The reason software helps here is not that it is a nicer calendar. It is that availability
becomes a question the system answers rather than a question a tired person answers at 10pm.
In practice that means three things:
- Customers see availability themselves. A large share of double bookings start as an
enquiry you answered from memory. If the customer can see what is free on their dates, that
conversation never happens.
- Availability is rechecked at the moment of confirming. Not when the customer started
filling in the form, but at the moment it becomes a booking. Two people filling in the same form
at the same time is exactly the case that catches humans out.
- Vehicle, driver and maintenance live in one schedule. So a blocked vehicle stops being
bookable, and an assigned driver stops being assignable.
