With its growing rental fleet, management at Motor Loaner, Inc. has identified the need for an integrated and comprehensive vehicle management system that allows employees to quickly and easily perform all of their daily duties. The following is a summary of the tasks typically performed by Motor Loaner employees on a daily basis that need needs to be captured by the system as well as a list of common errors that any new system should protect against:
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RTF33323830343a2042756c6c65 BPR1: Track Employee Information Electronically
Motor Loaner, Inc. intends to track information about employees (known as Associates within the corporate structure) to identify who performed a particular task and to store contact information for Human Resources purposes.
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Anchor RTF38333834383a2042756c6c65 - BPR2: Track Manufacturer Information Electronically
The Service Department maintains a box of business cards for each of the vehicles they work on in case the manufacturer must be called. Having that information available on the new computer system would be much easier to reference and maintain.
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Anchor RTF35393437303a2042756c6c65 RTF35393437303a2042756c6c65- BPR3: Prevent Duplicate Customer Accounts
Under the current paper-based system, many customers have inadvertently opened multiple accounts. A replacement paperless system should aggregate all of a customer's activity under one account and implement safeguards to help prevent a Rental Clerk from creating a second account for the same person.
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Anchor RTF38353839303a2042756c6c65 RTF38353839303a2042756c6c65- BPR4: Enforce Email Address Format
For marketing purposes, Motor Loaner, Inc. intends to move towards an e-mail model to communicates with its customers. To minimize workload for the marketing staff, all email addresses entered by a rental clerk should be in a suitable format. The system should prevent a rental clerk from entering an invalid email address for a customer. Likewise, this feature should be extended to the other areas of the new system where applicable (such as for Associate contact information).
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Anchor RTF35343133313a2042756c6c65 RTF35343133313a2042756c6c65- BPR5: Allow Multiple Addresses and Phone Numbers for Customers
Customers often provide a wide variety of contact information, including numerous addresses and/or phone numbers. The new system should support the ability to add new addresses and phone numbers for customers as needed.
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Anchor RTF39303635323a2042756c6c65 - BPR6: Prevent Duplicate Models
The members of Motor Loaner's procurement department act independently in their efforts to obtain new vehicles at the best price. In some cases, this has led to duplicate paperwork for the same vehicle model. The new system should prevent associates from adding a vehicle model to the system if it already exists. Anchor RTF36363035383a2042756c6c65 RTF36363035383a2042756c6c65 BPR7: Prevent Older Model Vehicles from Entering Fleet
Motor Loaner's vehicle procurement department uses a variety of methods to acquire new and used vehicles, and each vehicle is thoroughly inspected before being added to the fleet. However, Motor Loaner's policy is that any new vehicle model entered into the system cannot be more than 10 years old due to support concerns from the manufacturer and parts availability.
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Anchor RTF34353638303a2042756c6c65 RTF34353638303a2042756c6c65- BPR8: Track Vehicle Inventory
At any time, an associate should be able to review all vehicles of a particular model and identify the current status of the vehicles.
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Anchor RTF32323834373a2042756c6c65 RTF32323834373a2042756c6c65- BPR9: Store and View Vehicle Photos with Model Information
The new system should support the ability to add and retrieve photos of a particular vehicle model. Anchor RTF34383232363a2042756c6c65 RTF34383232363a2042756c6c65 BPR10: Enforce VIN Number Accuracy
The system should prevent an associate from entering an invalid VIN number when adding a vehicle to the fleet.
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Anchor RTF33323733343a2042756c6c65 - BPR11: Automatically Track Vehicle Status and Mileage
At any point in time, a vehicle can have one of four statuses: Available, Servicing, Rented, or Discarded. The system should automatically update and display a vehicle's current Status as well as its current Mileage, and this information should be prominently displayed on a vehicle's record. Anchor RTF39333838393a2042756c6c65 RTF39333838393a2042756c6c65 BPR12: Track Vehicle Disposal
All Vehicles should track the date and method they were obtained. Once a Vehicle has exceeded its usefulness, it is eliminated from the fleet. For audit purposes, Motor Loaner, Inc. is required to track the date and method of disposal for each retired vehicle. However, if vehicle is mistakenly marked as Disposed, a user should be able to clear those fields to return the vehicle to an Available status. Also, a user should not be able to dispose of a vehicle that is currently rented.
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Anchor RTF33363636323a2042756c6c65 RTF33363636323a2042756c6c65- BPR13: Automatically Identify Available Vehicles
There are several different types of vehicles that Motor Loaner, Inc. has available for rent; customers can have a difficult time selecting the best vehicle to suit their particular needs. Rental Clerks are responsible for helping customers find a rental vehicle that is both available for rent and meets the customer's requirements. This is currently a very difficult task since the Rental Clerk only has a printed list of all the vehicles on the lot and whether they are in the Service Department or not. This is not always accurate and it can be difficult to determine which vehicles have what features. Ideally, the system should allow the Rental Clerk to easily identify all vehicles on location that are available for rent.
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Anchor RTF36323031383a2042756c6c65 RTF36323031383a2042756c6c65- BPR14: Simplify Rental Check-Out Procedure
Currently, customers fill out a rental agreement form that a Rental Clerk later enters into a computer spreadsheet. Ideally, the new system will be simple enough to allow a Rental Clerk to enter the customer's information directly to streamline the process.
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Anchor RTF31333936313a2042756c6c65 - BPR15: Track Existing Damage
If a vehicle is rented out with existing damage, it must be recorded in detail to ensure that the customer is not penalized for the damage upon return.
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Anchor RTF32313332333a2042756c6c65 - BPR16: Track Rental Accessories
Customers are also able to rent accessories in addition to a vehicle. The system should allow these items to easily be added to a rental agreement.
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Anchor RTF36353334373a2042756c6c65 RTF36353334373a2042756c6c65- BPR17: Simplify Rental Check-In Procedure
Rental Clerks inspect each vehicle during check-in to determine the return mileage, vehicle condition, and the return of all rented accessories. If a clerk forgets to gather the necessary details, important information is lost. The new system should streamline the process and prevent a clerk from completing a vehicle check-in without first specifying all of the required information.
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Anchor RTF38393333363a2042756c6c65 RTF38393333363a2042756c6c65- BPR18: Ensure Ending Mileage Is Greater Than or Equal to Starting Mileage
During check-in, the system should prevent a rental clerk from specifying an ending mileage that is less than the starting mileage.
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Anchor RTF38343136383a2042756c6c65 RTF38343136383a2042756c6c65- BPR19: Enforce Rental Agreement Consistency
The system should enforce consistency among rental agreements. For example, a clerk should not be able to complete any check-in related fields for a rental that has not been checked out yet. Likewise, once checked out, a clerk should be unable to modify any of the check-out data. Anchor RTF35303431313a2042756c6c65 RTF35303431313a2042756c6c65 BPR 20: Automatically Send Damaged Vehicles for Servicing
If a clerk indicates that a vehicle is damaged during check-in, the system should automatically send the vehicle in for servicing.
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Anchor RTF35313633393a2042756c6c65 - BPR21: Automatically Determine If Vehicle Requires Scheduled Maintenance
The current process of handling returned vehicles requires the service department to oversee all returned vehicles to determine if a vehicle needs to be serviced due to a scheduled maintenance or because the vehicle is returned damaged. The Technician checks the vehicle's mileage and references a maintenance chart for the vehicle to determine if any maintenance is required. Ideally, the system should determine if a vehicle requires the Service Department's attention and automatically move the vehicle into a maintenance queue.
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Anchor RTF38373130353a2042756c6c65 RTF38373130353a2042756c6c65- BPR22: Track Vehicle Servicing Information Electronically
When a vehicle is serviced, the Technician fills out a repair form that explains the reasons for the required repair and a detailed description of the repair. These forms are currently tracked on paper, but Motor Loaner, Inc. would really like these included in the system to allow easy reference of a vehicle's history.
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RTF35363438383a2042756c6c65 RTF35363438383a2042756c6c65 - BPR23: Service Ticket Approval
All vehicle repairs must be signed off by management. Most often management is not in the service department and vehicles wait in the service bay for a manager's approval. There is currently no set method of communication to notify management of the vehicles requiring approval. With this system, Motor Loaner, Inc. wants to employ an email notification process to alert management when a vehicle has been serviced and is pending approval.
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Anchor RTF35363735353a2042756c6c65 RTF35363735353a2042756c6c65- BRP24: Automatically Update Vehicle Status Once Servicing Approved
When a manager signs off on a vehicle repair, the system should automatically change the vehicle's status to indicate is available for rent, assuming that there are no other open service tickets for that same vehicle. Anchor RTF39353539373a2042756c6c65 RTF39353539373a2042756c6c65 BPR25: Easily Accessible Reports to Determine Vehicle Status
Many hours every day are spent by managers manipulating data to create reports that summarize the vehicle fleet details. The new system should allow the creation of reports to be simple and automatic.
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Anchor RTF32313332323a2042756c6c65 RTF32313332323a2042756c6c65- BPR26: Easily Accessible Report to Forecast Vehicle Returns
It is currently impossible for manager's to anticipate the expected returns on any given day without spending hours going over rental agreements. The new system should track and summarize each day's expected rental returns.