Utilisation Rates Overview

Utilisation Rates Overview

Overview 

RCM allows you to set up rate changes based on the utilisation level of your fleet. These Utilisation Rates are a percentage increase or decrease on top of normal seasonal rates based on how many vehicles are booked. For example, you could set up a 20% decrease in price when there are very few vehicles booked to encourage more bookings, or you could set up a 10% increase in price when you are almost fully booked.

There are various rules around which Utilisation Rate will be chosen, how they interact with other discounts and how they apply to bookings. This article will explain all of this. 

Setting Up Utilisation Rates

To set up the table of Utilisation Rates, go to System Setup >> Rates >> Rate Utilisation.
This table will display any Utilisation Rates you have already set up. To edit an existing record, click the relevant red utilisation percentage. To create a new record, click the "Add Rate Utilisation" button.


This will open the page shown below where you can add or update the following information:
  1. Pickup Location - This Utilisation Rate record will only apply to bookings with this as their pickup location. If you leave it as All Locations, it will apply to bookings with any pickup location.
  2. Vehicle Category - This Utilisation Rate record will only apply to bookings against this vehicle category. If you leave it as All Categories, it will apply to bookings against any category.
  3. Vehicle Utilisation Level From and To - The Utilisation Rate will only apply to bookings if the current utilisation level falls within this range
  4. Suggested Rate Change - The percentage by which you want to increase the rates of bookings. If you wish to decrease the rates, enter a negative value. 
  5. Pickup Date From and Dropoff Ends dates - These are optional fields that limit the Utilisation Rate to only apply to bookings within certain date ranges. If there are values here, the Utilisation Rate will only apply to booking with a pickup after and dropoff before the relevant dates, i.e. the booking must fall wholly within the date range. 
  6. Apply Rate to RCM, Web API, and Agent API - The Utilisation Rate will only apply to bookings made through the selected options. This allows you to specify different rate changes based on the source of the booking or prevent the Utilisation Rate from applying in certain situations. 
Then click "Submit" to save this information.



For more information on this, please see the Rate Utilisation article.

Rules for When Utilisation Rates Apply

When a new booking is created, the Utilisation Level of the Vehicle Category at the booking's pickup location is calculated. If there is a Utilisation Rate Record that matches this Utilisation Level, it will be applied to the booking. Depending on your preference, this Utilisation Level can be calculated in one of four ways. This is controlled by the "Rate Utilisation Calculation Method" System Parameter than can be accessed by going to System Setup >> System Parameters >> Rate Parameters. You can set this to one of the following values (each one is explained below):


Average Utilisation

This is the default of your system, and what will be used unless you specify otherwise. This method calculates utilisation level based on the average utilisation across the entire booking period. 

Whether this calculation considers just the pickup location, or the pickup region can be controlled using the following System Parameter. It can be accessed by going to System Setup >> System Parameters >> Rate Parameters. 
  1. If it is set to No, the calculation will only consider bookings and vehicles in the new booking's pickup location.
  2. If it is set to Yes, the calculation will consider the bookings and vehicles in all the locations in the same region as the pickup location.  


When a new booking is created, the current utilisation level is calculated by looking at all the vehicles and bookings already against the vehicle category and finding:
  1. The number of Days Available = Number of Vehicles expected to be in the Pickup Location/Region X Length of the new booking
  2. Days Sold = The number of days already booked in the Pickup Location/Region in the new booking's date range
  3. Utilisation Level = Days Sold ÷ Number of Days Available

Pick up Day

This method calculates the Utilisation Level of the Vehicle Category on that pickup date only, from the time of pickup until the end of the day. This method will also use the "Rate Utilisation By Region" flag to determine if it is considering the Pickup Location or Region. 

When a new booking is created, the current utilisation level is calculated by looking at all the vehicles and bookings already against the vehicle category and finding:
  1. The number of Vehicles Available = Number of Vehicles expected to be in the Pickup Location/Region at the time of pick up
  2. Days Sold = The number of bookings already in the Pickup Location/Region on the pickup date (from the pickup time until the end of the day)
  3. Utilisation Level = Days Sold ÷ Number of Vehicles Available

Pick up Hour

This method calculates the Utilisation Level of the Vehicle Category during the hour of the booking's pickup. This method will also use the "Rate Utilisation By Region" flag to determine if it is considering the Pickup Location or Region. 

When a new booking is created, the current utilisation level is calculated by looking at all the vehicles and bookings already against the vehicle category and finding:
  1. The number of Vehicles Available = Number of Vehicles expected to be in the Pickup Location/Region at the time of pick up
  2. Days Sold = The number of bookings already in the Pickup Location/Region during the same hour as the booking's pickup time, i.e. 10:00 - 10:59 for any booking with a pick up time of 10:xx
  3. Utilisation Level = Days Sold ÷ Number of Vehicles Available

Vehicle Availability (AE)

If you have the Availability Engine set up in your system, you can instead use this to calculate the utilisation rate. This method will calculate Utilisation Level based on how many actual vehicles are available for the duration of the booking. 

Note: The Availability Engine ignores Regions, and so they will not be considered no matter what the "Rate Utilisation by Region" flag is set to. It does however consider the Web Availability Master Locations and any Availability Engine rules when considering how many vehicles are expected to be at the Pickup Location. 

When a new booking is created, the current utilisation level is calculated by looking at all the vehicles and bookings already against the vehicle category and finding:
  1. The Total Number of Vehicles that will be in that location, at the time of pick up according to the Availability Engine. This considers Vehicle Sharing Rules, Web Availability Master Locations, one-way bookings and other Availability Engine settings.
  2. The Number of Unavailable Vehicles during that time period. A vehicle will be unavailable if there is a booking or if turnaround hours can not be met for the booking request.
  3. Utilisation Level = Number of Unavailable Vehicles ÷ Total Number of Vehicles.

Choosing Which Utilisation Rate to Apply

Utilisation Rates only apply to new bookings when they are created. So, when a new booking is created, the utilisation level is calculated (by any of the above methods), and it then searches for a record that encompasses this utilisation level in the following order:
  1. It looks for a matching date range - The entirety of the booking must fall between the Pickup Date From and Dropoff End values. If there are multiple records with date ranges encompassing the booking, it will choose the one with the Pickup Date From value closest to the actual pickup date of the booking. If the booking extends out of the date ranges, or there are no records with matching date ranges, it will use the Utilisation Rate records with no date range. 
  2. If multiple records match the date range, it will then look for a matching Pickup Location - This is independent of the "Utilisation by Region" flag mentioned above. A Utilisation Rate record with a specific location will only apply to a booking with the as its Pickup Location. If there are no records with a matching Pickup Location, it will use a Utilisation Record set against All Locations. 
  3. If there are multiple records matching the Pickup Location, it will then look for a matching Vehicle Category - If there are no records with a Vehicle Category that matches that of the booking, it will use a record set against All Categories. 
  4. If there are still multiple matching records, it will select the record with the highest Utilisation Level From value that still encompasses the current utilisation level.

Check Utilisation Report

There is a report within RCM that can be used to check the utilisation levels of different categories during a specific date range. It will also show which Utilisation Rate might be applied to a booking made during this period, based on the rules listed above.
Note: There are two different reports. One that uses the first three calculation methods and a different one that uses the Availability Engine Calculations.  To access this report, go to System Setup >> Rates >> Check Utilisation or Check Utilisation (AE).

You can search this report according to the Pickup Location of a booking, the Category Type and the Date Range it would be booked in. You can also search by where the booking request is made from: RCM, Web API or Agent API. The report will the show you the values for Days Sold, Days Available and Utilisation Level, as well as the matching Utilisation Rate record and it's suggested rate change, for each Vehicle Category available in that location.


For more information on this, please see the Check Utilisation article. 

Utilisation Rates through the API

As mentioned above, for each Utilisation Rate record, you can specify whether or not it applies through the APIs. 

When you make a booking through either API, a Utilisation Rate will save against the booking the same way as discounts do, and so, it will not apply in addition to discounts. When a booking request is made through the API, it will only apply one discount and it will choose which in the following order:
  1. Agent Discount (Only through the Agent API) - If there is an Agent Discount Set up against the Agent or Agent Branch, this will apply to the booking. If there is no Agent discount set up, or the booking is made through the Web API, this will not apply. For more information on these, please see the Agency Database article.
  2. Web Rate Discounts with Campaign Codes - If a Campaign Code is entered, and there is a Web Rate Discount assigned to this Campaign Code that is valid for the booking request, this will apply. For more information on these, please see the Rate Discount article. 
  3. Utilisation Rates - If the current utilisation level for the Vehicle Category, Pickup Location and Date Range of the booking request has a matching Utilisation Rate record that is valid for the booking request, this will apply.
  4. Web Rate Discounts without Campaign Codes - If there is a Web Rate Discount without a Campaign Code against it that is valid for the booking request, this will be selected.
If none of the above are found, there will be no discounts applied to the booking. 

Creating a Utilisation Rate Booking inside RCM

As mentioned before, utilisation rates only apply to new bookings when they are made. When you create a booking in RCM that has a Utilisation Rate applying to it, you will see it on the Booking Fees tab. As shown below, the Rates field will show the daily revenue with the utilisation rate applied, and next to it will be a note displaying the original price without the Utilisation Rate. 


Please Note: this is the only place the original rate will appear. On the Booking Payment tab, Booking Details Page and all customer facing documents, the utilisation rate will be displayed as all normal daily rates are. Additionally, once a booking has been saved, it will no longer display the original Rate on the Booking Fees tab. 





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