A rental that starts at midnight or ends on a Sunday afternoon still needs someone at the desk, and that availability has a cost. Out-of-hours fees in VEVS Car Rental Software let you recover it with a pick-up surcharge and a return surcharge for each location and each day of the week. This article explains how the grid works, what the switches do, and how to configure the fees so they match your opening hours.
What out-of-hours fees are
Out-of-hours fees are surcharges for pick-ups or drop-offs that take place outside a location's normal opening hours. When a customer collects or returns a vehicle outside standard working hours, a member of staff usually has to be available outside their normal shift. The fee recovers that cost by charging extra when the pick-up or drop-off falls outside opening hours.
The feature separates the two moments. A pick-up fee and a return fee can be set independently, which reflects the fact that staffing a collection and staffing a return are separate commitments. A location may be happy to hand over cars early in the morning but prefer not to receive them late at night, and the grid allows that distinction without compromise.
Where to access them
In the admin area, open the Fees & Taxes section, then Location Fees and Out-of-hours Fees. The page shows a grid. Each row is a day of the week, Monday through Sunday. Each column is a location. Each cell contains two amounts: an Out-of-hours Pick-up fee and an Out-of-hours Return fee.
That structure makes the whole policy visible at once. You can see, for a given location, what a Sunday return costs compared with a Wednesday one, and whether the pick-up charge follows the same pattern. For a multi-location business, it is a single view of a rule that would otherwise be scattered across several settings.
The collect switch
A switch at the top of the page controls whether these fees are charged at all. When it is On, the fee grid is shown and out-of-hours fees are added to bookings. When it is Off, the grid is hidden and no out-of-hours fees are collected, even if amounts were previously entered.
This is a useful safety control. It lets you pause the charges without losing the configuration, which is helpful during a temporary change to opening hours or a period when you decide to absorb the cost. It also means the page has a single, obvious answer to the question of whether the fees are live.
Setting the same price for all days
A switch on the day column lets you use one fee for every day instead of a different fee per day. With it Off, which is the default, you set each day's fees individually in its own row. With it On, the day rows are replaced by a single row called "Set the same fee for all days", where one pick-up fee and one return fee per location apply to every day.
The flat option is useful when your staffing cost does not vary by day and a simple, predictable surcharge is easier to communicate. The per-day option is better when weekends, for example, genuinely cost more to staff. Because the choice changes the whole grid, decide it before entering amounts rather than after.
How to set the fees
- Make sure Collect out-of-hours fees is switched on.
- Choose whether to set a different fee per day or the same fee for all days.
- For each location and day, enter an Out-of-hours Pick-up fee and/or an Out-of-hours Return fee.
- Click Save.
To speed things up, small buttons on each location column and each day row let you set or reset the fees for that column or row at once. That is particularly helpful when a new location opens with the same policy as an existing one, or when you want to clear a row before rethinking it. Use the bulk action first, then adjust individual cells where the pattern should differ.
What happens after saving
After saving, the fees apply when a pick-up or drop-off is scheduled outside a location's opening hours. The appropriate pick-up or return fee is added based on the location and day of the week. Your changes are recorded, and you can review them later under History. You can also add internal Notes to the page for your team.
Because the fee depends on the scheduled time, it follows the booking rather than the moment of typing. A change to the grid affects how future out-of-hours bookings are charged, so save changes at a point when you can consider their effect on live reservations.
Important behaviour and special cases
- Whether a location can accept out-of-hours pick-ups or drop-offs is controlled in the location's working hours, not on this page.
- If a location does not allow out-of-hours pick-ups or drop-offs, its column shows "Out-of-hours not available for: Pick-up" or "Drop-off" and the corresponding field is hidden.
- Fee amounts must be positive numbers, up to two decimal places. Negative or non-number entries are ignored.
- If you leave a field empty, no fee is charged for that location and day.
- If the collect switch is off, the system ignores all configured amounts until you switch it back on.
- If no locations exist, the grid cannot be shown; create those first.
This page only sets the fees for out-of-hours service. Opening hours and whether out-of-hours pick-ups or drop-offs are allowed are set separately in each location's working hours.
Business benefits
The clearest benefit is cost recovery. Staffing a desk outside normal hours is a real expense, and a defined surcharge means the customer who needs that service contributes to it, rather than the cost being spread across every rental. That is fairer to customers who book within normal hours and easier to justify when the charge appears.
Consistency is the second benefit. Because the amount depends on location and day, every staff member applies the same rule, and the booking reflects it automatically. There is no need to remember an informal arrangement or to calculate a figure at the counter, which reduces both errors and awkward conversations.
The grid also supports better operational decisions. Seeing the fees laid out by location and day makes it obvious where out-of-hours service is expensive and where demand might justify different opening hours. Even without changing anything, the exercise of filling in the grid encourages a clearer policy.
Practical use cases
Airport collections
Late flights often arrive after the desk closes. A pick-up fee for the affected days covers the staff time needed to keep the location open for that handover.
Weekend returns
A higher return fee on weekends reflects the staffing cost of receiving vehicles when the normal team is off, while weekday amounts stay lower.
Multiple locations
Each column carries its own policy, so a city branch with extended hours and a suburban branch with shorter hours can both charge appropriately.
Flat national policy
Using the same-price option gives every location one simple surcharge, which is easier to explain on a website and in confirmation emails.
Best practices
- Charge a higher out-of-hours fee on weekends, when staffing is usually more expensive, and keep weekday evenings lower.
- Use the Set same price switch if you charge a flat amount every day, rather than entering the same numbers repeatedly.
- Confirm the location's working hours allow out-of-hours service before expecting a column to accept a fee.
- Use the column and row buttons to apply or reset a pattern quickly, then fine-tune individual cells.
- Leave a field empty when you do not want to charge for that location and day, rather than entering a zero.
- Tell customers about the surcharge before they book, so the fee is expected rather than discovered at collection.
Conclusion
Out-of-hours fees turn an unpredictable staffing cost into a clear, per-location policy. By setting pick-up and return amounts by day, choosing between per-day and flat pricing, and keeping the location's working hours aligned with the grid, you can recover the cost of service outside normal hours without surprising customers. It is a small configuration that protects margin and makes late collections and weekend returns easier to manage.