How to create a booking in PoolCar

Login

Log into your PoolCar account either via the login page or via SSO

Every organisation’s PoolCar URL is different, please check this with your administrator.

+New Booking

Navigate to the +New Booking page on the top navigation bar.

Depending on your organisation’s system settings regarding automatic vehicle allocation, you will either be redirected to the New Booking (1.1) page or the Booking Calendar (1.2)

New Booking 1.1

With this setting, you do not select your own vehicle.

The New Booking (1.1) page is where you enter in booking details and are allocated an appropriate vehicle based on your selections.

With this setting, you are not able to select a particular vehicle to book.

Once you have been allocated a vehicle Click to proceed with Booking and skip the next step - Booking Calendar step 1.2)

Booking Calendar 1.2

With this setting, you select the vehicle you need to book.

The Booking Calendar (1.2) is where you can select the vehicle you need to book.

With this setting, you select the vehicle you need to book.

Select the Date required by arrowing forward through the days, or by clicking on the calendar to select a date in the future

Select the appropriate Vehicle pool from the dropdown

If there are additional filters to select, select these from the Advanced search options

If you want to check availability in the future, you can change the calendar view on the right-hand side to Week View or Month View

Once you have selected a vehicle, click on the start time of the booking and the Booking form will open.

Booking Form

The Booking form might look a bit different for your organisation as there may be custom fields on the Booking form that have been configured by your Sysadmin.

Complete all required fields.

Booking on behalf

If you organisation allows you to book on behalf of another driver, start typing the driver’s name under the Driver Details section and select the appropriate driver from the dropdown.

You can click on ‘Remember these settings for next time’ if you want to save those driver details for next time you make a booking.

Adding Passengers

If you are taking passengers, click on the Passenger Manifest tab.

The number of passengers you can add, will reflect the number of available seats in the selected vehicle.

Start typing the name in the Passenger Email Address field and select from the dropdown, complete the required fields.

Saving Booking

Click back into the Booking Details tab

Click Save Booking

Booking Confirmed

Booking is confirmed if successful, but can also be provisionally confirmed if requiring approval.

Booking ID number is supplied

Email is sent with calendar invitation attached (setting dependant)

Edit Booking

To edit a booking that has not yet been checked out, locate the booking in question from either the My Bookings list or the Calendar.

Edit the details as required and click on Update Booking to save.

A note about editing bookings already checked out (and auto-reallocation)

If a booking is currently checked out and the driver is running late, they do not need to modify the booking and extend it.

If there are any other bookings that clash with the current booking, the request to extend the booking end time will be declined.

If the customer has the auto allocation settings enabled to 15 minutes (set in Application Settings > Robots with the corresponding Robot enabled), the second booking would be reallocated to another vehicle (if one is available). 

Example:

A driver, John, has a booking from 8.00am to 9.00am on vehicle ABC123.

Another driver, Cindy, has a booking from 9.30am to 10.30am on the same vehicle.

The system will not let John extend the booking to 9.45am if he tries to do it at 9.00am.

But by 9.15am, if the settings are configured to auto reallocate the next booking if a booking is overdue, Cindy’s booking would be reallocated if another vehicle is available or cancelled if no other vehicle is available.

In that case, John would be able to extend the booking after 9.15am (as the conflicting booking is gone), but as the system will continue to extend out the booking until it is checked in, John, the driver of the first booking doesn’t actually need to do anything.