Car rental software: rental days from the moment of handover, disputes settled by photos

A charge is born from accumulated possession time: 24 hours from the moment of handover make one rental day. Hand the car over at 14:30 and the next rental day starts tomorrow at 14:30 — there is no such thing as a partial day, neither on the first day nor on the last. The dispute over whether the handover day counts cannot arise in this model: the system counts time, not dates.

Pricing

24-hour rental days from the moment of handover

Extension

nothing to file: until the car is returned with a record, the clock keeps running

Deposit

taken at handover and accounted for separately from the rental

Mileage

limits and overage are a rule of the planned daily type; today billing runs on time

Every handover and return comes with a photo inspection, and the photos are kept for at least 24 months — they are evidence in a money dispute, not a just-in-case archive. The question of whether the damage was there or not turns into a comparison of two dated inspections.

A record can be completed without photos — poor signal in a parking garage must not stop a handover. But such a record is flagged, requires a manager’s confirmation, and stays on the control screen until the photos are sent in. The clock keeps running meanwhile: the precise moment of handover is worth more than a photo.

Every car has a registration certificate, an insurance policy, and a roadworthiness inspection, each with an expiry date. The “What’s urgent” panel shows documents already expired and those expiring within the next two weeks. Renewal does not erase history: the previous version of the document stays in the archive.

Driver’s license expiry is tracked separately, and how acute it is depends on whether the person is behind the wheel: an expired license held by someone currently driving a fleet car is a critical line, not just another row in a list.

Of the four rental types, two work today: long-term and weekly for ride-hailing drivers. The daily type as a ready-made configuration — with a public catalog, online booking, and short-rental rules — is on the roadmap.

In practice this means you can run daily handovers already: the rental agreement, the handover, the 24-hour rental day, and the return with an inspection work the same for a rental of any length. What the system will not do yet: show your cars to a tourist, accept a booking, or charge a deposit to a card — rental money goes to the fleet directly, in cash or by transfer, and card data never passes through fleeTau services.

The deposit is taken once at handover and accounted for separately: it is the client’s money held by the fleet, not the fleet’s income, and it does not mix with daily charges. Charges are never settled out of the deposit on their own.

When the car comes back, the deposit is not withheld automatically. In a separate operation, the manager returns it in full, withholds it — with a mandatory reason and photos — or applies it against the outstanding balance. Every decision has an author, a timestamp, and grounds, and deposits awaiting a decision are gathered on a dedicated screen — so the client’s money never gets stuck.

The client pays the fleet — in cash or by transfer. The cashier records the payment with the legal entity and the incoming channel: the cash desk, an employee’s personal card, the company’s bank account. That shows how much money reached the legal entity and how much settled along the way.

The fleeTau subscription is billed per active car: active means handed over at least once this month. Up to three cars are free, and sign-up requires no bank card; pricing is published on the home page.