The Last Available Date (LAD) field in FleetCommander is typically used when an organization knows it will no longer use that vehicle for reservations. This date can be in the past or the future. If the LAD is blank or in the future, this vehicle is still available for reservations.
There are two main reasons why this field should be kept updated:
- The prevention of reservations past the LAD
- The accuracy of utilization reports
Prevention of Reservations past the LAD
The Last Available Date (LAD) is a setting found on the main tab of a vehicle’s profile. It is located in the Availability section of that tab. The LAD will make sure that you don’t accidentally promise the vehicle to someone when the vehicle will no longer be in the motor pool. In the example below, the last day for this vehicle to be in the motor pool is May 12, 2017.
FleetCommander will not allow you to place a reservation on this vehicle if that reservation were to end past May 12, 2017. This is good. You won’t have the vehicle out on a reservation when it is expected not even to be in the pool. If you do realize your mistake, you won’t have to scramble at the last minute to find your customer an available vehicle to replace this one that is no longer available.
There is another nice feature of the LAD with respect to reservations. When you fill in the LAD field with the date when the vehicle will no longer be available, FleetCommander will let you know if you have any pending or approved reservations currently assigned to the vehicle that are beyond the LAD. If you do, the following pop-up will appear.
On the Manage Fleet screen, the time blocks for vehicles whose LAD is in the past will be colored black. In the example below, the LAD for vehicle G09-Ford 500 is set to 12 AM, October 1, 2016. Reservations cannot be made beyond that date for this vehicle. Also, Qwik-Pik reservations cannot be made by clicking on the black squares. They have been deactivated for this function.
Accuracy of Utilization Reports
The LAD is also used to make sure that utilization reports are accurate with respect to vehicle availability during the period of time for which the reports were generated.
The LAD figures prominently in three main utilization reports: the Vehicle Usage report, the Motor Pool Utilization report, and the Motor Pool Utilization Report - By Asset Type report.
These reports take into account when a vehicle came into the motor pool to be shared and when it left the motor pool. The First Available Date is considered the date when the vehicle came into the motor pool to be shared.
In the example below, I am making the G09-Ford 500 vehicle available from 9/10/2016 through 9/21/2016, for a 12-day period.
I ran the Vehicle Usage report for the month of September 2016. This is a period of 30 days. In the output below, all the vehicles in this motor pool are showing that they had been in the motor pool for 30 days except for the G09-Ford 500 vehicle. It’s only showing that it has been available for 12 days in this time period. We will now get accurate utilization for that vehicle.
I ran the Motor Pool Utilization report for 9/8/16 through 9/23/16. As you can see below, the number of active vehicles jumps from 6 to 7 on 9/10/16 and drops back to 6 on 9/22/16. This report makes sure to only count the vehicles when they are active for reservations.
So, don’t forget to use your Last Available Date. It’s important.
Oh, if you want to track when the vehicle left your organization, use the Disposal Date field. It’s right below the Last Available Date field.
I hope you found this month's FleetCommander Tip & Tricks useful. As always, we welcome your feedback. Sharing your ideas and comments below only helps build our community and network of information.
