4fleet's quote engine turns a trip into a price. It can only do that if your rates are set up in the ways the engine actually reads. This article shows you which pricing to configure so quotes come out right - and which pricing screens exist but do not affect a single quote, so you do not waste time on them.
The pricing that drives your quotes
There are three layers that the quote engine reads, in priority order.
1. Per-vehicle pricing profiles (your main rate card)
A pricing profile is a reusable rate card - distance base rate, price per kilometre, minimum charge, hourly rate, daily rate, waiting-time rate - that you assign to a specific vehicle. This is the highest-priority pricing source. When a vehicle has a profile, the quote engine uses it. Most operators price their fleet with profiles.
2. Vehicle-class pricing (the fallback)
If a vehicle has no profile of its own, the engine falls back to the rate for its class (e.g. Saloon, MPV, Executive). Set base, hourly, minimum charge, capacity, and - this is required - a price per km (or price per mile). Without a per-km/per-mile value the engine cannot produce a distance-based price. Metric operators still need at least one of the two set.
3. Per-vehicle, per-service pricing (exact rates)
For fine control, you can set an exact rate for a specific combination of vehicle and service (for example, "Executive - Airport Transfer"), with a pricing unit: per km, per hour, per day, or flat. When a matching rate exists and the feature is enabled for your company, it replaces the base fare entirely, so a quote reflects exactly what that vehicle costs to run for that service. If no exact rate is found, the engine falls back to the pricing profile.
Modifiers that stack on top
Once the base fare is set, the quote engine can layer on:
- Seasonal rates - date-range or weekday multipliers (peak, holiday, weekend).
- Special event pricing - minimum-hours and base rates for weddings, proms, corporate events.
- Dynamic pricing - a demand-based multiplier from same-day bookings, time-until-pickup, and vehicle availability.
- Extras - meet and greet, child seats, waiting time, and similar add-ons.
- Driver accommodation - overnight cost added to multi-day quotes.
One important caveat: these modifiers apply when you quote an enquiry. If you later re-price a booking after it has been created, seasonal, event, and dynamic modifiers are not re-applied - so a booking re-price can come out lower than the quote you sent. Price from the enquiry, and treat a booking re-price as a route/base recalculation only.
What NOT to configure (it does not affect quotes)
Several pricing screens exist with full editors but are not read by any quote calculator. Configuring them changes nothing on your quotes. Skip these unless you are told otherwise in a future release:
- Zonal pricing (airport/city-centre zones)
- Hourly packages (fixed hour-block bundles)
- Distance tiers (per-mile bands by distance)
- B2B partner rates (the standalone commission/discount tiers table)
These are stored and displayed, but no quote is priced from them. Partner cost, when you subcontract, is calculated from the partner record's own fields, not the partner-rates table.
A quick word on AI quoting
Two different things are both labelled "AI" on the enquiry screen. The main quote buttons (Smart Quote, recalculate) use the deterministic pricing engine - the same rates you configured, applied consistently. A separate AI quote path lets Claude compose a free-form price, which can differ from the engine's number for the same trip. For predictable, defensible pricing, rely on the deterministic engine.
The bottom line
Set a per-vehicle profile (or a vehicle-class fallback with a price per km) for every vehicle, add extras and any seasonal/event rules you need, and you have a quote engine that produces correct numbers. Leave the four orphaned screens alone. Use the quote preview to confirm the output before you send.