Glossary · Billing
Base rate
Updated
Every leg starts from one number: the base rate, which is what a sedan from Georgetown to Dulles costs before anything is added. For point-to-point work it is a flat figure. For hourly charters it is the hourly rate times the booked hours, with a minimum (commonly three hours for a sedan, four or five for a coach).
The base rate is the figure customers compare, so it is also the figure operators are tempted to quote low and make up on extras. That is a short road to disputes. It is also the base for late-cancel and no-show fees, which are usually a percentage of it, and often for gratuity as well. Get it wrong and three other numbers are wrong with it.
The common mistake is keeping base rates in a spreadsheet or in a dispatcher's head. Two dispatchers quote two different prices for the same run, and the booker gets the lower one by calling twice. Base rates belong in a rate list that everyone and the portal read from.
How liverybook handles it
The base rate lives on a rate within a rate list, one per vehicle class, alongside that vehicle class's late-cancel and no-show fee rules (a percent of base or a flat amount). Rate groups schedule which rate list applies by month, so a peak-season base rate takes over automatically. On the leg, total = base rate + gratuity + tolls + parking + wait time charge + extras − discount, and the portal wizard quotes from the tenant's default rate group. See billing.
Related terms
This term lives in Billing. liverybook is the operating system for ground transportation.