Organising pool vehicles. A guide for organisations without a fleet department

Chapter 1

Where shared vehicles go wrong

Most trouble with pool vehicles has little to do with the vehicles. It comes from how bookings, keys and records are organised, and it shows up in the same places almost everywhere.

Pool vehicles make sense on paper. Instead of a company car for every employee, the team shares a handful of vehicles. In practice the idea often fails at the organisation stage. Anyone who has stood in front of an empty key rack with a customer appointment coming up knows why.

The spreadsheet and the shared calendar

Most organisations start with an Excel sheet or a shared Outlook calendar. Both break in the same places. The spreadsheet lives on a network drive, gets copied locally, and three versions later nobody knows which one counts. The shared calendar has no rules. Anyone can add an entry, nobody has to approve it, and two entries for the same morning sit side by side. Whether the van's inspection is still valid isn't recorded anywhere.

So the key decides. Whoever reaches the key rack first drives, whatever the list says. The people who plan ahead lose to the people who shout down the corridor, and the next time everyone phones round "just to be sure".

Even a better Outlook setup has gaps

Microsoft 365 can turn a vehicle into a resource mailbox that declines a second booking for the same slot. That solves double bookings. It doesn't solve the rest:

• Only people with a mailbox can book. The yard worker without a company email, the temp or the colleague from a partner company call or message someone who books for them.
• Nobody records how many kilometres were driven, how much fuel was left at return or whether there was new damage.
• A booking doesn't show whether the person who booked was behind the wheel. That helps little with a speed camera photo or a dent.
• When someone cancels, the booking disappears. A list of who had the vehicle how often last quarter is something you have to build yourselves.

What working setups have in common

Organisations where pool vehicles run smoothly usually have these in place:

1. One calendar as the single source of truth. All vehicles and all bookings in one view that changes for everyone at once. Whoever needs a vehicle sees what is free in the slot they want and books straight into it.
2. Booking rules instead of goodwill. Not every vehicle is meant for everyone. The van with the trailer hitch might need approval from the fleet manager while the compact car is freely bookable. Maintenance and workshop visits are entered as blocked periods, so nothing unavailable can be booked.
3. Booking where the key is. A QR code at the key rack that opens the booking page lets people book in thirty seconds, without a desktop login. That way the calendar stays the truth, not the rack.
4. A record of every handover. Who had the vehicle, at which odometer reading it left and came back, and whether anything was damaged. You only notice you need it when a fine or a dent turns up.

The overall picture is in Managing pool vehicles. If you want to stay with Outlook, Booking a pool vehicle in Outlook shows how far a resource mailbox gets you. Before you read on, answer the ten questions below for your own organisation. Each "no" points to one of the following chapters.

Chapter 2

Rules before anyone drives

A usage agreement answers the questions that otherwise come up after the first scratch or the first speed camera photo. Ten clauses are enough, and every driver signs once.

A usage agreement for pool vehicles is not mandatory. Without one, only the general rules apply, and they don't answer whether someone may take the car home, who pays the fine or who reports the dent. The keeper's duties, such as checking driving licences, are yours anyway. A signed agreement makes them visible to everyone.

The ten clauses

The decisions that cause the most arguments

• Private use. Not allowed, only with written approval per case, or allowed. Most organisations rule it out because insurance, billing and tax then need sorting. Chapter 4 explains why it matters for the logbook.
• Taking the vehicle home overnight. Not allowed, allowed with approval when the trip starts early the next day, or allowed within the booking. If you allow it, the vehicle stays blocked for the booked period and is parked locked in a safe place. Whether the trip home counts as private use is a question for your tax advisor.
• Fines. Under the template they are borne by the driver. For that to work you have to know who drove. That is why clause 8 contains the consent to name the driver to the authorities, and clause 5 the record the name comes from. Without both, the hearing lands with the keeper, and in the worst case a logbook order follows.
• Liability for damage. For employees in Germany the statutory principles apply: full liability for intent and gross negligence, partial for medium negligence, none for slight negligence. If you want an excess, limit it to damage caused by gross negligence. Chapter 6 explains why.

From template to signature

1. Fill in the template: preset, organisation, contact person, rules.
2. Adapt it. Cut what doesn't fit and add existing rules, such as a works agreement.
3. Have it checked. With employees, the works council reads along, especially on licence checks, the usage record and telematics.
4. Every driver signs once, before the first trip. The original goes into the personnel file, a copy to the person.
5. Reissue it when the rules change, for example when a vehicle with telematics joins the pool. A notice in the vehicle does not replace that.

The free pool vehicle use agreement builds the text from these choices in the browser and downloads it as PDF or Word. It is a general model, not legal advice.

Chapter 3

Driving licence checks

In Germany, whoever lets someone drive without a valid licence can be liable for it. This chapter covers where the duty comes from, how often to check, what to look at and what you may write down.

A colleague from field sales has been banned from driving for three weeks. He hasn't told anyone, and he takes the key for the Caddy as usual. If nothing happens, nobody notices. If he crashes, the police ask two questions: who was driving, and who let him drive? The second question is aimed at the organisation.

Where the duty comes from

The duty isn't spelled out in a law of its own. It follows from § 21 of the German Road Traffic Act (StVG). The offence covers not only whoever drives without a licence but also the vehicle keeper who "orders or permits" someone to drive without the required licence or despite a driving ban.

• Intent: up to one year in prison or a fine.
• Negligence: up to six months in prison or a fine of up to 180 daily rates.

If you never looked, you will struggle to rule out negligence. The keeper of a company vehicle is the organisation, and the managing director or head of administration acts for it. The task can be delegated to a fleet manager, who has to be reliable, with a clearly defined task. Management should check now and then that the checks happen.

Insurance adds to it. If someone drives without a licence, motor liability insurance still pays the other party but can claim up to 5,000 euros back. Comprehensive cover can fail entirely. On the occupational safety side, DGUV Regulation 70 (§ 35) requires that only suitable, instructed people assigned by the employer drive a vehicle on their own.

How often to check

The law sets no fixed interval. You are expected to check often enough that a revoked licence or a ban doesn't go unnoticed for months. Three levels have become common:

A pool vehicle carries more risk than an assigned company car because the key passes through many hands. The usage agreement should also oblige drivers to report a revoked licence or a ban right away. That doesn't replace the check, but it closes the gap between two dates.

What to look at

Take the original in your hand, not a photo on a phone. Then four points:

1. Does the person match the document? Name and photo.
2. Is it genuine and legible? No damaged or obviously altered document.
3. Do the classes match the vehicle? Class B covers vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes gross weight. Above that, as with some large panel vans, you need C1. Trailers up to 750 kilograms are fine with B, heavier ones only as long as the whole combination stays within 3.5 tonnes. Otherwise you need B96 or BE.
4. Are there restrictions? Codes such as 01 (vision correction) are on the back. You don't need to record them, but you should know they apply.

Paper licences and card licences issued before 2013 are being exchanged in stages until 2033. If the exchange deadline has passed, the document is invalid but the driving entitlement isn't. That means a small fine, not driving without a licence. Point it out anyway.

What you may record

Restriction codes can be health data, so record only what supports the proof: the name of the person checked, the date and who checked, the classes that matter for your vehicles, the expiry date for time-limited classes (C1, C, D) and the next check date. You don't need a copy of the licence. If you have a works council, agree the check with it.

Tie it to the key handover

A half-yearly list alone quickly becomes a formality. It works better when the check is tied to moments that happen anyway. Only people who have signed the usage agreement may drive. If bookings need approval, the approver sees unfamiliar names before the key leaves. And a required question at pickup, such as "Licence valid and with you?", records for each trip that it was asked. The full background is in Driving licence checks for pool vehicles.

Keep the log below in a spreadsheet or in the fleet folder, one row per check, and put the next date in the responsible person's calendar as a recurring task, for example March and September.

Chapter 4

Logbooks: when required, when useful

In Germany a logbook is required in three situations, and a pure pool vehicle usually falls into none of them. A usage log is still worth keeping, and this chapter shows why.

The fines office wants to know who drove the van past a speed camera three weeks ago, and the calendar says "Van, site visit". Whether you should have kept a logbook depends on who is asking for it. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.

Three situations

1. Tax. A vehicle may also be used privately or for the commute, and you do not want to tax that benefit under the flat 1% rule. Then a proper logbook is the precondition for the alternative.
2. Authority. The road traffic authority orders a logbook under § 31a StVZO because it could not be established who was driving after an offence.
3. Your own rules. A company directive, works agreement or guideline requires one. The guidelines for official vehicles in the German federal administration (DKfzR) provide for a logbook for every official vehicle in § 8.

For a pure pool vehicle with a ban on private use, point 1 usually doesn't apply, and point 2 only applies once it is too late.

What the tax office expects

Private use is a taxable benefit (§ 8 (2) EStG). The default is the 1% rule: each month 1% of the gross list price, plus 0.03% of the list price per kilometre of distance if the car is also used for the commute. To tax only the actual private share instead, you need a proper logbook and receipts for the vehicle's total costs. Under R 8.1 (9) no. 2 LStR it records for each business trip the date and odometer at start and end, the destination, the purpose and the business contacts visited.

The Federal Fiscal Court (BFH) requires a logbook to be kept promptly and in closed form, showing the trips completely and in continuous sequence (judgment of 9 November 2005, VI R 27/05). An Excel sheet does not meet that bar (judgment of 16 November 2005, VI R 64/04).

Pure pool vehicles

A pool vehicle that may only be driven for business creates no taxable benefit. The ban has to be provable, though. Under the BMF letter of 3 March 2022 (para. 19) it is proven by documents such as a clause in the employment contract, and those belong in the payroll record. A verbal announcement in a team meeting is not enough. The BFH takes such bans seriously (BFH of 21 April 2010, VI R 46/08, and 21 March 2013, VI R 42/12).

It changes once a pool vehicle may go home overnight, for example for on-call duty. Pools then have their own calculation: a flat 1% of the list prices of all pool vehicles, divided by the number of authorised users (BMF letter of 3 March 2022, para. 14, and H 8.1 (9-10) LStH). Settle that with your tax advisor first.

Why keep a usage log anyway

• Logbook orders. Under § 31a StVZO the authority can order the keeper to log every trip. The Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia considers it proper commercial conduct to document trips in company cars over the longer term (order of 30 June 2015, 8 B 1465/14).
• Parking offences. If the driver remains unknown, the keeper bears the costs of the proceedings (§ 25a StVG).
• Damage. § 36 of DGUV Vorschrift 70 requires drivers to report defects, also to the next driver. A damage field at return records it.
• Costs. Leasing mileage limits and service intervals depend on the odometer at pickup and return.

Driver names and readings are personal data, so set a retention period. The fields for a usage log are in Pool vehicle logbooks in Germany, the difference between a usage log and a tax logbook in Mileage and trip logs. A free vehicle logbook template comes as PDF and Excel.

Chapter 5

Pickup and return

The pickup record and the return record are two halves of one document. Only the comparison tells you anything: kilometres driven, fuel level, new damage, missing accessories.

On Monday morning the van is back in the yard with a fresh scrape on the bumper and the fuel gauge on reserve. It was booked twice over the weekend. Nobody can say who brought the scrape back, and nobody knows how full the tank was on Friday. With a handover record you would know between which pickup and which return the scrape appeared.

In Germany no law requires a record, or any particular form, for the internal handover of a pool vehicle. The record is evidence for yourselves, and you decide how much goes into it. It has little to do with a tax logbook, which chapter 4 covers.

Keep the form short

Every extra required field raises the chance that someone guesses instead of reading the gauge. Make the odometer reading required and leave the rest optional. Keep known damage once per vehicle instead of copying it out at every handover, so the record only needs what is new.

Many templates online include signatures from both sides and photos of the damage. That makes sense when you rent to outsiders or return a leased car, because two parties stand next to the vehicle. With a pool vehicle the key is often in a key box and nobody countersigns. A name and a timestamp are the evidence you can realistically get. The licence check concerns the person, not the trip, so it doesn't belong on every record.

Three ways to keep the record

A paper form in the glovebox needs no signal and no training. For a single vehicle with three drivers it is enough. The weakness shows later: nobody sees the entries until someone opens the notebook, and gaps surface at the end of the quarter. A spreadsheet can be analysed but is rarely filled in at the vehicle, more often at a desk and from memory. If the record is tied to the booking, name and period are settled before anyone types, and the system can calculate the difference and remind people.

Record where the odometer is

The reading is due at an awkward moment. Whoever picks up the van has the key in one hand and the next appointment on their mind. Whoever brings it back wants to go home. If your system supports it, a QR sign inside the vehicle, on the sun visor or the dashboard, lets drivers enter the reading on their phone where they read it. If the key cabinet already has a QR code for booking, label both signs clearly, or someone will scan the wrong one.

Compare each pickup with the previous return. If the next pickup is higher, someone drove without a booking, and you see it the following Monday instead of at the end of the lease. More in Record the odometer with a QR code and the handover checklist. A printable version with variants for vehicles and equipment is the free handover form template.

Chapter 6

Reporting and settling damage

On a pool vehicle, damage is usually found by the next driver, not by the person who caused it. What matters is that it gets reported at once and can be traced to a trip.

Wednesday morning, the Caddy has a dent in the rear bumper. Since Monday it has been booked three times. The first driver says the dent was already there, the second didn't look, the third parked in the dark. A pool vehicle belongs to everyone, so nobody looks after it. Small damage goes unreported because people don't want to look guilty or assume the previous driver reported it.

That costs you. A stone chip becomes a crack, a scratch starts to rust, safety faults show up only in the workshop. With leased vehicles, everything beyond normal wear lands on the bill months later.

Reporting is a duty

For vehicles that employees drive at work in Germany, § 36 of DGUV Vorschrift 70 sets two duties for the driver. Before the shift they check that controls and safety devices work, and while driving they watch for obvious defects. Defects are reported to the responsible supervisor and, when drivers change, to the person taking over. A defect that endangers safe operation takes the vehicle out of use.

In a pool without a personal handover, the report to the next driver only works through something that person sees: a note under the wiper, an entry in the vehicle folder or on the booking. Decide once who receives reports (a named person with a deputy) and how (by phone if the car can't be driven, in writing otherwise). Both belong in the usage agreement.

Tracing damage to a trip

Who caused a dent can rarely be proven afterwards. When it happened usually can: between the last handover where it wasn't noted and the first one where it was. That needs a one-minute walk round the vehicle at every pickup, covering bumpers, doors, mirrors, windows and tyres. Anything new is noted before driving off, with its location and ideally a photo. Keep the known damage as one list per vehicle and take items off once repaired.

After an accident

1. Secure the scene and help anyone injured.
2. Call the police if someone is hurt, if third parties are involved and you can't agree, or if it's unclear who was at fault.
3. Don't admit fault, not even on a note.
4. Write down names, addresses, number plates and insurers of everyone involved, plus witnesses. The European Accident Statement has the right fields.
5. Take photos of the scene, the vehicle positions and the damage.
6. Tell the named contact person straight away, so the claim reaches the insurer within the deadlines in the policy.

Who pays

When employees cause damage on a work trip, German law applies the principles of internal loss sharing developed by the Federal Labour Court (BAG):

Contracts can't change this to the employee's disadvantage. The BAG struck down a clause that made an employee pay up to the insurance excess even for the slightest negligence (judgment of 5 February 2004, 8 AZR 91/03). If you want an excess, limit it to gross negligence. For civil servants, § 48 of the Civil Servants Status Act also limits liability to intent and gross negligence.

The decisive point for pools: under § 619a BGB the employer has to prove the employee is responsible. If you can't establish on whose trip the dent appeared, the damage stays with you. More in Damage to a pool vehicle. Fill in one report per damage:

Chapter 7

Booking without double bookings

Double bookings stop when there is one calendar that checks for conflicts itself. This chapter compares the usual ways of booking and shows where each one stops.

Every vehicle handed out twice costs more than one appointment. It costs everyone's trust in the calendar, and without that trust people go back to phoning round. Five rules prevent it.

1. There is exactly one calendar. A whiteboard, an Excel sheet and a group chat side by side mean none of them is reliable. Keep one system everyone can reach and drop the others.
2. It shows real time. Whoever books at 9:00 needs to see the colleague's booking from 8:55.
3. The software checks for conflicts, not a person. People miss overlaps, especially with overnight and multi-day bookings. Overlapping requests have to be rejected before they land in the calendar.
4. Known busy periods are blocked times. Workshop visits, inspections and cleaning go in as blocked periods, not in someone's memory.
5. Unclear cases go through approval. For sensitive vehicles, a request only becomes binding once a responsible person approves it.

To see how many overlaps your current list already has, paste it into the free booking check. The rules in detail are in Avoiding double bookings.

If you stay with Outlook

A shared calendar checks nothing. A resource mailbox in Microsoft 365 does: you invite the vehicle like a colleague, and it accepts a free slot and declines a taken one. For a vehicle, choose an equipment mailbox in the Exchange admin center under Recipients, Resources, Add an equipment resource. Three defaults are built for meeting rooms and get in the way:

• A booking can last 24 hours at most, so the Monday to Wednesday trip is declined.
• Auto-accepted bookings lose their subject and text. "Oldenburg site, pick up material" becomes the organiser's name. This can only be switched off in PowerShell.
• Nothing is accepted more than 180 days ahead.

Booking delegates can approve requests, and in PowerShell booking can be restricted to specific people or groups. If double bookings are your only problem and every driver has a mailbox, Outlook is enough. The setup is in Booking a pool vehicle in Outlook.

Whatever you use, booking has to be less effort than shouting down the corridor. If colleagues first have to create an account and install an app, the key rack wins. How assigned company cars become a pool is in Sharing company cars.

In Dispoly

Dispoly rejects a second booking for an occupied slot. A booking can last up to 90 days and be up to two years ahead, so the three-day trip goes through without changing anything. Members of your organisation book in Dispoly. Anyone without an account books through a booking page or the QR code on the key cabinet, and there is no per-person licence.

New categories are created with "Require admin approval for reservations" already ticked. Each vehicle can override that under "Approval Required", for example "Auto-approve" for the small car. Maintenance goes in as blocked periods. Every vehicle has a calendar feed you can subscribe to in Outlook under Add calendar and Subscribe from web. Existing Outlook bookings can be exported as CSV, checked with the booking check and uploaded under "Import reservations". The features are on the fleet management page.

• No connection to Exchange. The calendar feed runs one way only. An appointment created in Outlook doesn't reach Dispoly, and Outlook refreshes subscribed calendars several times a day, not instantly.
• No invitations from Outlook. People book in Dispoly instead. That only works if Outlook is switched off as a booking channel.
• No booking rights per group. Every member can request every vehicle. Approval is the control.

Chapter 8

What organising it should cost

Software for pool vehicles is priced on very different things: vehicles, users, plan size or hardware. This chapter works the models through for 15 vehicles and shows what Excel really costs.

Ask what pool vehicle software costs and you usually get a formula, not a number. Two offers at €5 and €49 a month can end up costing almost the same, or ten times apart. First decide what the software has to do:

• Booking. Who has which vehicle when, without double bookings, with approval and blocked periods.
• Usage record. Who drove, the odometer at pickup and return, any damage. People enter this.
• Telematics. A box in the vehicle records trips, position and route automatically.

For 5 to 30 vehicles without a fleet department, the first two are usually enough.

Excel and Outlook are not free

A spreadsheet or a shared calendar costs no licence. The costs sit elsewhere. If coordinating calls and messages takes ten minutes a day, that is roughly 37 hours a year over 220 working days. That's an assumption, so use your own number. A spreadsheet also prevents nothing, and when the fines office asks who had the car, the calendar often just says "Van, site visit". With three vehicles and a small team, Excel is often still the right answer. From around five vehicles and people who don't see each other every day, it tips over.

Four pricing models

• Per vehicle or resource. Vehicles times price. anny, for example, lists €5, €10 or €15 per resource a month depending on the plan, or €4, €8 or €12 billed annually, plus VAT, with five resources free on its Starter plan (as of October 2026). Every new vehicle raises the price.
• Per user. Rarely ideal for fleets, because there are far more drivers than vehicles. Forty employees sharing ten vehicles means forty licences. Ask exactly who counts as a user.
• Flat plan by size. A fixed monthly price with limits on resources, locations and accounts. Within the limit, an extra vehicle costs nothing. Check where the limits are.
• Telematics. A device per vehicle, billed per vehicle per month plus hardware, installation and a contract term, often only on request. In Germany a works council has a say under § 87(1) no. 6 BetrVG. And a box tells you where a car is, not who needs it next Tuesday.

Six questions for every offer

1. What is counted: vehicles, resources, users, locations or bookings?
2. What does the next vehicle cost? And the second location?
3. Is there hardware, setup or a minimum term?
4. How much does annual billing save?
5. Can you test with your own vehicles rather than sample data?
6. Can you get your data back out as CSV or Excel?

In Dispoly

Dispoly charges a flat plan by size. Members are accounts in your organisation. People who book through the booking link or the QR code on the key cabinet don't need an account and don't count. Annual billing saves two months.

Every plan, Starter included, has the real-time calendar, booking by link and QR code without an account, approval, blocked periods, calendar feeds, CSV and Excel import and export, and "Pickup & return" with odometer readings and a logbook per vehicle. Details are in What does pool vehicle software cost? and on the fleet management page.

• The limits move you up a plan. The second location, the 26th resource or the 51st account takes you from €19 to €49.
• Custom booking fields, such as a cost centre or job number, need the Team plan.
• No telematics. No GPS and no hardware in the vehicle. The odometer reading comes from the person looking at it.

Chapter 9

Rolling it out in four weeks

Setting up the vehicles takes an afternoon. Whether people still book through the system four weeks later depends on how you introduce it.

The office manager has entered every vehicle. Two weeks later a site manager phones to ask whether the van is free on Thursday. Switch everything at once with one email to everyone, and the system looks good and stays empty.

Start with one vehicle

Pick the vehicle that causes the most arguments, usually the van or the one car everyone wants. Move that one over first and everyone sees that something has changed. The others follow once it runs. For the first weeks, leave out anything that makes booking fiddlier, such as extra fields you "might want to analyse some day".

Talk to the person who keeps the calendar

Every organisation has one or two people who keep the schedule in their heads: the office manager, a dispatcher, the person at reception with the key cabinet. Talk to them before you announce anything. Ask which parts would take work off their plate and what could go wrong. Agree with them how quickly requests get answered and who steps in during holidays.

Bring over what you have, then retire the old list

Whatever the spreadsheet holds for this vehicle belongs in the new system, at least the current year and the next. From the day of the import, the old list is retired. Otherwise people write in both places and nobody knows which one counts. Check the old list for overlaps first with the free booking check.

Put the link where people ask

Pin the booking link in the team chat, put it on the intranet and hang the QR code for booking on the key cabinet. The QR sign for the odometer goes inside the vehicle. If someone still asks whether Thursday is free, reply with the link instead of "yes". An announcement to adapt:

From now on you can see online when the pool vehicles are free and book them directly: (link). No account, no app. Prefer to phone? Keep phoning, and we'll book it for you.

Don't cut the line about phoning. It takes the pressure off, and after a few weeks hardly anyone calls anyway.

In Dispoly

• Approval is on by default: "Require admin approval for reservations" is ticked on every new category, including categories the import creates. For cars nobody argues about, set "Approval Required" on the vehicle to "Auto-approve" later.
• Make the person who keeps the calendar the contact: in "Settings" add them with "Add Contact" and an email address, then select them in the "Contact Person" field on the vehicle. To confirm requests they need an account with the "Admin" role. A contact without an email address gets no email.
• Import resources first, then reservations, as CSV or Excel. Create blocked periods before the reservations. The import then skips bookings inside them with the reason "Falls within a blocked period", and "Download skipped rows" gives you the list. Enter "confirmed" in the "Status" column for everything already promised, or future dates come in as pending requests.
• The link exists once an admin creates a page under "Booking Pages". Make a test booking through it, then reject it with the reason "Test". When someone phones, book with "Reserve" and put the caller's name in the note.
• The trial runs for 30 days from the day you created the organisation, not from the announcement. Choose a plan before it ends, or the booking page stops taking bookings.

What Dispoly can't do here: an import can't be undone, so check the preview before you click "Import … rows". A pending request blocks the slot, doesn't expire and gets no reminder, so someone has to answer it. The calendar feed shows no blocked periods, and anyone with the feed link sees every booking with names. The club version of this plan is in Rolling out a booking system, the company side on the page for companies.