One-way rentals are one of the most convenient services a car rental business can offer, but they come with a real operational cost: a vehicle that is dropped off at a different branch usually has to be brought back. Relocation fees in VEVS Car Rental Software let you recover that cost fairly and transparently, with a specific fee for each pick-up and drop-off route and for each vehicle category.
What relocation fees are
A relocation fee is a charge applied when a customer returns a vehicle to a different location than the one where they collected it. Instead of treating every one-way rental as an exception that has to be priced manually, you define the fee once for each route and category, and the system applies it automatically whenever a booking matches that combination.
The amount can reflect the distance between branches or the fact that a driver and a second vehicle are needed to bring the car home. Because the fee is tied to a route rather than to a single reservation, it stays consistent across your team.
Where to find the relocation fee grid
In the admin area, open the Fees section and choose Relocation Fees. The page presents a grid that is easy to read at a glance:
- Rows represent a pick-up and drop-off location combination, for example "Burgas Airport - Varna City Center".
- Columns represent your vehicle categories.
- Cells hold a single fee amount for that route and that category.
This layout mirrors the way rental managers already think about one-way business: you can scan a row to see how a route is priced across your fleet, or a column to see how a category is priced across routes.
The two switches that control behaviour
Two switches at the top of the page determine how the grid behaves and whether any money is collected at all.
| Switch | When off | When on |
|---|---|---|
| Collect relocation fees | The grid is hidden and no relocation fees are collected, even if amounts were entered previously. | The fee grid is shown and fees are added to one-way bookings. |
| Set same price | Each route has its own row and its own fee, set individually. | Individual rows are replaced by one row called "Set the same fee for all locations", applying one fee per category to every route. |
The first switch is the master control for the feature, while the second is a convenience for businesses that prefer a flat charge regardless of route.
Setting fees step by step
- Make sure Collect relocation fees is switched on.
- Decide whether you want a different fee for every route or the same fee for all routes.
- For each route and category, enter the fee amount.
- Click Save.
If you choose per-route pricing, work through the grid row by row. If you choose the shared price, you only need to enter one amount per category and the system applies it everywhere. In both cases, leaving a cell empty means no fee is charged for that route and category, which is useful when you want to encourage one-way traffic in a particular direction.
Bulk fill tools that save time
Entering a value into every cell of a large grid would be slow, so the page includes small buttons on the row and column headings:
- Column buttons set or reset the fee for one category across all routes.
- Row buttons set or reset the fee for one route across all categories.
These controls are particularly helpful during a seasonal update, when a whole route or category may need a new amount at once.
What happens after you save
Saved changes apply immediately to future bookings. When a booking has a different pick-up and drop-off location, the system looks up the fee for that route and category and adds it automatically as a Relocation fee line on the booking. The fee is charged once per booking, regardless of how long the rental lasts.
Changes are recorded, so you can review them later under History. You can also add internal Notes to the page for your team, for example to explain why a specific route carries an unusually high charge. Notes are for staff context rather than for customers.
Rules and special cases to keep in mind
Relocation fees follow a few clear rules that protect both you and your customers:
- A fee is charged only when the drop-off location differs from the pick-up location. Round-trip rentals are never charged a relocation fee.
- Each direction is treated separately. "A to B" and "B to A" are different rows and can carry different amounts.
- At least two locations must exist for the grid to appear. Otherwise the page tells you to add more locations first.
- Amounts must be positive numbers with up to two decimal places. Negative amounts and non-number entries are ignored.
- An empty cell means no fee is charged for that route and category.
- When Collect relocation fees is off, all configured amounts are ignored until you switch it back on.
- When Set same price is on and you later create a new vehicle category, the shared fee is copied to that new category automatically.
Relocation fees are separate from the pick-up and drop-off fees configured elsewhere. Depending on your settings, a one-way booking can include both a relocation fee for the route and location-based pick-up or drop-off fees. Keeping the two concepts distinct helps you explain charges clearly on the contract and at the counter.
Business benefits
Protect your margin
Every one-way rental creates a real cost in fuel, staff time, and vehicle movement. Route-based fees turn that cost into a planned, predictable line item instead of an overhead you absorb silently.
Price consistently
When the amount lives in one grid, every reservation uses the same rule. Staff no longer have to guess or negotiate an ad hoc charge, and quotes stay consistent across the team.
Practical use cases
Consider an operator with branches at an airport, a city centre, and a coastal resort. Airport to city centre is a short, high-demand route that is cheap to rebalance, so the fee can be modest. City centre to the resort is longer and often needs a staff driver, so a higher amount is justified. The resort to airport direction may be so popular that the operator chooses to leave the fee empty to stay competitive.
Vehicle category matters too. A compact car is inexpensive to move, while a large SUV or a premium model consumes more fuel and carries more risk on the road. Setting a separate column for each category lets the fee reflect that difference.
Setup and configuration considerations
Review your categories as well: the columns come directly from them, and any category you add later receives the shared fee automatically if the same-price option is active.
Decide early whether your business model is route-based or flat. Switching later is easy, but the two approaches produce different customer expectations, so align the choice with how you advertise one-way rentals.
Finally, think about process. The page keeps a history and supports internal notes, so the commercial reasoning behind a fee can be documented alongside the number itself.
Best practices
- Set higher fees for long or popular one-way routes, such as airport-to-city combinations, where returning the vehicle costs you more.
- Use the Set same price switch if you charge a flat relocation amount, rather than repeating the same number in every row.
- Review both directions of a route separately, since "A to B" and "B to A" can legitimately have different fees.
- Leave a cell empty deliberately when you want to waive the fee, and record the reason in the internal notes.
- Revisit the grid before each season and after opening a new branch, because both change the cost of moving vehicles.
- Explain the charge on the quote and the rental agreement so customers see it as a fair route cost rather than a surprise.
Conclusion
Relocation fees turn one of the trickiest parts of car rental economics into a simple, visible grid. By pricing each route and category once, you recover the cost of one-way rentals, keep quotes consistent, and give customers a clear reason for the charge. With the master switch, the shared-price option, and the bulk fill buttons, the feature is quick to configure and easy to maintain as your locations and fleet evolve.