Group Bookings

Group bookings are billable vehicle-hire trips for organisations. The organisation hires the vehicle for a group trip, enters the expected mileage from the vehicle home location, and sees a per-mile cost preview during booking.

Booking lifecycle

The diagram below shows what happens from creating the booking through to invoicing and payment, including notifications sent along the way. Click the diagram to zoom in.

The group booking lifecycle from creation through to payment.

Create a group booking

1. Go to Bookings.
2. Click New booking on the list or calendar view.
3. Select Group as the booking type.
4. Choose a Vehicle that allows group bookings, is marked Group hire eligible, and set the Schedule (date plus start and end times).
5. In Group details, select the Organisation and enter the Expected mileage for the hire from the vehicle home location (shown side by side). If the organisation is not listed, search for it and use Create organisation (you need permission to create organisations in Settings).
6. Optionally select one or more Drivers — volunteer drivers, a group member from that organisation when they drive themselves, or staff drivers when your staff will drive. Volunteer drivers are listed first. The first driver is the lead driver. When the driver is both a staff driver and a volunteer driver, use Charge staff driver hourly to turn off the staff driver hourly rate if they are driving as a volunteer. Group hires driven by a Group member who is also a staff driver never add staff-driver hourly (mileage only). Optionally assign one or more Passenger Assistants. Assistants do not replace the driver. A second assistant can shadow the trip.
7. Enter how many Passengers are travelling (and Wheelchair users when the vehicle is a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle).
8. Review the estimates bar (expected mileage, vehicle home, and estimated cost) as you enter mileage — use the info icon on estimated cost to see how it is calculated — then add optional Notes and save.

You can also create a group booking from the calendar by clicking or dragging on an empty time slot, then choosing Group before saving.

An example of creating a group booking with organisation and mileage details.

Organisation

An Organisation is required for every group booking, along with expected mileage. The organisation must have a paid subscription for the trip date (or an override). If that subscription later lapses, the booking warns that the organisation is not subscribed. When draft auto-cancel is on, the booking is cancelled in the same window as unfinished drafts, and the notice says The organisation is not subscribed.

• When you save a valid booking with organisation, mileage, and a driver, the booking is Confirmed automatically.
• Group bookings without a driver remain Draft until a volunteer driver, a group member from the organisation, or a staff driver is selected.
• Group bookings cannot be saved without an organisation or expected mileage.
• Vehicle hire is billed to the organisation.

Organisations are managed under Settings → Organisations, or created inline from the Organisation field on a group booking or Group member record.

Driver selection

A Driver is optional when creating a group booking.

Choose either:

• A Volunteer driver,
• A Group member linked to the selected organisation when the group drives themselves, or
• A Staff driver when your staff will drive the vehicle (for example when the organisation does not have its own driver).

If no driver is selected at booking time, the booking stays Draft until a driver is assigned. You can assign one later from the booking form or the Drivers schedule calendar.

If you save without a driver, Settings → Bookings → Group → Driver requests controls whether eligible drivers are notified automatically by email and OpenCommute app notification (the preferred volunteers or staff drivers first) or whether a prompt asks first. Group members are not emailed. With automatic sending off, choose Who should we email? — Volunteers, Staff drivers, or both — on every save while no driver is selected. A table lists who will receive the emails and when a request was already sent. Turn on I confirm that request emails will be sent, then choose Send request emails, or choose Save without sending. Request drivers on the missing-driver warning or Options tab always uses the confirmation prompt.

Each send, skip, or “I am not available” reply is recorded on the booking Activity tab.

• Group members linked to the organisation are managed under Operations → Members — see Managing Members.
• Staff drivers are managed under Operations → Staff — see Managing Staff.

Eligibility

When a driver is selected, they can only be chosen if they are:

• Signed off for driving
• Licence-checked with a valid pass outcome
• Licensed for the selected vehicle category (when a vehicle is chosen)
• Training-complete, when your organisation requires driver training

Group members must belong to the selected organisation.

Ineligible members appear in the list but cannot be selected.

Driver overlap prevention

When a driver is selected, the same driver cannot be booked for overlapping trips across Internal, Open, One-to-One, Driver Own, or Group bookings.

Vehicle overlap rules and booking buffers still apply in the usual way. See Managing Bookings.

Assign from the Drivers schedule calendar

On the booking calendar, switch to Staff:

• Group bookings without a driver, or with a Staff driver, appear on the calendar.
• Group bookings using an organisation's Group member do not appear — those trips are managed by the organisation, not your staff schedule.
• Bookings without a staff driver appear on the Unassigned row.
• Drag a group booking onto a driver's row to assign a Staff driver.
• Drag back to Unassigned to remove a staff driver from the booking.

You can also set or change the driver from the booking form Group details tab.

An example of assigning a staff driver from the Drivers schedule calendar.

Passengers and wheelchair users

Every group booking records how many people the hire is for.

• After you choose a vehicle, the control shows Passengers and, only when that vehicle is a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV), a Wheelchair users box. Enter how many of each are travelling; use 0 when none are travelling in that category.
• Each wheelchair user takes one of the vehicle seats, so the two numbers added together cannot be more than the seat capacity on the vehicle record.
• A counter shows the seats taken against the vehicle capacity, for example 3 / 4, and updates as you change the numbers. It turns red once the total is more than the vehicle can carry. The helper text underneath names the chosen vehicle and its seats.
• Changing the booking to a smaller vehicle is refused while the existing numbers do not fit.

The booking information bar shows the total passengers. Hover the number for the passenger and wheelchair user breakdown, including the seats they take (for example 8 of 12 seats). Both numbers also appear on the calendar tooltip. Seat capacity and vehicle type are set in Operations → Vehicles.

Group hires in the OpenCommute app

Eligible Group members who are signed off to drive can book a group hire from Book a journey in the OpenCommute app when their organisation has a paid subscription and group-hire vehicles are available.

1. Choose Group (or your team’s label for this booking type).
2. Pick a date and time, then search for an available vehicle.
3. Enter expected mileage and passenger numbers, review the estimated cost, and confirm.

The member drives the hire; invoices go to the organisation, not to the member in the app. Upcoming hires can be updated or cancelled from the booking until end mileage is recorded.

Vehicle group-hire eligibility

Not every vehicle that allows the Group booking type can be used for group hire.

• In Operations → Vehicles, enable Group hire eligible on vehicles that may be used for group bookings.
• A vehicle must allow Group in its allowed booking types and be group-hire eligible to appear when creating a group booking.

Expected mileage and cost preview

Group bookings do not use a pickup and drop-off map.

• The form shows the vehicle home location (from the vehicle record, or your team default) in the estimates bar below the form fields.
• Enter the expected total mileage for the hire starting from that home location.
• The estimates bar shows expected mileage, vehicle home, and estimated cost live as you enter mileage — use the info icon on Estimated cost to see how it is calculated.
• Both values are stored on the booking when you save.

Final mileage is recorded on the booking after the trip. Invoicing is handled from the booking Options tab — see Mileage and Invoicing. When pre-payment is off, you can use Invoice early on Options while the booking is Confirmed to bill from the expected mileage and cost before the trip.

Edit or cancel a group booking

1. Open the booking from the list or calendar.
2. Use Details for the vehicle, schedule, and notes.
3. Use Group details for the organisation, optional driver, expected mileage, passenger and wheelchair user numbers, and cost preview.
4. To cancel the booking, open Options and click Cancel booking. Enter a reason — the organisation’s invoice email addresses receive a cancellation email, and the notice then shows who cancelled it and why. Other cancellation reasons are listed in Managing Bookings.

The booking type is fixed after creation and cannot be changed on the edit page.

Related

• Managing Bookings — list, calendar, and filters
• Managing Members — group members linked to organisations
• Managing Staff — staff drivers for group bookings
• Booking Buffers — gaps between bookings on the same vehicle
• Driver Own Bookings — similar mileage-based hire workflow for driver members