Booking a vehicle every other week: even and odd weeks
Published on · 3 min read
In many organizations, a vehicle is used on a rhythm: two teams sharing it every other week, a round every three weeks, a duty every second Monday. On a spreadsheet, that means copying each date by hand, and sooner or later forgetting one. Here is how to think about this kind of regular booking, and what to check before setting it up.
A rhythm that comes back
A recurring booking repeats the same slot (same weekday, same hours) at a regular interval. Every week is the simplest case, but many real needs come back less often: every other week, often called even or odd weeks, or every three or four weeks. Rather than entering each date one by one, you describe it once: the first slot, the rhythm and the end date.
Even weeks, odd weeks: how to alternate
To alternate between two teams, the first books starting from a given week, the second starting from the following week, both on an every-other-week rhythm. Each team gets its own weeks, with no overlap. The day of the first slot sets the weekday of the whole series.
When the vehicle isn't free on a date
A regular rhythm doesn't guarantee the usual vehicle is free on every date: maintenance, a breakdown, another booking. There are two approaches: always book the same specific vehicle, at the risk that a date is impossible, or let the system pick a free vehicle for each date, at the risk that it isn't always the same one. Either way, you need a clear summary of the dates that were booked and those that could not be.
Keeping a series reasonable
A very long series is rarely a good idea: company rules, the fleet and needs all change. Setting a maximum number of dates forces a regular review. And a clock change (summer or winter) must not shift the departure: 9 a.m. should stay 9 a.m.
How Flotalyo handles repeated bookings
In Flotalyo, a booking can repeat every week, or every X weeks (from 2 to 8) to follow an even-and-odd-weeks rhythm, up to an end date, within a limit of 26 bookings. Each date is booked separately with your rules, then a summary lists the confirmed dates and those that couldn't be booked, without cancelling anything. The time stays the same across clock changes, and the confirmation email attaches a calendar invitation that adds every date at once. The manager chooses which profiles are allowed to repeat a booking and to use « every X weeks ».
Frequently asked questions
What do « even week » and « odd week » mean?
They are the weeks whose number in the year is even or odd. Booking every other week starting from an even week gives all the even weeks; starting from an odd week, all the odd weeks. Note that « every other week » follows a 14-day gap, not the parity of the week number, and some years have 53 weeks: at the end of the year, the alternation can therefore shift against the parity.
Can you book every three or four weeks?
Yes. In Flotalyo, the interval is chosen from 1 to 8 weeks: 1 for every week, 2 for every other week, and so on.
Does the vehicle stay the same on every date?
Not necessarily. When assignment is automatic, each date is booked separately: if the vehicle isn't free one week, Flotalyo offers another. If the person picked the vehicle themselves, it is never replaced: that date is simply reported as impossible.
Keep reading
Plan your rotations without re-entering every date
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