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Early November the workshop calls back: tyre change for the Caddy on Thursday, drop-off at 8, pick-up from 3 pm. Whoever arranged it puts it in their own calendar. It never reaches the booking calendar. At 7:30 on Thursday a colleague with a booking is standing at the key cabinet, and the key is already gone.
Workshop appointments can be planned. They come back every year, and you know most of them weeks ahead. They still cause a good share of the gaps in a vehicle pool, because they live in a different calendar from the bookings. This post covers which appointments a pool vehicle needs, how to bundle them and how to get them into the calendar people book from.
The rules below are the German ones, because that is where most of our readers run their pools. Other countries have their own equivalents.
| Appointment | How often | Basis (Germany) |
|---|---|---|
| Tyre change | twice a year, autumn and spring | winter tyres in wintry conditions, § 2 (3a) StVO |
| Servicing | per the manufacturer's schedule, usually yearly or by mileage | manufacturer, often a condition of warranty and leasing |
| Statutory inspection (HU) | every 24 months for cars, first after 36 months for a new one | § 29 StVZO |
| Safety check (UVV-Prüfung) | at least once a year | DGUV Vorschrift 70, § 57 |
| Cleaning, valeting | your own rule, say weekly | internal |
Then there are the appointments nobody plans: the stone chip in the windscreen, the warning light, the damage after a trip. How to report it and match it to the right trip is in the post on pool vehicle damage.
Winter tyres. Germany has no fixed date. In black ice, packed snow, slush or frost, a car may only be driven on tyres with the Alpine symbol (mountain with a snowflake). Tyres with only an M+S marking have not counted since 1 October 2024. With a pool vehicle this is not just the driver's problem. The keeper may not allow the trip either, and the keeper is the business. The rule of thumb "October to Easter" is the practical way to run a pool.
Safety check. DGUV Vorschrift 70, the statutory accident insurers' regulation on vehicles, requires vehicles that employees drive at work to be checked for safe operating condition by a competent person at least once a year. Many workshops offer it. The result is recorded in writing.
Every workshop visit costs twice: the time in the workshop and the trips there and back. Bundling takes a vehicle out of the pool less often.
A workshop appointment that only sits in the calendar of whoever arranged it does not protect the vehicle. It has to go into the calendar the others book from, and there it should block the time, not just sit next to it as a note.
Block generously. The workshop says "pick-up from 3 pm". In practice that often means 4, and then someone still has to drive over. For a tyre change, block the whole day. If you know your workshop is punctual, block until early afternoon.
Write down the reason. "Workshop: tyre change" tells everyone why the car is missing and answers the question before anyone asks. Don't write anything that not everyone should read. The reason is visible to everyone who tries to book.
Recurring things as a series. The car wash on Friday afternoon or the interior clean on Monday morning goes in once as a recurring entry, not every week again.
People who already booked. You rarely get the tyre slot at a time when the vehicle is free. Before you block it, check who has booked that time and get in touch before they turn up at the key cabinet. Ideally with an alternative: "The Caddy is at the workshop on Thursday, you can take the Golf."
A booking calendar shows when a vehicle is away. It does not know when the next inspection is due. A short list does that, one row per vehicle:
| Vehicle | Inspection due | Safety check due | Next service | Tyres stored at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caddy HB-XY 123 | 05/2027 | 11/2026 | 60,000 km or 03/2027 | Meyer garage |
In Germany the inspection date is on the sticker on the rear number plate and in the registration certificate, the service interval in the service book or the on-board computer. Keep the list where you keep the vehicle data and go through it once a month. A service by mileage only gets caught if you know the current mileage. On a vehicle someone else drives every day, usually nobody does.
A blocked period, not a note. Under "Blocked Periods", create the workshop appointment with "Add Blocked Period": pick the vehicle under "Select Resources", enter the time and, if you like, "All day". In the "Reason" field write "Workshop: tyre change". One blocked period can cover several vehicles at once, handy when two cars go for the change on the same day.
What the block does. During that time the vehicle can no longer be booked, neither by members in Dispoly nor by guests on a booking page. Anyone who tries sees "This time falls into a blocked period" along with the reason. Open requests that fall into the time are marked "Falls into a blocked period" and cannot be approved while the block is in place.
Existing bookings stay. A blocked period cancels nothing and does not warn about bookings in the same time when you create it. So check "Reservations" or the week view first to see who has the vehicle that day, and sort it out with them.
Weekly things as a series. For the cleaning every Friday, set "Repeat" to "Weekly", pick the weekday and set "Repeat until", at most two years ahead. More in the post on recurring blocked periods. There is no yearly or two-yearly repeat, so the inspection and the safety check go in as single blocked periods once the date is fixed.
The drive to the workshop. Whoever takes the vehicle to the workshop during the block drives without a booking. If you record mileage at pickup and return, the logbook then shows that distance as kilometres without a booking. With "Entry without booking" and the reason "Workshop" you add the reading, also through the QR sign in the vehicle. The gap is explained, and the current mileage for the next service is in the logbook. How recording works is in the post on recording mileage with a QR code.
How to set up a pool as a whole, from the rules to the rollout, is in the guide Organising pool vehicles. To record the condition at every handover, use the free handover form. If you are just moving away from Excel or shouting across the office, start with Managing pool vehicles. The features at a glance are on the fleet solution page.
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