All about car policy

Setting up smart car rental policies helps you manage costs and ensure your team selects appropriate vehicles for their business travel. This guide will walk you through creating and managing car policies in ITILITE.

Table of Contents

Prerequisites
Interactive Guide
Pro-Tips & Guardrails
Verification & FAQs

Prerequisites

To proceed, you need:

Primary Admin or Travel Admin access to ITILITE.

Interactive Guide

Follow these steps to set up a car policy:

Click the Add Policy button to create a new car rental policy rule. Then, select the specific employee Level(s) for which this policy will apply.

Click Next to proceed. Choose the Dynamic limit option to allow the system to automatically adjust price limits based on real-time market rates.

Enter the desired Flexibility (%) and Max Daily Cap ($) for your dynamic car policy rule. Once configured, click Save Car Policy.

Your car policy rule has been successfully configured and saved.

Pro-Tips & Guardrails

Note: Car rental booking is currently available exclusively for clients based in the United States.

Pro-Tip: Car policies can be defined based on specific car types (e.g., Mid-size Sedan, Luxury SUV) and/or price constraints. You can whitelist allowed car types, and any car outside this list will be marked as out-of-policy.

When setting price limits, you have three options:

No Limit: No daily price restriction. Any available car is considered in-policy.
Fixed Budget: A strict daily price cap. Cars exceeding this cap are out-of-policy.
Dynamic Budget: The system identifies the lowest price among allowed cars, adds a configurable Flexibility (%), and can enforce an optional Max Daily Cap ($) if the calculated budget exceeds it. This balances cost efficiency with traveler flexibility.

If your company has negotiated special rates with car rental agencies, these are tied to discount codes or billing numbers. ITILITE prioritizes these "Company Rate" or "Company Paid" cars in search results and uses them to calculate the lowest price baseline for dynamic policies, ensuring your negotiated rates drive policy compliance.

On the search results page, travelers and admins can use filters like "In-Policy Rates Only" to quickly find compliant options, or "Company Rates Only" to see vehicles with negotiated corporate rates.

Verification & FAQs

After saving your car policy, you will see a confirmation message like "Car policy added successfully". The car policy list will also refresh to show your newly added or updated policy.

Q: How can policies help you save money?

A: Policies help you:

Control spending by setting price limits.
Take advantage of negotiated rates with specific rental companies.
Ensure compliance with company budgets.

Q: What are rental car policies, and why are they important?
A: Rental car policies are guidelines your company sets to manage costs, ensure consistent booking practices, and provide appropriate vehicle options for your team. They help you stay within budget and streamline the booking process.

Q: What types of policies can my company create?
A: You can create policies based on:

Employee Levels: Apply different rules for various employee groups.
Car Types: Specify which types of cars are allowed (e.g., compact, sedan, SUV).
Price Limits: Set maximum daily rental prices.
Agency Preferences: Prioritize cars from agencies with company billing IDs or discount codes.

Q: How can we set price limits for car rentals?
A: You can set a fixed daily price limit or use dynamic pricing. Dynamic pricing automatically adjusts the maximum allowed price based on real-time market rates, offering flexibility while controlling costs.

Q: What is dynamic pricing and how does it help?
A: Dynamic pricing means the system automatically adjusts the maximum allowed price based on the lowest available rental car rates in real-time. This eliminates the need to manually manage fluctuating prices and ensures your team isn't overpaying, especially during peak seasons. You can also add a flexibility percentage and a maximum daily cap to fine-tune this limit.

Q: Can we prevent certain car types from being booked?
A: Yes, absolutely! You can create policies that explicitly whitelist or exclude certain car types. For example, if your company prefers employees to stick to economy or mid-size cars and avoid luxury vehicles, you can easily set that rule.