A rental fleet is easier to sell when customers can recognise what they are choosing. Vehicle categories are the groups you use to organise that fleet: instead of managing every car as an isolated record, you create a category such as Economy, SUV or Luxury, describe its characteristics, and attach the rules that should apply to every vehicle in it. The category then controls how those vehicles are presented, priced and protected as a group.
What vehicle categories are for
Categories sit between your fleet and your booking screens. A customer does not book "vehicle number 14"; they book a type of car with a known size, gearbox, fuel type and luggage capacity. The category is where those expectations are defined. It carries the marketing content that sells the vehicle, the technical characteristics customers compare, and the commercial rules – equipment, protection, rates and fees – that determine what the rental includes.
Because vehicles are linked to a category, whatever the category defines is inherited by them. Change a description, photo or pricing rule once and every vehicle in that group reflects it.
Where to manage categories
In the admin area, open the Fleet Categories page. You will see a table listing every category with its image, title, description, number of assigned vehicles and status. Click any row, or its Edit button, to open and change that category. Use Add Category to create a new one. The list can be searched by title, description or transmission, which is helpful once the fleet grows beyond a handful of groups.
The details that define a category
The Details area holds both the customer-facing content and the specification. Each field plays a role in how the category appears and who can book it:
- Status – Active or Inactive. Only active categories are offered as bookable choices.
- Title – the category name, and a required field. In a multilingual system you enter a title for each language.
- Short description and Full description – the text shown to customers.
- Fuel type – Diesel, Petrol, Gas, Electric or Hybrid.
- Number of passengers and Pieces of bags – the capacity shown to customers.
- Number of doors and Transmission – Automatic, Manual or Semi-automatic.
- Available branches – for multi-branch businesses, the branches this category can be booked from.
These fields are not decorative. Passenger, bag and door numbers are what customers use to judge whether a car suits a family trip or a business visit, and transmission often decides the choice for drivers who cannot use a manual gearbox.
Equipment attached to a category
The Equipment area lets you tick the equipment items that belong to the category, such as GPS, a child seat or a roof rack. The items themselves are defined separately, so the same catalogue can be reused across categories and updated in one place. Ticking an item here declares that it is part of this category's offer, which keeps the booking screen honest about what a customer can expect.
Protection plans and how they are offered
Protection is configured per category because risk and value differ between a compact city car and a premium SUV. The category offers two related controls. Included protection is a switch that lets you describe a protection package already built into the rental price; when it is on, you enter its title and description so customers understand what is covered. For each available protection plan you can also set whether it is Available, Required and/or Pre-selected for this category, and optionally Block other plans.
A separate setting, Required protection packages options, controls how many required plans a customer must take: all, at least one, or exactly one. That distinction matters at the counter, because requiring all plans produces a very different conversation from requiring at least one. Deciding these rules per category keeps the offer consistent with the risk you accept.
Photos and the damage diagram
Photos do much of the selling. Upload one or more images for the category, and note that the first photo becomes the category thumbnail, so its quality affects every list and card where the category appears. You can drag photos to reorder them, and AI tools are available to remove or change a photo's background, which helps produce a consistent look without a studio shoot for every vehicle.
The category also carries a Diagram setting: the car outline drawing used to mark damage during vehicle inspections. Choosing an outline that matches the body shape makes inspection records easier to read and easier to defend if a damage dispute arises later.
Rates and fees at a glance
When you edit an existing category, a Rates & Fees panel summarises the pricing attached to that category. Each item links to its own settings page where you can change it, so the panel works as a checklist rather than a dead summary:
- Rates – daily rental prices, showing the lowest and highest.
- Mileage limit – unlimited, or a fixed included distance per day or in total.
- Security deposit – the amount charged as a deposit.
- Age restriction – the minimum driver age for this category.
- Young Driver Fee – an extra fee for younger drivers, shown only when the feature is enabled.
- Late return fees – charges for returning the vehicle late.
- Relocation fees – charges for returning the vehicle to a different location.
- Pick-up & Drop-off fees – location-based charges.
Reviewing this panel after creating a category is the quickest way to catch a missing deposit or an age rule that was set for a different vehicle type.
What happens after you save
When you save a new category, any fee settings configured as "same for all categories" are copied to it automatically, so you do not have to re-enter them. The category then appears in the list, sorted by name. When you save an existing category, your changes are recorded and can be reviewed later under History, and you can add internal Notes for your team. That combination gives you a lightweight record of why a category looks the way it does.
Rules and special cases worth knowing
The Vehicles assigned number in the list is a link: clicking it opens the fleet list filtered to show only the vehicles in that category, which makes it easy to confirm what is actually in a group. The title is required, and passenger, bag and door numbers must be whole numbers, with no decimals or negative values. In a multilingual setup, the system warns you when the same title or description is repeated in more than one language. Finally, deleting a category removes the category and its settings, so be careful before deleting one that is still in use.
Why well-built categories pay off
Faster shopping
Clear names and accurate capacity figures help customers choose without asking basic questions.
Consistent pricing
Rates, deposits and age rules live with the group, so a new vehicle inherits the right commercial terms.
Less repetitive work
One edit updates the description, photos and rules for every vehicle assigned to the category.
Cleaner risk control
Protection requirements and age restrictions can differ by category instead of applying uniformly to the whole fleet.
Practical guidance
Name categories the way customers speak. "Compact", "SUV" and "Premium" describe an experience; an internal code means nothing on a booking screen. Set passenger, bag and door numbers accurately, because customers compare them directly, and keep the first photo clean since it becomes the thumbnail everywhere the category appears.
Decide protection rules before publishing. Whether a plan is available, required or pre-selected changes both the customer journey and the revenue mix. Check branch availability too, so a category does not appear bookable where no such vehicle is kept.
Conclusion
Vehicle categories are the connective tissue of a rental catalogue. They hold the description that sells the car, the specification that answers customer questions, the photos that build confidence, and the rates and rules that protect the business. Build them with the same care you give to pricing, keep the details accurate, and the rest of the fleet becomes easier to present, book and manage.