The Planning Menu provides two groups of programs. One group is designed to
help the user anticipate future fleet needs. The other is designed to set up and monitor capacity controlled rates. This section briefly introduces these features and describes the inter-relationships of the various planning programs.
DEFINITIONS
THE PLANNING CALENDAR
SUMMARY OF FLEET PLANNING FEATURES
SETTING UP THE FLEET PLANNING FEATURE
WARNING MESSAGES
NOTES ON SETTING UP METROPLEX GROUPS AND CLASS GROUPS
MULTIPLE METROPLEXES
ON-GOING MAINTENANCE OF THE PLANNING FILES
FLEET PLANNING - PURCHASING AND SELLING VEHICLES
HINTS AND WARNINGS IN RUNNING FLEET PLANNING
CHECKING THE PLANNING CALENDAR
PLANNING CALENDAR VS WEBPLAN
RATE AVAILABILITY - CAPACITY CONTROLLED RATES
COMMENTS ABOUT DATE CHANGES TO RESERVATIONS
| PLANNING MENU --- FLEET PLANNING --- 1. Class Availability Report PRTFUT 2. Fleet Forecasting Report FORECAST 3. One-Way Analysis Report OWARPT 4. Change Class Availability CHGFUT 5. Change Warning Percentage CHGPCT 6. Print Fleet Adjustments PRTADJ 7. Extend Planning Calendar EXTEND 8. Recalculate Class Needs RECALC 9. One-Way Effects-Planning EDT1WAY 10. Class Futures Report FUTRPT --- RATE PLANNING --- 11. Print Rate Availability PRINTRAV 12. Edit Rate Availability EDITRAV 13. Set Rate Availability SETRAV |
A. FLEET PLANNING
Vehicles: The Fleet Planning programs help anticipate future fleet needs. They provide an early warning when approaching overbooking or a blackout for a particular vehicle class during a future time period. The Fleet Planning programs also handle anticipated vehicle purchases and sales. These programs are designed to provide an estimate of future fleet needs.
Equipment: In addition to the vehicles in the fleet, other assets can be booked into inventory for the purpose of tracking their status, location, and availability. Equipment rental items such as hand held GPS units, child restraint seats, ski racks, and hand trucks are examples of equipment that can be managed in this way. By entering these units into the Inventory with their own class code, the planning calendar can be used to manage their bookings in the same manner it does with vehicles. (Refer to the chapter in Special CARS+ Features Tracking Optional Equipmentfor details on how to set up and use this logic.)
The Planning Calendar: The Planning calendar consists of the following:
1. The Class Availability Report lists the anticipated utilization for dates in the future by class or class group.
2. A set of interactive messages that appear on the screen when an attempt is made to book local reservations or open RAs for walk-up customers. These messages consist of the following types:
a. “Soft” warnings which allow the transaction to continue.
b. "Hard" black-outs which prevent the transaction from continuing.
3. A search of the Planning Calendar is available from the Reservation and RA Open programs to check on the anticipated utilization.
B. TERMINOLOGY
Free sale -The class can be reserved freely through the Reservations program or through WebRes, and can be rented freely as a walk up rental regardless of whether there are available units or not. If the Planning Calendar is turned on, the CARS+ Reservation program, Webres and RA Open will NOT be on free sale. A transaction will only be accepted if there are enough units thought to be available for the entire anticipated rental length. But even when the Planning Calendar is turned on, any reservation interface from an external national or international reservation center will remain on Free Sale.
Possible overbooking -The class can be reserved with a warning through the Reservations program and used on a walk up rental with a warning. Depending on how WebRes is configured, the class may or may not be reserved through WebRes.
Confirmation required- The Reservations program will prompt the agent to call the renting location for confirmation. (This is set up using warning percentage 888%.)
Blackout - The class cannot be reserved through the Reservations program and cannot be used on a walk up rental. (This is set up using warning percentage 999%.) Depending on how WebRes is configured, the class may or may not be reserved through WebRes.
Note that in all cases the reservation interface programs will accept reservations regardless of how the class is restricted in CARS+. To restrict the reservations received, the user must contact their Res. Center.
This group of programs is used to create and maintain a "Planning Calendar" which is an image of the size of the fleet and the commitments for that fleet for each date in the future. (The "future" being limited to the date through which the planning calendar has been extended.)
A. THE SIZE OF THE FLEET
1. The following transactions change the count of the fleet in the future:
- In-fleeting new units (see NOTE below)
- Sale of units
- Planned future purchases of units
- Planned future sales of units
- Temporary additions or subtractions of units
- One-way rentals - see discussion on the different types of one way rentals below
- Transfer to a non-valid rental location
- For RV type operations only, moving units in and out of a 'not available' type status
2. In-fleeting vehicles: In-Service Date:
3. Vehicle Records - Grounding Date/ Eligible DateWhen a vehicle is in-fleeted, it is the In-Service Date field on the Vehicle Inventory record that is read by the Recalculate Class Needs program.
Some operations chose to pre-load vehicles before they are physically at the rental location. For those units, the In-Service Date field should be left blank so that the vehicle is ignored by the planning calendar. The first time the vehicle is used in one of the programs listed below, the In-Service Date field is automatically set to the start date of the transaction. The programs are:
Once the In-Service Date field has a date, the vehicle will be counted on the planning calendar the next time that Recalculate Class Needs is run.
- RA Open
- Make Vehicle Available
- Car Wash Entry
The Grounding Date or Eligible Date in the vehicle record can be used to control when the unit will drop off the planning calendar. A field in the Edit Misc. Control Fields record can turn on this feature where the vehicle grounding or eligible date is used to mark the unit's exit from the available fleet. If that feature is not used, the vehicle remains on the planning calendar until it is transferred to a non-renting location or is sold.4. One way Rentals Between Owned Locations (unless the locations are exempt)
User tip: If this feature is used, units should NOT be deducted from the planning calendar based on their grounding or eligible date using Change Class Availability. Doing so will double the reductions.The size of the fleet at the renting location is reduced, and the fleet size at the anticipated check in location is increased as of the anticipated close date. Note that if a unit is committed for any time within a time period, it is counted as committed for the entire time period. Refer to Section XI of this chapter for a more detailed discussion of time periods.
To prevent one-way rentals and non-revs between owned locations from affecting the calendar, set up records using the One-Way Effects on Calendar program to exempt locations. This should be used only when vehicles are immediately shuttled back to the opening location whenever there is a one-way rental.
One way rentals between owned locations can also be limited through the use of the Edit Ideal Fleet program.
5. One-way Rentals from Foreign Locations (entered via Foreign RA Entry)
If the vehicle is an owned unit, the size of the fleet at the closing location is increased. If the vehicle is a foreign unit, it is ignored by the Planning Calendar.Note:The Planning Calendar NEVER counts foreign vehicles on your site as part of the fleet. Foreign vehicles are always ignored.
6. One way Rentals to Foreign Locations
The size of the fleet at the renting location is reduced and the unit drops off of the planning Calendar entirely (as of the anticipated close date) until it re-enters your system via Foreign RA Entry, or by shuttling it back into the system via Vehicle History Update, Make Vehicle Available, or Non-Rev Movement.7. Exceptions
Some locations that often rent vehicles one-way to a nearby foreign location may shuttle back their vehicles immediately (to the opening location). In this case, in order for the one-ways NOT to drop off of the Planning Calendar, the foreign location can be made "Exempt" so that there is no reduction in fleet size when entering a one-way transaction to that particular foreign location. Use the program Edit Oneway Exempt Records to prevent one ways between owned locations from changing the fleet size.Foreign Locations can be made "exempt "in the Customer File. (This applies to both rentals and non-revs.)
8. Non-Valid Renting Locations
Vehicles that are currently located at a non-valid rental location will not be counted as part of the total available feet. Please see the "Hints and Warnings" section below for a detailed discussion of this.
B. THE NUMBER OF COMMITTED UNITS
The following transactions automatically update the anticipated number of committed units:
- Reservations, cancellations, and no-shows (Quotes and Res-Requests do not affect the planning calendar.)
- RAs, voided RAs, Wait RAs
- Non-rev tickets and Vehicle Shuttle Movements (unless the vehicle status on the ticket is an “available” type.)
- Using Make Vehicle Available when the vehicle returns early and the RA isn’t yet closed.
- For RV type operations only, moving units to a 'not available' type status (other than when opening a Non-Rev Movement) decreases the count of the fleet from that point forward. Moving units back to an 'available' type status (other than closing a Non-Rev Movement) increases the count of the fleet from that point forward.
NOTES:
- For all operations other than RV type, changing a unit's status to a "not-available" status type does NOT influence ANYTHING on the Planning Calendar. For more information on this topic, refer to the section later on in this chapter titled "Hints and Warnings".
- Status "R" (request) reservations will not update the Planning Calendar with a commitment. The commitment will not occur until the reservation status is changed to "O".
WARNING: Fleet planning reports and warnings need to be used with caution because there are many factors affecting future needs which cannot be anticipated by the program, such as:
- Changes in the no-show rates on future dates.
- Overdue RAs.
- Unexpected drops.
- Mechanical break downs. (Changing a unit's status to a non-available status such a "repair" or "maintenance" does NOT reduce the expected size of the fleet on the Planning Calendar. A Non-Rev Movement must be done. See more about this under the "Hints and Warnings" section later on in this chapter.)
Fleet planning is an optional feature. Through the use of the CARS+ Initialization and the Extend Planning Calendar program, this feature can be turned on or off.
III. SUMMARY OF FLEET PLANNING FEATURES
The following programs and routines are part of Fleet Planning:
IV. SETTING UP THE FLEET PLANNING FEATURE
The following items on the Rental Control Files Menu affect usage of the Fleet Planning programs:
Once the warning percentages are set up, the following interactive messages display in Reservations or RA Open (for a walk up rental) and in Extend RA when the warning levels are reached:
WARNING - APPROACHING FULL BOOKING PRESS RETURN
This message indicates that the first warning level for the vehicle class will be reached at some point during the requested time period. Depending on the percentages set, overbooking is possible. Appearance of the warning message does not prevent taking the reservation or saving the walk up RA.
WARNING - POSSIBLE OVERBOOKING PRESS RETURN
This second message indicates that the second warning level for the vehicle will be reached at some point during the requested time period. Depending on the percentages set, overbooking is possible - perhaps even probable. Depending on how your system is configured, the appearance of this message may be just a warning or prevent taking this reservation or saving the walk up RA.
User tip: A field in the Location Control File is used to define whether of not bookings can be made when the second warning level is reached.
The above warning messages
are issued if utilization exceeds Level 1 or Level 2 values at any time during
the requested rental period. This
means that vehicles could be available for some or even most of the requested period
but not for all of it. In order to
see the anticipated utilization for the requested dates, a search of the Class
Availability File can be done from both the Reservations and RA Open screens. When an open RA is extended, only the new period of the extension is checked for availability.
If the user’s User Access Record allows overbooking, the transaction will proceed. If it does not allow over booking, alternative classes or locations may be offered.
Offering alternative
classes: When the overbooking
warning appears, CARS+ uses the hierarchy rating of the vehicle class entered
to determine what other types of vehicles could be considered for the
transaction. Using the hierarchy
ratings in the Vehicle Class records, the next available class down and the
next available 3 classes up are shown in a pop-up window for alternative
classes that could be offered. Each of the classes displayed have had their availability checked on the Planning Calendar to assure that they can be reserved. Entering a line number of an alternate class will change the Class Code on the Main Window display accordingly.
| OPTION: __________ RESERVATIONS 1 Name (L/F/T) PETERS/STEVEN 2 P-U Date/Dy/Time/L 09-02-01/MO/200P/TUS 3 Ret Date/Dy/Time/L 09-12-01/TH/0530P/TUS 11 Disc Pct/Amt 7.50 4 Pax 4 5 VhCls/Rate/RtCls CCAR/SAVER/CCAR 6 Est.Miles 2000/N 7 Home/Cell Phone 714-111-1234/213-555/6677 A-Rates E-DB/ Cust 8 Src/Ty/ID REZ/S/1348692 O-Other N-Notes 9 Notes/Options */CHILD SEAT 10 Email * ALTERNATE CLASSES THE FOLLOWING SIMILAR CLASSES ARE AVAILABLE FOR THIS TIME PERIOD 1 ECAR ECONOMY CAR 2 MCAR MIDSIZE CAR 3 FCAR FULLSIZE CAR 4 PCAR PREMIUM CAR |
Offering alternative locations: When an alternative class is not selected, a list of alternative locations may be offered where the requested class has availability. (Alternative locations are set up in Edit Alternative Locations on the Location Control Files Menu.)
CANNOT RESERVE VEHICLE - BLACKOUT IN EFFECT
This message indicates that a blackout has been placed on this class of vehicle for one or more of the dates requested. This message prevents the booking of the reservation and prevents saving a walk up RA.
User tip: Blackouts can be placed by setting the warning percentage to 999%.
- Buffer minutes only apply to the booking of future reservations. They apply to reservations booked through standard CARS+, WebXML, WebRes and Front Desk. They do NOT apply to the opening of new RAs. If a vehicle returns at noon and a counter agent knows that it is ready for re-rental at 1pm, they will NOT be stopped from renting the car even though the full Buffer Minutes period has not elapsed.
- If when booking a reservation for next Wednesday, the Planning Calendar sees that two cars within the requested class will be sitting available as of the desired pickup time and that a third unit is scheduled to return at noon that day, NO warning will be made if the reservation is for 12 noon. That is because one of the other two available units can be used while the returning car is cleaned and prepped. As a result, Buffer Minutes are only applied to a class of cars which is booked solid and is applied only to the first car that is scheduled to return back from rental. As long as other units of the desired class are available, the Buffer period is meaningless.
- The warning messages for breaking the Buffer Minutes rule are exactly the same as those outlined in the section above. That is, you cannot tell by the warning message if there are absolutely no cars available for the reservation or if there may be a car but it is not available because it is within its Buffer period. Use the Class Availability search to see the Calendar in more detail.
VII. NOTES ON SETTING UP METROPLEX GROUPS AND CLASS GROUPS
Time Periods: It is highly recommended that the Time Period records for all locations in a metroplex group use the same values for each of the 12 time periods available. This also applies to the Time Period record for the metroplex group itself. If this is not the case, changes to the fleet size and the number of commitments may appear to report in the wrong time period.
Warning Percentages (Class Codes): Vehicle Class records are set up on a per-location basis. It is highly recommended that the Warning Percentages for any given class be the same for each location within a metroplex group. For example, the Warning Percentages for the class CCAR should be the same for each location in the metroplex group. If this is not the case, the Class Availability Report may display unexpected Warning Percentage values.
User tip: The Change Warning Percentages program is a convenient way to set the Warning Percentages for a given class to the same level for an entire location group in a single operation.
Class Groups: It is highly recommended that all vehicle classes defined in a class group use the same Warning Percentage values. If this is not the case, the Class Availability Report may display unexpected Warning Percentage values.
User tip: The Change Warning Percentages program is a convenient way to set the Warning Percentages to the same level for up to six classes in a single operation.
Operations not wishing to follow these recommendations should consult the Support Document Data Set-Up for Metroplex Feature. This document describes the potential consequences of not following the recommendations.
In some operations there is a continual one-way flow of vehicles being rented from one location to another. Due to this flow, it is necessary to shuttle groups of vehicles back to the opening location on a regular basis. For reservation bookings, locations that are close geographically can be members of the same metroplex and, therefore, reservations can be accepted based on the fleet in the entire metroplex.
A different situation occurs when the distance between the locations is so great that it takes a significant amount of time, such as a full day, to shuttle the vehicles back to the opening location. Because there is no way to indicate on a reservation that a vehicle will be shuttled back to the opening location, the one-way flow of reservations can cause the opening location to look like it is overbooked and, therefore, blacked out.
To accommodate this situation, a location can belong to up to 3 metroplexes (the original one plus 2 alternatives) which in a sense are “layered”. The additional ones can be defined so that the vehicles in them can be considered for reservations as long as there is sufficient lead time between the pickup date/time and the time the reservation is booked to shuttle vehicles to the opening location. As the lead time increases, the pool of potential vehicles increases too. The lead time is defined in 4 metroplex fields on page 4 of the record in Edit Locations.
For purposes of example, assume renters typically fly into the North location, pick up a vehicle, and return it to the South location which is 300 miles away. By creating a Location Group for a metroplex that includes the North and South locations and designating that 3 days of lead time are needed, reservations made 3 or more days in advance can be booked against the fleet in both locations.
Continuing the example, assume:
The North location belongs to a metroplex (+NORTH) that includes an airport and 2 city locations. These are so close that vehicles are easily shuttled between the locations.
There are outlying suburban locations around the North area. In order to shuttle vehicles between the +NORTH locations and the suburbs, 1 day of lead time is needed.
To shuttle vehicles from the South location up to the North location 3 days of lead time are needed.
By setting up various Location Groups for metroplexes and using the fields in the Location file, reservations for the North airport location can be based on vehicles in any of these locations -- provided that the lead time is sufficient. Lead time is calculated from the current day.
| Location Group Code for Metroplex |
Member Locations |
Lead Time |
Comments |
| +NORTH |
North airport North city locations |
Zero days |
Only the fleet in the North airport and city locations is considered when booking reservations within the next 24 hrs. |
| +NSUB |
+NORTH locations North suburb locations |
1 day |
The fleet in the North airport, city and suburb locations is considered when accepting reservations with at least 1 day of lead time. |
| +NS |
+NSUB locations plus all South locations |
3 days |
The fleet in all locations is considered when accepting reservations with at least 3 days of lead time. |
To put it another way, the closer the pickup time is to the current time, the smaller the pool of vehicles that can be used when considering fleet availability.
Like all tests of the Planning Calendar, each day of the anticipated rental are checked against the calendar files. For example, using the chart illustrated above, a seven day reservation booked today which is scheduled for pickup tomorrow (thus less than 24 hours lead time) will check the Planning Calendar as follows:
+NORTH will be checked for the first day of the rentalIn order for the reservation to be accepted, a vehicle must be found available on all three of the calendars tested. That is, just because there are plenty of vehicles available tomorrow at the North airport does not mean that they are available for all seven days. Some may be scheduled to be shuttled elsewhere to fulfill the needs of a wider metroplex.
+NSUB will be checked for days 2 and 3
+NS will be checked for all the remaining days of the rental.
For example, the following displays the calendar for metroplex +NORTH:
| OPTION: CLASS AVAILABILITY F1=Start at Date F6=AMT/PCT: AMT F7=Class: E F8=Loc: +NORTH Cls Date %1. %2* 0000 0600 0800 0900 1100 1300 1500 1700 1900 E 07-28 85 110 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 E 07-29 85 110 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 E 07-30 85 110 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 E 07-31 85 110 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 2 |
This screen seems to indicate that the locations within metroplex +NORTH are not over committed in Class "E". Starting tomorrow, July 28, only 2 of the five units are committed and the day ends with only three of the units reserved. In fact, there appears to NO REASON NOT to accept an additional reservation for the dates 7/28 though 7/31.
But suppose that the North Suburb (SUB) location also has 5 "E" class vehicles with the following commitments:
| OPTION: CLASS AVAILABILITY F1=Start at Date F6=AMT/PCT: AMT F7=Class: E F8=Loc: SUB Cls Date %1. %2* 0000 0600 0800 0900 1100 1300 1500 1700 1900 E 07-28 85 110 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 E 07-29 85 110 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 5. 5. 5. 5. 5. 5. E 07-30 85 110 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5. 5. 6* 6* 6* 6* 6* 6* 6* E 07-31 85 110 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 6* 6* 6* 6* 6* 6* 6* 6* 6* |
This screen seems to indicate that Location SUB is overbooked in Class "E" starting at 8am on the 30th. But that is not true because SUB is metroplexed in with the North locations whenever a rental goes more than 24 hours into the future. The Calendar for +NSUB would look like the following:
| OPTION: CLASS AVAILABILITY F1=Start at Date F6=AMT/PCT: AMT F7=Class: E F8=Loc: +NSUB Cls Date %1. %2* 0000 0600 0800 0900 1100 1300 1500 1700 1900 E 07-28 85 110 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 E 07-29 85 110 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 E 07-30 85 110 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 8 8 9. 10. 10. 10. 10. 10. 10. E 07-31 85 110 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10. 10. 10. 10. 10. 10. 10. 9. 8 |
This calendar is a composite of the two previous screens. Here the fleet to be reserved against is made up of 10 units. At no time are the "E" class cars over committed. But it is obvious that the "extra" uncommitted unit that is in the North metroplex on July 30th is in fact committed to a reservation at location SUB. Had the system only looked at the calendar for +NORTH it would have missed the fact that SUB has already planned to use the extra vehicle.
So if a potential reservation of an E class car for the North airport comes in for the dates of 7/28 through the 31st, the system will first check the +NORTH calendar for the 28th and discover that enough units are available locally for that one day. But then it will check the +NSUB calendar for the 29th and 30th and discover that there are not enough units available to accept this reservation. Obviously, implied in this illustration is the fact that an "E" class car at the airport must be shuttled to the North Suburb location before the morning of the 30th. If the display of alternate classes is used, those classes will also be validated against all appropriate calendars to assure their availability.
User tips:
IX. ON-GOING MAINTENANCE OF THE PLANNING FILES.
The following steps must be done daily in order to maintain the planning files:
- Use the Extend Planning Calendar program to add an additional month to the planning calendar. Due to system performance and file size, it is suggested that your calendar should not reach more than 6 months into the future.
- Run the Recalculate Class Needs program which will write into the new month reservations which are already on file.
- From the Purge Menu, run the Purge Planning Calendar program to purge last month's data off the planning files.
- Periodically check the accuracy of future fleet adjustments or vehicle grounding/eligible dates.
- Manual blackouts can be entered for certain classes of vehicles and/or certain time periods by using the Change Warning Percentage program. A warning level of 999 percent entered through that program indicates that a blackout is in effect.
X. FLEET PLANNING - PURCHASING AND SELLING VEHICLES
As stated earlier, one of the purposes of the Planning
programs is to provide an estimate of future fleet size. Therefore, planned purchases and sales should be entered to make the future fleet size accurate.
A. INCREASING THE FLEET - PURCHASING VEHICLES
Through the use of the Change Class Availability program, expected changes in the fleet size due to planned purchases can be entered ahead of time. These changes affect the fleet size in the Planning Calendar so that reservations can be booked against that anticipated fleet size.
These adjustments to the fleet size remain in effect until either:
Example 1: In February, it is decided to increase the number of minivans in May from 5 to 15. Arrangements are made to take delivery of 10 new minivans between May 13 and May 18. To record this fact in the system (in February), use the Change Class Availability program to add the 10 minivans to the Planning Calendar with a Start Date of May 18 and a Buffer date of May 13 (this defines the range of days during which the units are expected.) This way, reservations can be booked against the expected number of minivans for later in May and on into June even though they are not yet part of the fleet.
- the entry is cancelled (edited to zero)
- an edit is made to the record
- the start date has passed
- During the period of May 13 to May 18 when a minivan is added to the inventory and its In-Service Date is set to a date between May 13 to 18, the number planned to be added will decrease by one. Once May 19 arrives, if all 10 of the vans came in as scheduled, the 10 vans added to the Planning Calendar through Change Class Availability will drop off. The actual vans will have already been added in Vehicle Inventory File; therefore, they will be reflected in the Planning Calendar (based on their in-service date and running Recalculate Class Needs.) The net result is that once the adjustment is dropped from the calendar, and the new units are added, there will be no change in the units on the Planning Calendar. From May 18 forward the calendar will show 15 minivans in the fleet.
- Instead of all the vans coming in on May 18, assume that two of vans come in early and they are added to the fleet May 10 and their In-Service Date is set to May 10. Because they were added before the Buffer Date, the "ADD" entry should be recalled to the screen and edited from 10 to 8.
After in-fleeting new units, run the Recalculate program to install those units into the planning calendar.
Temporary additions: Using the field Start Date and End Date, a temporary addition can be defined. The units will be added to the planning calendar as of the Start Date and deducted from it as of the End Date.
B. DECREASING THE FLEET- SELLING VEHICLES
De-fleeting can be handled using either of the following methods.
1. Use the Eligible Date or Grounding Date field in the vehicle record to mark the unit's exit from the available fleet. (Note that a field in the Edit Misc. Control Fields record must be set to turn on this logic.) The unit is removed from the available fleet count the day before the Eligible Date or the Grounding Date. If the date needs adjusting, individual vehicle records can be edited. (The grounding date can be changed for a model using Edit Model Codes and Set Model Codes.) When this method is used, the Change Class Availability program should NOT be used to change the size of fleet due to anticipated de-fleeting of vehicles.
2. Instead of using the Eligible or Grounding Date fields, use Change Class Availability entries to record expected changes in the fleet size due to planned sales.
Example 2: Assume it is now June and the plan is to decrease the fleet at the end of the summer by selling 6 of the 15 minivans as of September 10. Using the Change Class Availability program to subtract these units from the Planning Calendar will result in an anticipated fleet size of 9 minivans after September 10 rather than against the 15 currently in the fleet. But, Sept. 10 comes and goes and the units are not sold as planned. As of Sept. 11, the record to subtract the units will be dropped from the Planning Calendar. (If it was determined ahead of time that the units would not be sold, the entry to subtract them could be cancelled at any time by recalling it to the screen and enter a zero in the 'amount' field.) Also, a range of dates can be defined representing a period during which the minivans would be sold. Use the Buffer Date field for this. For example, if the vans are expected to be sold between September 1 and September 10, the Buffer Date should be set to September 1 and the Start Date set to September 10.
Contact Thermeon's Customer Support Dept. to have the Recalculate Class Needs program run automatically on a daily basis.
Temporary deductions: Using the field Start Date and End Date, a temporary deduction can be defined. The units will be deducted from the planning calendar as of the Start Date and added back as of the End Date.
WARNING: When planning for the decrease in fleet size due to de-fleeting, use the Eligible/Grounding date logic OR Change Class Availability. Using both methods will double the reductions.
C. PERIODIC CHECKING OF THE FLEET ADJUSTMENTS TO THE PLANNING CALENDAR
The use of the Change Class Availability program is a powerful tool. Through either misuse, unrecorded changes in plans, failure to enter counter-balancing entries, or unexpected events, it is possible for the future fleet size to become unreliable. As a result, it is suggested that a periodic check be made for accuracy. Use the following suggestions:
1. Print the Fleet Adjustments Report. Check if all records reported are still part of the fleet plan.
2. Use the Change Class Availability program to make adjusting entries to bring the calendar back in line with the plan. Remember, using the process of "DEFAULT" in this program cancels all fleet adjustments -- the result being that the Planning Calendar will reflect only the actual vehicles in the fleet starting with the current day and going forward for as long as it's extended.
XI. HINTS AND WARNINGS IN RUNNING FLEET PLANNING
In order for the Planning logic to work, reservation no-shows MUST BE PROCESSED DAILY. Failure to process no-shows on a timely bases will leave units still committed on the planning calendar and as a result understate the number of available units.
B. One-Way
Rentals:
The planning calendar basically holds two pieces of information for future dates: the number of units expected to be at a location on that date and, of those, the number that are committed to existing transactions. When a one-way transaction is entered, on the expected return date the number of units at the opening location is reduced by one, and the number of units expected at the closing location is increased.
Example: One way rental from Location A to B involving a class for which you only have 2 units.
Open Date Close Date
Loc A 2 units expected 1 unit expected
1 unit committed 0 units committed
Loc B 0 units expected 1 unit expected
0 units committed 0 units committedIf the planning calendar's warnings are turned off or ignored and a class is overbooked, some strange numbers can be created within the Planning Calendar. For example, using the example above, if 3 reservations were taken from A to B for the same dates, the calendar will look as follows:
Open Date Close Date
Loc A 2 units expected -1 unit expected
3 unit committed 0 units committed
Loc B 0 units expected 3 unit expected
0 units committed 0 units committedObviously location A is overbooked for the opening date (3 units committed but only 2 available). But because the reservation was taken, Location A shows a negative number of units for the closing date. What is perhaps even more misleading is the fact that Location B shows an anticipated three units for that same date. The overbooked one-way has created a fictitious third car in the calendar. This could cause you to reserve all three units at Location B without realizing that you are overbooked!
Note, this only occurs on overbooked one-ways. If the three reservations had not been one-ways the calendar will display the following:
Open Date Close Date
Loc A 2 units expected 2 units expected
3 units committed 0 units committed
Solutions:
The planning calendar reflects the returns of open reservations. Be aware that these are not shown on the Vehicles Due In Report which reports only RAs and Non-Revs that are due back.
The planning calendar uses the return date of the RA as the anticipated time when a committed unit will be returned from rental. If overdue RAs are allowed to linger without having their return dates extended, the number of committed units will be understated.
D. Wait RAs
If "Wait' RAs are allowed (a setting in the Location record controls whether or not they are allowed) RAs in 'Wait' status are counted as committed units. Wait RAs should always be checked at the end of a shift. In the RAs Opened section of the Operations DBR, 'Wait' RAs are indicated with a "W" between the RA number and the customer number. On the day that a Wait RA is created, it should either be opened by assigning a unit number to the RA or voided if the customer decided not to rent.
When Wait RAs are not opened or voided, they can linger and become overdue. Overdue wait status RAs are skipped by the calendar logic.
E. Changing Vehicle Status
For all operations other than RV type, changing the status of a unit to a not-available type status does not affect the planning calendar. If a unit is expected to be out of service for a substantial amount of time, a Non-Rev ticket should be created for it. Non-Rev tickets ARE reflected in the number of committed units on the planning calendar. Furthermore, as Non-Revs require a return date, this provides the date that the unit is expected to be back in service.
The only statuses not counted as part of the available fleet on the Planning Calendar are any statuses that have been defined as an S-type (sold type) status. Programs which can be used to place vehicles in this status type are Sell A Vehicle and Vehicle History Update. When a unit is changed to an S-type status, the change will be reflected in the calendar beginning with the next time period after the change was made.
For RV type operations only: Moving units to a 'not available' type status (other than when opening a Non-Rev Movement) decreases the count of the fleet from that point forward. Moving units back to an 'available' type status (other than closing a Non-Rev Movement) increases the count of the fleet from that point forward
F. Multi-transaction Vehicles
When the same vehicle is on 2 or more open RAs and/or Non-Revs with overlapping times, multiple commitments are counted for the same unit. Thus, the planning calendar numbers will be wrong. Use the Questionable RA Report, Status Exception Report, and the Non-Rev Movement Report as sources to investigate and correct these situations.
G. Time Periods
As mentioned earlier, each rental location can have its 24-hour day divided into a maximum of 12 time segments called "time periods". Anticipated returns are not seen as a reduction of the committed units until the following time period. Anticipated rentals are shown in the actual time period in which they occur.
For example, assume that a location sets up time periods that include:
0800 to 0959
1000 to 1159Example 1: Vehicle is scheduled to return at 0900. The reduction of the committed units will occur in the time period of 1000 to 1159. Because the calendar is dealing with blocks of time, it would be misleading if the time period from 0800 to 0959 reflected the return. It could be interpreted that the vehicle would be available at 0800.
Example 2: Vehicle is reserved with a pickup time of 0945. This will be shown as an increase the number of committed units in the time period from 0800 to 0959.
Note: If you are using the metroplex concept, a Time Period record must be created for the Group. It is highly recommended that each location within the metroplex group have identical Time Period records. Please refer to Section VI "Notes on Setting Up Metroplex Groups" above and the manual chapter for the program Edit Time Periods for further information.
H. Change Class Codes
Changing Class Codes on a working system will throw the Planning Calendar out of balance. For example: Assume that the fleet contains 10 K Class cars and 8 of them are currently either on rent or reserved on open reservations. The Planning Calendar will report 80% utilization. Now assume that all of the K Class units are changed to Class W. The calendar will still report that 8 Class K units are required by records in the Reservation and RA Files, but there will be no Class K units on file to service that need. Contact Thermeon's Customer Support Dept to properly change Class Codes on a working system.
I. Adding a new Class to the Fleet
When a new Class is added, it is necessary to update the Planning Calendar. To do so, perform the following steps:
Run the Change Class Availability program for the location, location group, or all locations. In Field 2, enter the Class. In Field 3, accept the current date. In Field 4, accept "ADD". Leave Field 5, "Amount", blank.
Run the Recalculate Class Needs program.
I. Customizing the Class Availability Display
1. The Class Availability search displayed from the Reservations and RA Open screens defaults to "PCT" percent mode. If you would prefer it to default to "AMT" (amount) mode, ask Thermeon's Customer Support Dept. to set up GVT record "SCANFMT" for your operation.
2. The Class Availability search displays for a particular Class. If you would like to be able to also display Class Groups, ask Thermeon's Customer Support Dept. to set up GVT record "SCANFMT". This can be set to allow the display of a Class Group in Detail or Summary. Or it can be configured to ask which is preferred whenever a Class Group is entered.
User tip: In order to track the feasibility of adding a new Class to their fleet, some operations may open up reservations for a Class they do not currently have -- knowing full well that they will give the customer a vehicle from the next Class up in their hierarchy. For example, they may open up reservations for a “standard size” car knowing they will give the customer a “full size” car. This allows the operation to track the number of reservations they receive for the Class under consideration. Yet, when looking at Class Availability, they need to be able to view the two Classes as a group. Configuring the system in the manner mentioned in the above two paragraphs allows this.
J. Early Returns
When a RA is closed earlier than the expected return date, the calendar is updated as follows:
If an On-line Close, the calendar is updated to reflect that the vehicle was returned early and that the unit is no longer committed.
If a Batch Close:
K. Using Make Vehicle Available for an early return
Sometimes a vehicle is returned earlier than expected and the RA is not closed immediately. Make Vehicle Available is used to change the vehicle status from “O” to “A”. When the vehicle is in “O” status, the Make Available program checks the vehicle record for the last RA involving the vehicle. If the RA is still open and its return date/time is later than the current date/time, the planning calendar is updated by the make Available program so that the vehicle is no longer “committed” through the return date/time of the RA. Later when the RA is batch closed, the planning calendar will not be updated since it was already updated from the Make Available program.
Example:
Assume a vehicle is due in on the 16th at 6 pm. However, the vehicle is returned at 1 pm, and (for whatever reason) the contract is not closed. By 2 pm the vehicle has been prepped and is ready to be rented again, so the Make Available program is used to change its status from “O” to “A”. Because the RA is still open and the return time is later than the current time of 2 pm, the Planning Calendar will be adjusted by decreasing by 1 the number of committed vehicles from 2 pm to 6 pm.
When the RA is eventually batch closed, the Batch Close program also checks the vehicle record to see if the RA being closed is shown as the current RA in the vehicle record. Because it is not, the Planning Calendar is not updated from the Batch Close.
L. Non-Valid Rental Locations
Many clients choose to set up fictitious locations in the CARS+ owned location file. There are a number of reasons for doing this, one of which is to have a location for vehicles which have been sent to auction but which have not yet been sold or to create a location for vehicles that are at a service or repair location. Another reason is simply to have a location which will not, by virtue of setting up a Location Group which does not include the fictitious location, be reported when running selected reports. The locations should be flagged in the location record as a non-valid rental location (Edit Locations, page1, field 38). Vehicles whose current location (as seen on page 2 of Vehicle Inventory Control) is a non-valid rental location will not be counted as part of the total available fleet on the Planning Calendar. The Planning Calendar does not create any records for non-valid rental locations. As a result, shuttling a vehicle to a non-valid rental location is a way to make a vehicle drop out of the available fleet. Additionally, changing a vehicle to a sold-type status will also cause a vehicle to drop out of the available fleet. If using the Grounding/Eligible Date logic, vehicles that have reached their date will also drop out of the available fleet.
XII. CHECKING THE PLANNING CALENDAR
To check the planning calendar, first run Recalculate Class Needs. If it still seems that the number of units in the working fleet or the number of commitments for the current date are wrong, run the Class Futures Report. This report when run for a Location/Metroplex and a single Class Code will:
1. List by unit number all vehicles that have been counted as available for the current date and time.
2. It will list any Fleet Adjustments that changed that number either up or down.
3. Finally it will list all open RAs, Non-Revenue Tickets and Reservations that were counted as commitments.
These should match the fleet size and commitments on the Class Availability Report for today's date and the current Time Period.
If those numbers are still questioned, the following steps can be used:
Print the Class Availability Report in amount format.
Print the Vehicle Status Report (sort by Class).
Print the Vehicles Purchased Report and check the In-Service Date column.
Print the Reservation Manifest. Look at both the pick-up and return dates. Look for one-ways.
Print the Vehicle Due In Report and include Non-Revs. Look for one-ways.
Print the Fleet Adjustments.
Print the Questionable RAs report and look for multi-rent vehicles.
Print the Status Exception Report to look for fleet discrepancies.
Print the Non Rev Movement Report for open Non-Revs looking for multi-transaction vehicles.
Print the Turnback Report for vehicles as their grounding date or eligible date if using those date fields to mark the end of their rental life.
Search the RA file for Wait status RAs. The only RAs in wait status should be the ones actively waiting for a vehicle to be assigned. (Wait RAs from the past should have been either opened or voided.)
Check Edit Oneway Exempt Records to see if locations are defined so as not to change the fleet count on one-way rentals and non-revs.
Caution: Because of the dynamic nature of the calendar and these reports, these reports must be run nearly simultaneously (preferably after hours).
See "Hints and Warnings" section above for vehicles not counted in the Planning Calendar.
XIII. PLANNING CALENDAR VS WEBPLAN
CARS+ provides two very powerful tools for managing the availability of the fleet: the Planning Calendar and WebPlan. Although they have many similarities, there are some significant differences that make comparing the two programs against each other very difficult. The following chart outlines the major differences:
|
Feature |
Planning Calendar |
WebPlan |
| Designed for |
long term planning |
immediate planning and vehicle pre-assignment |
|
Level of detail |
availability by class |
availability by each individual vehicle |
|
Foreign owned vehicles currently at an owned location |
are ignored |
are included |
|
Vehicles without an in-service date |
are ignored |
are included |
| Open Non-Revenue Tickets |
are included |
are ignored |
| Other non-vehicle assets (baby seats, GPS, etc) |
are included |
are ignored |
|
Future adjustments |
can be made |
based only on fleet on hand |
XIV. RATE AVAILABILITY - CAPACITY CONTROLLED RATES
Rate Availability, or "capacity controlled rates", allows a limit to be set on how many reservations/rentals can be booked for a given period under a particular rate code in total or by car class.
The Edit Rate Availability program is used to set up
the records for the limits on rates. Refer to that chapter for details. A brief explanation and examples are given here.
EXAMPLE 1:
| OPTION: __ EDIT RATE AVAILABILITY 1 Location TUS 2 Rate Product SPCL 3 Rate Class 4 Effective Date 02-01-11 5 End Date 02-15-11 6 Maximum 5 7 Block Web-Res Only 8 Block Departures Only 9 Block New Res Only |
Since the record above is not class specific (Rate Class field is blank), bookings with any dates from February 1 through the 15th using the "SPCL" rate will be limited to 5 per day. Once the limit of 5 is reached for any time between Feb. 1 and Feb. 7, the rate is no longer available for transactions which span that date range.
EXAMPLE 2:
This next record (shown below) limits the bookings of minivans (class MVAR) to 3 per day for any dates from February 15 through the 28th for the rate SPCL. Since Field 9 is set to "Y", the restriction applies only to new reservations. When the dates of existing reservations are changed, they will not be subject to the capacity logic.
| OPTION: __ EDIT RATE AVAILABILITY 1 Location TUS 2 Rate Product SPCL 3 Rate Class MVAR 4 Effective Date 02-16-11 5 End Date 02-28-11 6 Maximum 3 7 Block Web-Res Only 8 Block Departures Only 9 Block New Res Only Y |
NOTES ABOUT METROPLEXES
Instead of a single location, Location Group codes for metroplexes can be used for capacity controlled records. This subjects all locations within the metroplex to the metroplex’s total. If there is also a capacity record for a particular location, the two records will affect each other. The example below illustrates this:
Assume that location TUS is part of the +SOCAL metroplex.
A capacity record is set up where metroplex +SOCAL is limited to 10 transactions (reservations/rentals).
Another capacity record is set up limiting TUS to 4 transactions.
The 4 allocated to TUS are part of the 10 allocated to +SOCAL. However, the order in which the transactions are booked affect what happens.
If 4 transactions are booked for TUS first, the rest of the locations in the +SOCAL metroplex can have only 6 more (total of 10 for the metroplex).
However, if the other locations in the +SOCAL metroplex reach the limit of 10, TUS will still get 4. (The location with the individual record is always allowed their limit.) Thus the max for +SOCAL is actually 14 in this case.
XV. COMMENTS ABOUT DATE CHANGES TO RESERVATIONS
When a reservation is created, the original pickup date/time and return date/time establish the official "limits" for the quoted rate and for availability. When a change is made to the pickup date/time and/or the return date/time, one of the following situations will occur:
A. If the change fits completely within the original range, (the length is shortened) the rate is not re-quoted. This is because the rate and availability were originally cleared when the reservation was created.
B. If the change is such that the pickup date/time is earlier and/or the return date/time is later, it is now outside of the original time range of the reservation. That rate or class may be overbooked for the new time range. Therefore, the reservation rate is re-quoted - just as if it was a brand new reservation. The reservation date/time range will be re-examined for availability. If the rate is capacity controlled, the rates is rechecked for capacity. If the rate is yield managed, the rate will be re-quoted:
For example:
|
Original Res. |
Pick up Date/ Time March 15 at 0800 |
Return Date /Time March 18 at 0800 |
|
|
Example A Change |
March 15 at 1200 |
March 18 at 0800 |
Fits within original res. time frame. Res. is not re-examined for availability and rate is not requoted |
|
Example A Change |
March 15 at 1200 |
March 17 at 1700 |
Same as Ex. A above |
|
Example B Change |
March 15 at 0700 |
March 18 at 0800 |
Pickup is 1 hr. earlier than original. Res. re-examined for availability and rate is requoted. |
|
Example B Change |
March 15 at 1200 |
March 18 at 1200 |
Pickup is later, but return is also later. Same as Ex. B above. |