Transient Rate Examples
Parking lots can have varying rates to accommodate fluctuations in demand, time of day, or for special events.
Rate Types
Casual/Anytime
This is a rate that has a start time and an end time as well as an applicable set of days of the week.
You are not allowed to have more than one Casual/Anytime rate valid for the same time of the week. A good example of Casual/Anytime rates is where you define two different periods of the day where the charged rate differs e.g. daytime and evening. Say a daytime rate applies from 6am until 5pm and then an evening rate applies from 5pm until 11pm.
Day time
A Day time rate is a Casual/Anytime rate, that has a default start time of 7am and the end time of 5pm.
After Hours
An After Hours rate is a Casual/Anytime rate, but has a default start time of 5pm and the end time of 7am.
Early Bird
The Early Bird rate requires you to set conditions for parkers to meet to redeem the rate. An early bird rate requires that the parker enter and exit between set periods on the same day. An early bird rate will on be provided to a parker if it results in a price that is cheaper than the Casual/Anytime rate.
An example of an early bird rate condition is enter between 6am and 8am and exit between 5pm and 7pm.
After Hours Early Bird
The After Hours Early Bird rate requires you to set conditions for parkers to meet to redeem the rate. An after hours early bird rate requires that the parker enter and exit between set periods, but unlike an early bird rate, this can span midnight.
An example of an after hours early bird rate is entre between 9pm and 11pm and exit between 5am and 7am the next morning.
One-off/Event
This rate type should be used to impose a specific pricing rate for a specific continuous time/date period. An example might be a special price for people attending a convention e.g. Comic-Con. A start and end date/time is required. This rate will apply over a day time or casual/anytime rate on the day of the event.
Advanced/Complex
As its name indicates, this is the most flexible rate type supported. It has designed to handle special situations e.g. Waiheke Ferry parking. This specific example is for a situation where people can park their car on a Friday, leave it over the weekend while they travel to an island on a ferry for the weekend, and collect it on Monday.
This screen shot shows the data that can be configured for this type of rate. Like the early bird rate type it is a "meet this condition" rate.
Which rate will apply?
When the rating engine evaluates the defined rates it uses a series of decisions to decide what rate to apply. One of the most important decisions it makes is what to do when it is possible that two different rates are applicable at the same time. This is where rate priorities come in, the rates engine will always choose the rate with the greatest priority.
