by users when the system is functional

Manage Reasons for Travel (Mandatory)

The system provides you with two options for you to manage the reasons for staff to travel:

• Define the reasons for travel you wish to provide users when booking a vehicle.

  • Can create predefined reasons for travel.

  • Automatically creates a “other” category which will allow free text.

• Not define any reasons for travel which will create a free text box for your users to fill (compulsory to enter some text).

Manage Plant

For day to day management of Plant and modification of Plant Type, Category, Base Location, Charge out rates, etc…

Vehicle Details Set Up

Add Plant (Plant Details)

The client Fleet Manager should have all the information available and support the clients internal System Administrator for this task.

The fields below (some of which are optional) will have to be filled out:

• Tracked Vehicle       (If selecting a tracked vehicle this will populate the registration number, make, model, year, start odometer below)

• Asset name             (Can be named the same as the vehicle in Admin or something more useful for Pool Booking)

• Plant type                (Select from drop down).

• Category                  (Select from drop down).

• Base location          (Select from drop down).

• Registration             (If GPS enabled, populated from admin System).

• Make                        (If GPS enabled, populated from admin System).

• Model                       (If GPS enabled, populated from admin System).

• Year                         (If GPS enabled, populated from admin System).

• Start odometer         (If GPS enabled, populated from admin System).

• Number of seats      (including driver’s seat).

• Car park number     (if applicable, will show on Outlook invitation).

• Vehicle custodian    (Persons name who needs to approve bookings on particualr vehicle).

• Is this a shuttle?      (Not implemented, do not tick).

• Has Towbar

• Hourly charge rate

• Daily charge rate

• Weekly Charge rate

• Per km charge rate

• Original Purchase price

• Current book value

• FBT compliant

• License class required

• Auto or manual

Pool Booking Availability

• The system allows you to define the days and times of the week a vehicle is available for booking and who can book it and also you can set dates of when users can make booking from and until ir getting a new vehicle or disposing of a vehicle.

Pools and Default Pool

This is where you create the different pools for the different locations and / or a default pool.

This is a two step process:

1. In Smartrak Admin, you create a Pool (in the form of a group)

                   a. Allocate users and resources to this group.

The user can then be selected (to see the group) from the drop down in the Pool Booking System Settings.

2. In Pool Booking you can allocate a “default pool” (read, “reserve pool”) to each location.

Users

Note about User Names: Please note that usernames have to be unique for them to be used in Pool Booking. It is recommended to keep the user names as unique as possible, as a last resort the user’s email address as a username to avoid having 3 or 4 “John” and not being able to bring them across to Pool Booking.

In the Global System Rules Set-Up, you have defined whether the drivers/passengers could be created on the fly while creating a booking or not.

If this has been selected, the drivers details will be required when creating the first booking (booking is impossible until details have been filled out).

The details required are as below:

• First name

• Last Name

• Phone

• Email

• Cost Centre (optional)

• If Driver:

• License number,

• License expiry,

• Origin of License (State), (AUS only)

• License class,

• Automatic (only) or Automatic or manual

There is also a Large User Base import option, where the client System Administrator gathers the above details (using the Smartrak provided template) for all the drivers that will have access to the Pool Booking System and Smartrak imports them into the system.  

Management

The day to day management of the user base (addition / detail updates / deletion) is done by the client System Administrator.

Automated Master Data Management and Single Sign On

If relevant, use “Pool Booking Interface Design Document NZ.pdf” or “Pool Booking Interface Design Document AU.pdf”