Until now Dispoly knew who booked a resource and when. The odometer reading when the van left the yard, whether it came back with a full tank, and who ended up driving it lived in a notebook in the glove box, in an Excel sheet, or nowhere. This release brings that information into the booking. The new feature is called Pickup & return, and it comes with counter readings that carry over from one booking to the next.
Set up per resource
Admins set the feature up on a resource's detail page, in the "Pickup & return" section. The setup applies to that one resource, because a van needs different details than an emergency generator. Two templates get you started:
- Driver logbook for vehicles: odometer, driver, purpose, fuel level, "Refueled?", and damage/remarks.
- Operating hours for generators, pumps, and machines.
If you run several identical vehicles, set up one and bring the settings over to the others with "Copy from resource".
You can change everything afterwards. There are four field types: text, number, select, and counter. For each field you decide whether it is asked at pickup, at return, or at both, and whether it is required. A resource can have up to 20 fields, up to 8 of them counters. Which details prove useful in practice is covered in our handover checklist.
Counters that do the math
A counter differs from a number field in one way: Dispoly knows the last reading. Presets exist for odometer (km), operating hours (h), electricity meter (kWh), and water meter (m³). You can add your own counters with your own unit. Every counter works in whole numbers or with one decimal place, your choice. The current reading can be entered right when you set the counter up.
A trip then looks like this:
- At pickup the counter is prefilled with the last known reading. If it matches, you just save.
- At return the pickup reading sits next to the field, and the difference updates while you type, for example "+55 km".
- If a reading is below the previous value, Dispoly asks you to confirm it. It never blocks the entry, because a replaced speedometer or a typo from yesterday does happen.
- If the pickup was forgotten, its reading can be added later in the return form, so this trip still gets its difference.
Dispoly calculates the differences per trip and per month on its own. When the reading at a pickup is higher than the last known reading, the logbook shows the gap as kilometers "without booking". That is how you notice a vehicle was moved without anyone booking it.
Corrections are possible: by the person who recorded the entry, by the person who booked, or by an admin. The original value stays visible.
Members record in the app, guests through a link
Members find the buttons "Pickup" and "Return" on the booking: on the dashboard, in the reservations table, and on the resource page. Any member of the organization can record, because the driver is often not the person who booked. The recorder's name is stored.
Pickup can be recorded from 24 hours before the booking starts, return from the start of the booking. The app sets no deadline for the return. If a booking is cancelled after the vehicle was already picked up, the return can still be recorded.
Guests who booked through a public booking page still need no account and no app. They get a link in the confirmation email, in the approval email, and in the reminder 24 hours before the start. The link opens a page in the browser where they record the pickup first and the return later. It works until 90 days after the booking ends.
QR quick entry: the sign at the vehicle
For every resource you can print a sign as an A4 PDF with a QR code. Scanning it needs no login. When a booking is due for pickup or return, the page offers exactly that: the fields for that moment and your name. The entry then counts just like one made through the buttons or the guest link. The page shows only the booking's time window, not who booked, and it never overwrites a pickup or return that is already recorded.
Next to that there is "Without booking" with the whole form. The reason is one of Callout, Workshop, Correction, or Other. Fields you set up as required are required here too and marked in the form. Your own name is required as well. These entries land in the logbook marked "Without booking".
This is built for everyone standing at the vehicle who does not want to dig out the app or the email first, and for the cases where nobody books beforehand: a callout at the fire department, a trip to the workshop, a corrected reading. How a department keeps its logbook this way is described in a fire department vehicle logbook without paper.
Admins can reset or disable the code at any time, and printed signs with the old code then stop working. The page is rate limited.
Inside the app the same thing exists as "Entry without booking", with date and time. The entry can lie in the past, for instance for an initial reading or a workshop trip from last week.
Enforcement: optional, remind, or enforce
How strictly entries are expected is a setting per resource:
- Optional: buttons and logbook, nothing else. Nobody gets reminded automatically.
- Remind: missing entries are flagged and listed. If the return is missing, the person who booked gets one reminder email two hours after the booking ends.
- Enforce: if the return is still missing three days after the booking ends, the resource's contact person gets an email as well.
No level blocks bookings. Someone who forgot a return can keep booking. "Enforce" means flags, a reminder, and an escalation, and nothing beyond that.
Handovers at a glance
Reservations has a new Handovers tab. It sorts into five groups: Pickup due, Out, Overdue, Return missing, Pickup missing. From there you can record on someone's behalf. Admins can also copy the guest link or trigger a reminder with "Remind now". On the dashboard, a "Handovers" card shows all members what is coming up.
Logbook and Excel export
Every resource with pickup & return now has a Logbook with a month selector. Per counter it shows the reading at month end, the difference within the month, and the number of trips. Below that you find the individual entries with markers: corrected, late entry, cancelled, via link, via QR code, without booking.
Admins can export the logbook as CSV or Excel, for one resource or for all, one month at a time. Each booking is one row, and entries without a booking get rows of their own. Per counter there are columns for pickup, return, difference, and difference without booking, plus a "Driver" column. Numbers stay real numbers, so Excel can calculate with them, including German Excel.
The existing exports grow too. The reservations export gains the columns "Picked up at", "Returned at", and "Logbook" (complete or missing), and the resource export gains the current reading per counter.
Good to know
- No GPS, no telematics, no hardware in the vehicle. A person types the readings.
- No photos and no signatures.
- Each missing return gets exactly one automatic reminder email. Admins can send more by hand when needed.
- Field types are limited to text, number, select, and counter.
- There is no native app. Recording happens in the browser, on a phone too.
Two new pages show what this looks like day to day: the vehicle logbook for pool cars and the handover checklist for shared resources.
Also: two free tools
For everyone still working with a notebook or a spreadsheet, there are two tools that need no sign-up:
- The mileage gap checker checks an existing list. Paste rows from Excel or Google Sheets or import the file, and it shows kilometers without an entry, overlaps and the totals per person and month. The data stays in your browser.
- The vehicle logbook template comes as a printable PDF and as an Excel file, with presets for pool vehicles, emergency vehicles and machines with operating hours.
On all plans
Pickup & return is included in all plans, Starter too, at no extra cost. That covers counters, QR quick entry, the logbook, and the export.
Also: the Business plan and prices in US dollars
Two changes have been on the pricing page since August but never made it into a release post:
- Between Team and Enterprise there is now the Business plan at €99 per month, or €83 per month when billed yearly. It covers 1,000 members, 25 locations, and 250 resources. The fee for online payments drops from 4% to 1.5% per transaction on Business. Stripe's own fees still apply on top.
- The pricing page can show the plans in US dollars, at the same numbers: $19, $49, and $99 per month. Visitors from the US and Canada see dollars by default, and you can switch at any time. New organizations pick their billing currency when they are created. It cannot be changed later.
You will find all the details on our pricing page.
Trying it costs nothing: no contract, no setup fee, 30 days free.
Questions or feedback? Write to us at hello@dispoly.net.