Vehicles - Downtime
One feature of Livery Coach is the ability to create a “down time” trip to take a vehicle out of service for a period of time. This feature is available under Reservation…File…Build Downtime Trip.
When you build the downtime trip, you simply select the vehicle, the starting date/time, and the ending date/time. In the Notes field you can enter the reason for the downtime.
Then, if you are using the Trip Schedule screen (remember that from last week?) you can easily see that the vehicle isn’t available for a period of time, and why.
Downtime can be scheduled for any length of time, and can be handy for lots of different reasons. For example, in addition to the maintenance downtime shown in the example, you could put in downtime if you have a chauffeur who has, say, a dentist appointment and will be out for a couple of hours.
We have also seen dispatchers create a short downtime trip at the end of a row to remind them that a chauffeur must be done by a particular time—so don’t drag any more trips down into that vehicle, until you have the car back and put a different chauffeur in it.
When you buy a new vehicle, you could add the vehicle to your system, but enter downtime until it is actually scheduled to be in service—so when the car arrives, you aren’t scrambling to enter it at the last minute so you can use it. (Also lets everyone know the new vehicle is coming, and allows future bookings.)
A downtime trip can be set to recur (either daily or weekly), and the security settings to delete a downtime trip are different than a regular trip.
If you use a downtime trip for a maintenance request, you can then record the downtime trip into the vehicle maintenance records by clicking on the Record button.
We have also seen dispatchers create a short downtime trip at the end of a row to remind them that a chauffeur must be done by a particular time—so don’t drag any more trips down into that vehicle, until you have the car back and put a different chauffeur in it.
When you buy a new vehicle, you could add the vehicle to your system, but enter downtime until it is actually scheduled to be in service—so when the car arrives, you aren’t scrambling to enter it at the last minute so you can use it. (Also lets everyone know the new vehicle is coming, and allows future bookings.)
A downtime trip can be set to recur (either daily or weekly), and the security settings to delete a downtime trip are different than a regular trip.
If you use a downtime trip for a maintenance request, you can then record the downtime trip into the vehicle maintenance records by clicking on the Record button.
Finally, for those of you who prefer the Dispatch Grid, you can show downtime trips there too. Simply navigate to Option…Set Done/Canceled Trip Defaults, and select “Display DownTime Trip”.