Book a vehicle yourself (self-service)
Self-service booking lets you reserve a fleet vehicle for a specific time window without going through a fleet manager. This article walks you through finding an available vehicle and creating the booking.
Before you start
Self-service booking requires the bookings:create permission, which the built-in Driver role includes. You can only book vehicles that belong to a vehicle pool (Fahrzeug-Pool) you have access to, and the vehicle must be active. If your organization requires it, your booking may need manager approval before it is confirmed (see the Related articles).
Step 1: Search for an available vehicle
Open the self-service booking area and enter the start time and end time you need the vehicle for. The system returns only vehicles that are:
- in a pool you are allowed to book from;
- marked active; and
- not already occupied by another booking that overlaps your window.
Each result shows the licence plate (Kennzeichen), brand and model, model year, colour, and the pool the vehicle belongs to. If nothing appears, either no vehicle in your pools is free for that window, or you are not assigned to any pool yet.
Tip: The end time must be later than the start time. If you submit an end time that is the same as or earlier than the start, you will see "End time must be after start time".
Step 2: Create the booking
- Select the vehicle you want from the availability list.
- Confirm your start and end times.
- Optionally add notes (for example, the purpose of the trip). Notes are free text and optional.
- Submit the request.
When the booking is created you receive a booking ID and its initial status.
What happens after you submit
The system validates the request before saving it. A booking is created only if all of the following hold:
| Check | What it means |
|---|---|
| Time order | The start time must be before the end time. |
| Not in the past | The start time cannot be earlier than now — you cannot back-date a booking. |
| Vehicle valid | The vehicle must exist, be active, and be assigned to a pool. |
| Pool access | You must have access to the vehicle's pool, otherwise the request is refused. |
| Availability | No other active or upcoming booking may overlap your window. |
| Driver licence | If licence enforcement is set to hard block, you must hold the required driving licence class for that vehicle. |
If your organization does not require approval for self-service bookings, the booking is created as Confirmed and the vehicle is reserved immediately. If approval is required, it is created as PendingApproval and a manager must approve it before it becomes Confirmed.
Note: If someone books the same vehicle for an overlapping time in the moment you submit, you will get a conflict message such as "Vehicle not available for selected time" or "Vehicle was just booked by another user. Please try again." Simply pick another vehicle or time and retry.
Related
- Choosing start and end times, and how times are handled
- Which vehicles and pools you can book
- Understanding booking conflicts and vehicle availability
- Viewing your own bookings
