There is a "geography" involved in car rental. For example: Vehicles are parked in a numbered 'Stall' on a 'Lot'. One way rentals are between two 'Locations'. When quoting a charge, the rate records may apply to a 'Group' of renting Locations. This chapter defines these various "place" entities and describes the relationships that exist between them.
II. DEFINITIONS
LOCATION: In a basic sense, a LOCATION is a geographical site where a rental can either begin or return. Locations can have a number of different attributes:III. RELATIONSHIPS
- Owned - locations operated by your company. These are set up in the Location File.
- Foreign - locations operated by other licensees, corporate owned or even other brands. These are set up in the Customer File.
- Renting - locations from which rentals can be opened
- Non-Renting - locations that do not open and close rental agreements -- such as an accounting office, maintenance location, or sales lot.
DRAWER (or Counter): A 'drawer' must exist for each distinct place where cash and other forms of payment are received. For example, an airport location with multiple terminals (such as domestic and international), may have a rental counter at each terminal. The staff at each counter has the responsibility to reconcile the payments received at their counter. Alternatively, a very busy location might want to make each rental station within a rental counter responsible for their own payment reconciliation. In this case, a drawer would be defined for each station.
LOT: A lot is a parcel of land where vehicles can be parked either waiting to be rented or for processing after a rental (cleaning and servicing). It is not necessary for a location to have lots assigned. However, the use of lots allows the user to identify where (within the location) the vehicle is sitting. Additionally, it is possible for locations to share a common lot.
For example, within an airport location:
Lot 1: a lot with a ready line outside the baggage claim area of the main airport terminal
Lot 2: a lot with a ready line outside the business/charter flight terminal
Lot 3: a lot off airport grounds where vehicles are prepped
Lot 4: an overflow lot where prepped units are kept until they can be shuttled to the ready line
Additionally, Lot 4 could also serve a nearby city location.
Using this airport location with the 4 lots for illustration, the following assumptions can be made:
- The first two lots would probably be attached to different drawers. Therefore, the rental agent working at the charter terminal would, by default, see only the vehicles available in Lot 2. The rental agent at the main terminal would see only the vehicles in Lot 1. (These lots may or may not have stall numbers.)
- Both agents would be able to see what is available in Lot 4 if they had a need for a vehicle class that was not currently in their default lot. It is unlikely Lot 4 would have a need for stall numbers.
STALLS: Stalls are the numbered "slots" or "bays" within a lot where individual vehicles are parked. It is not mandatory for a lot to have defined stalls.
When a lot has a defined stalls, the renter can be directed to the exact place in the lot where their assigned vehicle is parked. Only one vehicle can be allocated to a stall at the same time. An attempt to allocate a vehicle to a stall that already has a vehicle assigned to it will prompt a warning. If the warning is bypassed, the prior vehicle is removed from the stall.
When a lot does not have defined stalls, the stall number may be populated with a short description to assist the renter in finding their vehicle within the lot such as "FRONT' or "SIDE". This may be the case for a small suburban location. Or the stall number can be left blank. When there are no defined stalls, it is possible to use the same description for many vehicles. Therefore, 5 vehicles can have their stall set to "FRONT".
The lot number and stall number both appear in the vehicle search window in RA Open. If Dispatch logic is turned on, only vehicles assigned to a lot and stall are displayed in the vehicle search in RA Open. This gives the rental agent a much clearer understanding of which vehicles are prepped and ready to rent.
The following chapters can be used as reference for setting up locations, drawer, lots, and stalls:
LOCATION GROUP: A LOCATION GROUP is a method to produce a list of a subset of owned locations that all share a common feature. Location Groups can be are used to:
- Produce a subset of all locations that share the same rates for one or more optional charges.
- Produce a subset of all locations that are to be reported together
- Define a Metroplex
Groups can be members of other Groups. Several CARS+ reports recognize this structure and produce subtotals for "nested" Location Groups.
METROPLEX: A METROPLEX is a special LOCATION GROUP where the locations within the group share their vehicles. That is, the locations are physically close enough so that if one location within the Metroplex is out units in a specific class, the fact that other locations within the group have unreserved units of the same class means that a reservation can still be taken (it is assumed that the missing units will be shuttled to the renting location in time).
A location can belong to up to three metroplexes arranged in concentric circles. The inner circle is made up of those locations that are close enough that they can share cars with just 1 day of advanced notice. The others are made up of locations farther away that require more advanced notice to allow for the movement of vehicles between the locations.
REGION: A REGION is a new feature that is being tested in CARS+. Rather than turning on a feature in each individual LOCATION record, turning that feature on in a REGION record turns on that feature for all Locations that belong to that region. Regions are defined as non-renting locations in the Location file. At the moment only one of the fuel charge features is sensitive to the Regional set-up.
DROP ZONES: DROP ZONES are groups of either owned or foreign locations that are used to define the Drop Charge when a vehicle rents one way from an owned location to a location within a zone.
Entity
Relationships
LOCATIONS
can have many DRAWERS
can have many LOTS
can be a member of many LOCATION GROUPS
can be a member of up to three METROPLEXES
can be a member of a REGION
can belong to a single DROP ZONEDRAWERS
are assigned to LOCATIONS
LOTS are assigned to one or more LOCATIONS
can be divided up into STALLSSTALLS can only be set up for a LOT LOCATION GROUPS are made up of owned LOCATIONS and/or other LOCATION GROUPS METROPLEXES are made up of owned LOCATIONS REGIONS are assigned to LOCATIONS DROP ZONES are made up of owned and foreign LOCATIONS