Car Rental Software: Vehicle Grades, Fee Stacks and Store Inventory

The brochure photo sells the weekend. The grade table and the fee stack keep Monday morning honest. If “compact” on the phone prices like an SUV in the ledger, or the lot shows three cars while the app still sells five, you will spend the holiday answering the same dispute.

Ptaxi’s car rental software ties vehicle grades to pricing plans, store-uploaded inventory, booking by city and store with date windows, and return modes that include store pickup, door delivery and chauffeur. No invented card processors or utilization percentages here — only what the store, renter and admin screens actually need to agree on.

Vehicle grades: name them, bind them, price them

Admin vehicle grades let you view each grade, see how many vehicles are linked, rename grades and bind cars. Brands, series and versions are managed separately so catalog data does not collapse into one free-text field.

Why grades beat per-plate chaos:

• One pricing plan per grade covers a class of cars.
• Binding mistakes are visible when the grade count does not match the lot.
• Stores still upload each vehicle for verification; grades do not skip compliance.

When a store uploads a vehicle they fill vehicle info and a pricing standard — they may use a platform pricing template or adjust. Platform staff still review the vehicle before it sells. Treat that review as inventory control, not a rubber stamp.

Fee stacks that belong on the plan

Documented pricing plans on a vehicle grade include:

• Vehicle deposit and violation deposit
• Base service guarantee fee
• Start fees split by weekday / weekend / holiday
• Over-mileage and over-duration fees
• Chauffeur (with-driver) fee
• Door-to-door pickup and delivery fee

Order detail should be able to show rent, deposits, service guarantee on the booking payment, then over-km, over-time, delivery, add-ons and chauffeur on completion payment, plus refund lines for deposits and any penalty. If your finance team cannot point to those lines on a sample order, fix the plan before you run ads.

Platform commission can differ by store and by whether a coupon was used, with tax lines where you configure them. Keep store managers aware that a coupon changes the split — surprises after a wedding weekend are expensive.

Deeper return and deposit mechanics (condition photos, second payment for add-ons, deposit refunds) are covered in return inspection and deposit refund. Door delivery and one-way return switches are in delivery and one-way return.

Store inventory and service switches

Stores authenticate with license details, name, address and phone, then wait for admin approval. They upload vehicles, confirm dispatch on reserved orders (upload mileage, condition photos, notes; assign a driver when the order is door delivery or chauffeur), and confirm returns (return mileage, photos, optional extra fees that trigger a second renter payment).

Store service toggles document whether the location supports:

• Door pickup and delivery
• One-way / off-site return
• Deposit waiver (double waiver where configured)
• Chauffeur

Vehicle management shows cars under review, rented and available, with shelf status and remote door control where the hardware path exists. Smart unlock, lights and horn from the renter app, plus scan-to-order self pickup and return with condition uploads, are part of the documented renter flows — use them when the site is equipped; do not promise keyless magic on unequipped lots.

Booking windows: city, store, dates

Renters pick city, then a store that matches that city’s service rules, then pickup and return dates. From there they browse cars that fit and confirm:

• Return mode: store pickup/return, paid door-to-door, or chauffeur
• Deposit payment approach and renter details
• Fee summary and notices, with optional coupons
• Payment via in-app balance or documented local e-wallet style channels

After pay, the booking waits for store confirmation. Cancel rules (daily limits, liable versus non-liable) are configured per store. Corporate hire adds enterprise payment with approval before or after the trip; wedding hire forces the chauffeur return mode — see corporate and wedding hire.

Date windows sound trivial until a store sells the same plate across overlapping bookings because shelf status was wrong. Make “available versus rented versus under review” part of morning open checklist.

What to rehearse before peak season

1. Grade names match how the website and call center speak.
2. One sample car per grade: deposits, weekday versus holiday start fee, over-km, chauffeur and delivery lines.
3. Store toggles match what the door staff actually offers that weekend.
4. Dispatch confirm with photos before the renter arrives; return confirm with optional second payment.
5. Deposit ledger: paid, held, refunded — including violation deposit.
6. Abnormal-order path when store and renter disagree on fees.
7. Enterprise and wedding paths if you sell them — do not discover approval rules on the event day.
8. Commission and coupon splits printed for the store owner once.

Deposits versus rent: keep the ledger split

Renters often treat “what I paid today” as one number. Your software should not. Booking payment lines typically separate rent, vehicle deposit, violation deposit and base service guarantee. Completion may add over-km, over-time, delivery, add-ons and chauffeur. Refunds should return deposit lines explicitly, including a path to refund deposits from the deposit record screen.

Deposit waiver as a store service is a commercial choice. If the store turns waiver on, support and the renter confirm screen must say so before pay. Silent waiver in a chat message and a non-waived hold in the ledger is how chargebacks start — even when you settle offline.

Violation deposit exists because traffic tickets arrive after the car is back. Pair it with whatever violation lookup process your market uses; the rental line’s job is to hold and release money with a clear status, not to invent a government integration you do not have.

Inventory math for the weekend

Before a holiday:

• Count plates per grade on the lot versus linked in admin.
• Delist cars in maintenance; do not rely on staff memory.
• Confirm door-delivery capacity separately from store-pickup capacity — delivery needs people, not only cars.
• Chauffeur orders need named drivers at dispatch confirm; a grade with cars but no drivers is not sellable as with-driver.

Scan-to-order self-service sites need the same grade and fee honesty plus condition photo uploads at pickup and return. Remote unlock does not replace the fee stack; it only changes who walks the lot with a key.

Platform admin versus store freedom

Stores can adjust pricing when they upload a vehicle, using a template or their own numbers, but vehicles still pass platform review. Commission tables sit at admin level by city and store. That split is intentional: local managers know weekend demand; the platform needs a consistent ledger and tax line.

Role permissions (same-level versus same-level-and-below company data) matter when you run multiple brands or cities. Give store apps to store staff; keep grade master data and commission with people who will not silently rename “SUV” to “special” before a holiday.

Close

Grades, fee stacks and store inventory are one system. If any leg is missing, the app becomes a brochure that generates refunds. Walk your busiest store through a weekday compact and a holiday SUV with delivery on car rental software, then compare the phone quote to the order detail. Contact us with your grade list and we will say what maps to configuration.