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Surge Pricing Rules for Limo and Ground Transport Companies

Define time-window surge rules that automatically apply a price multiplier during peak hours, weekends, or any recurring high-demand period.

DrivOQ's surge pricing system lets you define rules that increase fares automatically during high-demand windows. Each rule specifies the days of the week it applies (Sunday through Saturday), a start and end time in HH:MM format, and a multiplier between 1.0x and 5.0x. Rules can be scoped to specific vehicle categories or applied across your entire fleet.

When a booking is created with a pickup time that falls within an active surge window, the multiplier is applied to the calculated fare before the quote or booking is finalized. Multiple rules can be active simultaneously — each rule has a priority setting to control which one takes precedence when windows overlap.

Surge rules are managed from the Settings area and take effect immediately for new pricing calculations. The active rule lookup endpoint lets the booking portal and pricing calculations check in real time whether surge is active for a given date, time, and vehicle category.

What’s included

Day-of-week selection: apply surge to specific days or all days
Time window: HH:MM start and end time with minute-level precision
Multiplier range: 1.0x to 5.0x (configurable per rule)
Optional scoping to a specific vehicle category
Priority field controls which rule wins when windows overlap
Real-time active rule lookup for pricing calculations and booking portal
Independent enable/disable toggle per rule without deleting it
Audit trail: all changes logged to the activity log

Frequently asked questions

Do surge rules apply to quotes as well as bookings?

Yes. The pricing engine applies active surge rules consistently to both quote estimates and actual bookings. Clients who request a quote during a surge window see the surged estimate, and the same multiplier applies when they convert to a booking.

Can I have different surge rates for different vehicle types?

Yes. Each surge rule can be scoped to a specific vehicle category. You can create separate rules for sedans, SUVs, and vans with different multipliers if your pricing strategy varies by vehicle type.

How do I handle a one-time high-demand event?

Surge pricing rules are recurring time-window rules (by day of week). For a one-off event, create a rule for the specific day of the week, enable it before the event, and disable it afterward using the toggle.

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