Vehicle Categories
Purpose
Every vehicle within RCM is assigned a Vehicle Category. These categories are an Integral part of the system are used in various areas across RCM including:
- Setting up Rates
- Web Availability Records
- Ordering
- Reservation Category
Examples:
Rates are applied to the different Vehicle Categories setup.
Vehicle Categories also dictate the order of your vehicles on the reservation sheet.
Each booking has a Vehicle Category assigned.
Note that in order to set up a new Vehicle Category, you must select an existing or create a new Category Type.
The Vehicle Category descriptions as well as the number of passengers and bags a vehicle category can carry, are used on your website if you are using Rental Car Manager's Web module.
Important:
Before setting up your vehicle categories, allow some time to decide exactly how you wish to group your vehicles for charging purposes and in what order you wish to display these groupings on the Reservation Sheet. This will allow you to have a clearer idea of what your vehicle categories should be.
The following getting started video shows the basics of Adding / Updating Vehicle Categories:
Accessing Vehicle Categories
Vehicle Categories can be found under the Vehicle Categories submenu in Vehicle Maintenance.
Vehicle Maintenance >> Vehicle Categories
Adding and Viewing a Vehicle Category record
On the Vehicle Categories page, a list of your current Vehicle Category records will be displayed. To view an existing record, click on the Vehicle Category name in red text. To add a new Vehicle Category record, click "Add Vehicle Category".
On the Add Vehicle Category page:
- Select a category type. (Mandatory) Eg - Car. To learn how to add Category Types, read the following article: Category Type
- Enter the name for the Vehicle Category. (Mandatory) Eg - Luxury.
- Select whether you want this Vehicle Category to be available for rent. (Mandatory)
- The other fields are optional and can be filled out later.
Click Submit to save the record and close the page. On the main Vehicle Categories page, you'll see the newly-added record in the Vehicle Categories table.
NOTE: For information on each field found on the Add Vehicle Category page, see the "Form Field Descriptions" below.
Add an image to a Vehicle Category
You may add an image to a vehicle category. See the Image Manager article for more information.
Form Field Descriptions
Name | Required (Yes/No) | Description |
Category Type | Yes | The Category Type of the Vehicle Category. The Category Types must have been defined previously under the Category Type tab. |
Vehicle Category | Yes | The name of the Vehicle Category. |
Renting Category | Yes | Select whether this vehicle category is available to rent. |
Friendly Description | No | Descriptive text that allows you and your customers to more easily identify the vehicle category. The friendly description is printed on email confirmation messages sent to the customer and displayed on the Web Site Interface module that rental operators use on their websites. |
Orders | No | Controls the order of the vehicle categories displayed on the Reservation Sheet. This is a free format field that is alphanumeric and applies either an alphabetical or numeric sort order to the Category Type groupings, e.g. a 'Cars' vehicle category with an ordering value of 'A' or '1' will appear before a 'Motorcycles' vehicle category with an ordering value of 'B' or '2.' |
Age of Youngest Driver | No | The acceptable age of persons allowed to drive the vehicle, e.g. 25, which means only people aged 25 and older can drive a vehicle belonging to this category. |
Image Name | No | The file name of the image that is displayed for the vehicle category. The images file name should not have any spaces. The actual image is uploaded to the system through the Image Manager. |
No. of Adults | No | The number of adults that the vehicle category can carry. This number is displayed on the optional Web Site Interface module. |
No. of Children | No | The number of children that the vehicle category can carry. This number is displayed on the optional Web Site Interface module. |
No. of Large Case | No | The number of large luggage cases that the vehicle category can carry. This number is displayed on the optional Web Site Interface module. |
No. of Small Case | No | The number of small luggage cases that the vehicle category can carry. This number is displayed on the optional Web Site Interface module. |
Emission Rate | No | The approximate emission rate for all vehicles of this category. This is the default rate that will be used to calculate emissions. |
Update or Delete a Vehicle Category record
The below article is just a generic guide how to update or delete a record:
Updating and Deleting a RecordImportant Articles
Related Articles
Web Vehicle Categories
Purpose The Web Vehicle Category determines how the vehicle category will be displayed on your website. It allows you to set the car's features (seating, luggage capacity etc), and a description of the vehicle along with the image you would like to ...Agent Categories
Purpose The Agent Categories page allows you to set Vehicle Categories to be available/not available to agents. Note that the Vehicle Category record needs to have been created previously ( Vehicle Maintenance> Vehicle Categories) for the ...Categories Type
Purpose Your fleet of rental vehicles is generally divided into different vehicle category types and vehicle categories. To illustrate, see the following examples of typical category types and the different vehicle categories under them. Category ...Q: On my website some vehicle categories are not displayed - why is this?
A: If you are using the Web Site Module, vehicle categories will only be displayed if rates have been entered and vehicle availability has been setup. Please see the steps below to check these requirements. Step 1 - Checking that a rate is available ...Vehicle Inspections/Vehicle Condition Reports
Overview Rental Car Manager's Vehicle Inspection feature allows you to conduct paperless vehicle inspections using your tablets, mobile phones or computers. The Vehicle Inspection feature is not available by default, if you are interested in this ...