Introduction
Utilisation answers one question: out of the days you could have rented a vehicle out, how many did you actually rent it out? The app works this out for you on two screens, both headed Utilisation — one opened from the Utilisation asset tile, which gives you a line per vehicle, and one opened from the Utilisation group tile, which gives you a line per vehicle class. Both are laid out the same way: a Back button and the heading at the top, two date boxes for the period you want, a row of buttons, and a table of results underneath.
Neither screen shows you anything when you first open it. The table is empty until you press the button that works the figures out, and it fills in from scratch every time you press it again.
You will use it when:
- you are deciding which vehicles to sell, keep or replace at the end of a season
- a vehicle class is always fully booked and you want the numbers before buying another
- someone asks why a particular van has been sitting on the yard
- you want a quick look at how hard the fleet is working this month, with nothing wrong
- you need the figures in a spreadsheet for a meeting
Words these screens use
| The screen says | It means |
|---|---|
| Utilisation asset | The per-vehicle tile — "asset" is this app's word for a single vehicle |
| Asset group, Number of assets | A vehicle class, and how many vehicles are counted in it |
| Registration number | The number plate |
| Total bookable days / Bookable days | The days in your chosen period the vehicle was part of your fleet and available to rent |
| Booked days in period | The days inside your chosen period that were covered by a real rental |
| Utilisation | Booked days divided by bookable days |
The two screens
| Tile | One line per | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Utilisation asset | Vehicle | You want to compare individual vehicles, or explain one vehicle's figures |
| Utilisation group | Vehicle class | You want the shape of the fleet — which classes are working hardest |
The scan found one way in: the two tiles under the Utilisation heading on the Dashboards screen. Use Utilisation asset when the answer is about a specific vehicle, and Utilisation group when the answer is about what to buy or retire.
How to use
Configuration
There is nothing to set up for the figures themselves. Whether a vehicle is counted at all depends on its active-from and active-to dates, kept on each vehicle's own record. The Populate active dates button on the Utilisation asset screen can fill in missing ones in bulk. Read the Q&A before you use it.
Before you start: the Dashboards menu item, both tiles and both screens are for company administrators only. If Dashboards is not in your main menu, ask whoever manages your account. The figures are also only as complete as your vehicle records: a vehicle with a blank active-from or active-to date, and any borrowed vehicle, is left out without a message — see the Q&A.
Using the utilisation screens
From the main menu, open Dashboards. Under the Utilisation heading, click Utilisation asset for the per-vehicle table or Utilisation group for the per-class table.
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Set the period. Fill in From and To at the top. They arrive already set to the current week, so if you want a month, a quarter or a year you have to change both — a very short period is the usual reason the figures look far too low.
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Press the button that fills the table. It is called Generate on the per-vehicle screen and Populate on the per-class screen. The same button is how you refresh: it clears the previous results and works them out again from the dates currently in the boxes.
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Read the table. The columns differ slightly between the two screens:
Utilisation asset Utilisation group Registration number Name Asset group, Asset group code Code — Number of assets Booked days in period Booked days in period Total bookable days Bookable days Utilisation Utilisation -
Sort or filter to find what you need. Every column has a filter box, and the number columns filter on a value — so you can ask for every vehicle whose utilisation is below a figure you choose, rather than reading the whole list. The table shows 100 rows at a time; with a larger fleet, use the paging control under the table or filter first.
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Take it away as a spreadsheet. Set the filters, then click Export selected to Excel. Despite its name, it exports every row the filters let through, across all pages, with only the columns you have showing — ticked rows make no difference. See Export a list or report to Excel or CSV.
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Close the screen with Back when you are done.
When it worked, the table shows one line per vehicle or class, with the two day columns and the Utilisation figure filled in for the period you chose.
Key details
Utilisation is shown as a decimal, not a percentage. A vehicle rented for 11 days out of 30 shows as 0.37, not 37%. The two day columns sit right beside it, so you can always check the figure yourself.
A worked example. Take a van, on the fleet all year, and a period of 1–30 September — so Total bookable days is 30. During September it had:
| Booking | Status | Dates | Days counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Confirmed | 5–9 September | 4 |
| B | PickedUp | 20–27 September | 7 |
| C | Quote | 12–15 September | 0 — not a real rental yet |
| D | Cancelled | 18–19 September | 0 — never happened |
Booked days in period is 11, and Utilisation is 11 divided by 30 = 0.37.
Only four booking statuses count as a real rental: Confirmed, PickedUp, DroppedOff and DroppedOffNotification. A booking sitting at Quote, Draft, Unconfirmed, Cancelled, TimedOut or NoShow adds nothing, which is why a busy-looking calendar can still produce a low figure.
Bookings are trimmed to your period. A rental running 28 September to 4 October counts only the days up to your To date, not the whole booking.
Nothing is saved. Leave the screen and come back, and the table is empty again with the dates reset to the current week; press the button to rebuild it. Export anything you need to keep or send on.
The figures do not update on their own. If someone confirms a booking while you have the table open, press Generate or Populate again to see it.
Nothing you do here changes a booking, a price or a vehicle — with one exception, Populate active dates, which does change vehicle records (see the Q&A).
These screens do not show what a vehicle earned. There is no revenue column on either one. For money, go back to Dashboards and use Revenue / Asset / Month, Revenue / Group / Month or Asset revenue — see Check what each location, class, vehicle and customer earns.
What to do next. Start on Utilisation group to see which classes are working hardest, then switch to Utilisation asset and filter that class to find the individual vehicles dragging the average down. If a vehicle you expected is missing from the list, deal with that first — the figures for its class are wrong until it is included.
Q&A
Why is a vehicle missing from the table, with no message? A vehicle is only counted when both its active-from and active-to dates are filled in on its record. If either is blank it is skipped silently, and its class's figures on Utilisation group are understated too. Fix the dates on the vehicle's own record, or use Populate active dates — read the next answer first.
Why did Populate active dates change vehicles I had not selected? This button on the Utilisation asset screen opens a small window asking for an Active from and an Active to, both pre-filled with today's date and time. When you press Save it goes through every vehicle in your company that is missing either date and fills it in. It ignores whatever rows you have ticked, and where a vehicle is missing only its start date, its existing end date is replaced with the one you typed rather than left alone. Set the dates deliberately, and if only one or two vehicles are wrong, correct them on their own records instead. Cancel closes the window without changing anything.
Why does nothing happen when I press Save in the Populate active dates window? Both Active from and Active to have to be filled in. If either is empty the window stays open with no error message and no change. Put a date in both boxes and press Save again.
Why do borrowed vehicles never appear, however I set the dates? Vehicles whose ownership is recorded as borrowed, or as other, are left out of both screens by design. They are not in these figures and cannot be added to them.
Why is Utilisation above 1.00? This is possible and does not mean the table is broken. Rentals are counted against the period in the date boxes rather than against the vehicle's own active window, so a booking from before a vehicle joined the fleet still adds booked days while adding no bookable ones. Two overlapping bookings on the same vehicle do the same. Narrow the period to the months you actually owned the vehicle and the figure settles.
Why does a vehicle class show zeros and a Number of assets of 0? Utilisation group lists every class you have, including ones with no qualifying vehicles behind them. It is an empty class, not a class with terrible figures.
Related pages:
- Check what each location, class, vehicle and customer earns — for what the vehicles and classes on these screens brought in.
- Check your maintenance costs and damage reports — the other fleet reports, when a low figure turns out to be time in the garage.
- Export a list or report to Excel or CSV — how the export button behaves on every report.
- Reschedule bookings on the Scheduler — the calendar the bookings behind these figures come from.
- Check your daily overview — for the day-to-day counters.