Smartrak Pool Booking - Behind the Scenes

Email notifications

The system sends emails to users when the following events occur:

• A new booking is created

• A booking is updated by the user who made the booking, the driver or an administrator.

• A booking is cancelled by the auto-updater

• A booking is transferred to a new vehicle by the auto-updater

• An available replacement booking could not be found by the auto-updater

• The Late Return option is set to "Notify Driver" and the vehicle has not returned 15 minutes before the start of a booking.

• A passenger is added to or removed from the booking.

• A booking requires approval

• A booking is approved or declined.

• A vehicle hasn't been checked out 15-60 minutes after the start of the booking (depending on settings)

Approvals

If the vehicle being booked requires approval, then the booking is created with a status of 'Unapproved', and an approval request email is sent to either the vehicle custodian if one is assigned to the vehicle, or, if not, the booking administrators. Note that all Booking Administrators will get an approval request email.
If a vehicle has a Custodian assigned, the Custodian will receive the approval email instead of the Booking Administrators.
When an approved booking is edited, it will be reverted to unapproved, and another approval request email will be sent to the approver if any of the following details of the booking are changed:

• The Vehicle

• The Driver

• Start/End times

• Where they're going

• Reason for travel

Auto Check-out/Check In

Within 5 minutes of a vehicle exiting its base geofence it will be checked out by the booking auto-updater, and similarly within 5 minutes of it re-entering its base geofence it will be checked in automatically by the auto-updater.

If a vehicle is booked for a full day but taken out of the geofence the night before and returned the day after, the auto-updater uses the first key on of the day and the last key off of the day as the check-in/checkout time.

The booking auto updater tries to find the geofence enter/exit event closest to the booking start/end times to use for the check-out/check-in time. If the geofence enter time is after the booking end time then the booking is updated at the next 5-minute execution of the booking auto-updater, if, however, the geofence enter time is before the end of the booking then the system waits to see if there another geofence enter event closer to the end of the booking after the booking end time. This is in case the driver takes the vehicle in and out of the geofence more than once during the booking.

The Booking Auto Updater waits until here to check in the booking in case there's another geofence enter event closer to the booking end time.

Note:

The background booking updater process runs once every 5 minutes, so you won't see changes to the status of bookings immediately when they move in/out of their base geofence, you will see these changes occur within 5 minutes of the event occurring that triggers the change in status.

Open

Manual check-in/check-out

Virtual (untracked) vehicles need to be manually checked out and checked in so that they can be reported on and removed from the "My Bookings" menu.

Users and Administrators can also manually check-in/out bookings (may be limited by system settings). This is useful for times when a vehicle is booked but not used in a way the system expects e.g. if a driver needs to pack up the vehicle for their trip but will not leave the geofence within the cancellation time.

Auto cancellation

If a vehicle has not been checked out 30-360 minutes (depending on system settings) after the start of the booking and the vehicle is tracked, then the booking auto-updater will cancel the booking and send a notification and calendar update to the interested parties. Bookings can cancel if the vehicle is still inside it's base geofence at the time the booking is due to cancel, even if there is a key-on event that has occurred since the start of the booking.

Late Returns

The action that the system performs when a vehicle is not back before the start of a booking depends on the "When a vehicle is not back before a booking:" setting. This can be one of the following options:

• Allocate new vehicle: If the vehicle is outside the geofence 5 mins before the start of the booking, then the system will attempt to allocate another vehicle which:

  • is available

  • matches one of the vehicle type and groups of the original booker,

  • is inside its base geofence.

If a matching vehicle can be found then the booking is updated and an update to the calendar event is sent to all the interested parties in the booking.
If no matching vehicle is found then the interested parties get sent an email telling them that the vehicle they booked hasn't returned yet and no matching replacement could be found.

• Notify Driver: If the vehicle is outside the geofence 5 mins before the start of the booking, then the system will send an email to the driver to let him know that the vehicle they booked hasn't returned from its previous booking yet.

• No Action: Nothing for the system to do here.

My Bookings

Bookings in the "My Bookings" menu will disappear 3 days after being checked in.

Pools and Groups

Vehicle pools are implemented in pool booking by using the standard Smartrak group permissions system, a group may be set up to represent each pool, including a group for the default pool.
When the system is searching for a vehicle for the user it will first search all of the groups assigned to the user except the default pool, then, if none are found it will search the default pool. This only applies when "User Vehicle Choice' is turned off.

Passengers

The system will now allow you to add passengers to a booking if the booking is overnight, this is set in the system settings and defaults to not allow overnight passengers.

Default Pool

The default pool will be chosen last by the automatic allocation process.
The recommended setup is as follows:

1. Assign all the vehicles that a user should be able to book (including vehicles in the default pool) to a group, (let's call it 'All Vehicles'),

2. Create another group (let's call it 'Default Pool') and assign to it all the vehicles that you want to system to choose last.

3. On the Systems settings screen, select the Default Pool in the indicated field.

4. In the Admin system permissions section, only assign the 'All Vehicles' group to the user(s), if you also assign the 'Default Pool' to the user then they will be able to select this group in the group drop-down when they're making a booking thus defeating the allocation priority.