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Self-drive vehicle hire

Rent vehicles without a driver by the hour or day. Odobase blocks availability, records handover and return, and bills overtime and excess kilometres.

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How does self-drive hire work in Odobase?

Self-drive hire is for renting a vehicle without a driver for a number of hours or days. You reserve the vehicle, hand it over with an odometer reading and condition photos, and take it back the same way. Odobase blocks the vehicle for trips while it is out, flags overdue returns, and calculates overtime and excess-kilometre charges at return.

What you get

What is the difference between a hire and a trip?

A trip is driven by one of your drivers: it has a start window, a route, odometer readings and GPS tracking from the driver app. A hire is a vehicle handed to a customer who drives it themselves, priced by the hour or the day, with overtime and excess kilometres. Odobase keeps them separate because they are priced and run differently, but it checks availability across both.

How does a hire move from booking to return?

  1. Reserved. You book a vehicle for a customer from a start time for a number of hours or days. The vehicle is blocked for exactly that period.
  2. On hire. At handover you record the odometer and condition photos. From that moment the vehicle is blocked until it actually comes back, even if it is late. A due-back time is a promise, not a fact.
  3. Returned. At return you record the odometer and photos again. Odobase calculates the charges, and the hire is ready to invoice.

A reservation can also be cancelled before handover, which frees the vehicle.

How are hire charges calculated?

Charges are calculated once, at return, from the numbers on the hire:

  • Rental: the units you sold, by the hour or by the day.
  • Overtime: nothing inside the grace period; beyond it, every started extra unit is charged, rounded up.
  • Excess kilometres: charged only when the hire has both a kilometre allowance and a rate, and both odometer readings exist. The allowance is for the whole hire, not per day.

Each line is written onto the hire in words as well as figures, so the invoice reads the same next year as it does today.

Who is the customer on a hire?

A hire can be booked for a company or for an individual. For walk-in customers you can add a person by phone number in a couple of taps. Whoever signs for the car, their details are kept on the hire as they were on the day, even when a company is paying.

Does a car on hire still show as active in the fleet?

Yes. “On hire” is shown alongside a vehicle’s status rather than replacing it, so your fleet counts stay correct: an on-hire car is still an active vehicle, just not available for anything else.

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Who uses self-drive hire

Frequently asked questions

How is overtime charged on a late return?

You set a grace period. A return within it is free; a return beyond it is charged for the whole extra time, rounded up to the next unit. For example, 90 minutes late on a 30-minute grace is charged as two extra hours.

How are excess kilometres charged?

If a hire has a kilometre allowance and a rate per extra kilometre, Odobase compares the handover and return odometer readings and charges the kilometres over the allowance. With no allowance set, mileage is unlimited and nothing extra is billed.

Is a returned-early hire refunded automatically?

No. An early return does not change the charge automatically. If you want to give money back, edit the rental line before the hire is invoiced.

How are security deposits handled?

A deposit is recorded on the hire and shown as a note on the invoice. It is not counted as revenue, because money you are holding is not money you have earned.

Is self-drive hire included in every plan?

Self-drive hire is an optional module. Contact us and we will switch it on for your account.

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