Scheduled maintenance
The interval comes up on mileage or on the contract date. She identifies the unit and the account, suggests grouping when several vehicles on the same account are due, and books the visit in an allowed resource.
Fleet maintenance shops
Each call is attached to a vehicle unit and its fleet account. Your receptionist records the breakdown or maintenance request, identifies the manager to contact and passes useful details to the shop. Vehicle status comes from what your team has confirmed.
$55 CAD / month · 50 Standard calls · 1 local number
The unit, account and authorized contact
The shop has the unit, the account, the symptom and the route constraint before opening. The approval request has already gone to the fleet manager, and no repair was committed on the signature of a driver who did not hold that mandate.
Read the full conversation
Tuesday, 6:40 a.m. A driver calls from the depot: his delivery truck will not start and his route leaves in twenty minutes. The shop opens at 7.
ReceptionistAtelier Fontaine, good morning. Let me take your name and a mobile number, then the unit number on the vehicle.
DriverMarc Bergeron, unit 214, Distribution Boucherville account. It cranks but it will not catch.
ReceptionistYou are at the depot rather than on the road, correct? Is the truck loaded, and does the route have to leave this morning?
DriverAt the depot, loaded, route leaves at 7. Do what you have to, I will sign.
ReceptionistI am logging your request and alerting the shop right now. To commit the work, the approval comes from the person responsible for your fleet: I am sending the request to them. I will call you back as soon as we know whether the unit rolls this morning or we pull a spare for you.
For the requests you receive
Unit down on a route
The driver is out and the vehicle will not restart. She captures the exact location, the unit and what is happening, applies your urgency rule and alerts dispatch. Safety comes before the file: if anyone is exposed on the roadway, the instruction to call 911 comes out first.
Work beyond the driver's mandate
A driver agrees to a repair he has no authority to approve. She does not treat that agreement as an order: she records what was asked for and seeks the fleet manager's approval before the shop commits to the work.
Other requests you can delegate
Multi-fleet shop
Several companies, several ceilings, several service agreements. She attaches the call to the right account as soon as the unit is identified, and applies that account's rules — not the previous caller's.
What she does for your fleet shop
The moves she makes on calls from your drivers and fleet managers, from identifying the unit through to a spending authorisation, then what stays with the shop. Every line is a call your shop gets.
When the driver calls
She takes the driver’s name and mobile number first, then the unit number and the fleet account.
The account identified from the unit then decides the approval ceiling and who should answer.
She qualifies the nature of the request, mileage or maintenance due date, and whether the vehicle is down right now.
Scheduled maintenance and a vehicle stopped mid-route do not follow the same path, even on the same unit.
She attaches the call to the right account as soon as the unit is identified, before applying any rule at all.
A shop serving several fleets applies the identified account’s rules, not the previous account’s.
She answers on the known status of the work from what the shop has logged, and asks for an update when nothing is logged.
Return to service is declared by the shop; she passes that status on, she does not invent it.
The unit down, mid-route or after hours
If there are injuries, fire or a vehicle sitting in a traffic lane, she has 911 dialled before any other question.
The safety redirect comes before the fleet file; no mechanical instruction is given.
A unit down mid-route, loaded or against a schedule, alerts dispatch immediately.
She gathers the exact position, the unit and what is happening before dispatching, without promising a precise arrival time.
After hours, she applies your emergency rule at whatever hour you want rather than waiting for the morning.
A unit down at night or on the weekend follows the same rule, not a default delay.
The shop schedules it, the authorisation gets requested
She books the maintenance visit on an authorised resource and offers to group it when several vehicles on the same account are due.
The unit and account vocabulary is yours; she uses your numbers, not an imposed naming scheme.
She logs what the driver asked for or agreed to, without treating their agreement as a spending authorisation.
A driver’s mandate often stops short of spending; the approval request goes to the account’s authorised person.
She warns the shop of the unit, account, symptom and route constraint before it even opens.
The shop receives a complete file rather than a driver who would have had to repeat it all at the counter.
She relays to the driver whether the unit is leaving that same day or a replacement vehicle is needed, once the shop has decided.
The driver is not left waiting: the answer arrives as soon as the shop confirms, not before.
Between breakdowns, as your fleet grows
Options added separately, when they are useful to you.
- Add-on
She applies your fleet’s contracts, per-company authorisations and priorities, and groups deadlines instead of handling them one by one.
Fleets and mobility option: it also carries quote circulation for those same vehicles, with no need to add Quotes and authorisations. Fleets and mobility
- Add-on
For a vehicle outside a fleet agreement — a walk-in customer, a borrowed unit —, she circulates the quote through to the payer’s agreement.
Quotes and authorisations option: approval is logged before the work starts, with its supporting documents. Estimates and approvals
- Add-on
She routes the call to the shop holding the unit or the one closest to the driver, and consolidates the volume across your shops.
Multi-sites and entities option: each site keeps its own rights, with no adding up two dashboards by hand. Multi-site and entities
When your managers write, and if you already run Shopmonkey
- Channel
She attaches the fleet manager’s emails to the unit and account, keeping the driver and the approver distinct.
Optional AI email inbox: draft by default, sending under your policy.
- Software
With Shopmonkey, the vendor-documented customers, vehicles, orders and inventory locate the file; a fleet’s own maintenance schedule and authorisations still have to be proven on a real account.
Until then, she applies your ceilings and approvers inside her own register of accounts. Shopmonkey
- Software
With no connected software, your accounts, units, ceilings and approvers are described directly inside Zenvox.
She applies the right account’s rules even when no external system is connected to the shop. Connect your software, or use ours
What she does not do on your fleet accounts
- She does not treat a driver’s agreement as a spending authorisation: approval comes from the account’s authorised person.
- She does not confirm a return to service: the shop declares a vehicle ready to leave.
- She promises no repair delay before inspection, nor a part’s availability at the supplier.
- She does not diagnose over the phone what a driver describes: she documents and forwards.
- She does not decide to go past a ceiling: she requests approval and logs the answer.
- She gives no mechanical instruction to a driver stranded on the roadside.
- She does not commit to a final towing price: the rate depends on distance and conditions, the dispatcher confirms.
What you can ask her yourself
She answers from the units, accounts and requests you are allowed to access. A question about an option only applies once you have switched it on.
The questionFor which fleet units is the driver not the designated approver?
She reads recorded roles and contacts. Repair approval requires the authorised workflow and approver.
Which requests are still waiting on the fleet manager’s approval?
She reads each approval request’s status and the delay elapsed. She commits no work before that answer.
Which units are down right now, and since when?
She retrieves the status each account has declared. She does not confirm a unit is ready until the shop has declared it.
Which maintenance deadlines on this account can be grouped?
Add-onWith Fleets and mobility: deadlines grouped by company and territory. Without the option, each unit follows its own schedule.
What happens to the request
You describe your accounts and their rules
Your fleet accounts, who is authorised to approve on each one, the ceiling above which an approval is required, the service agreements, and the rule to follow when a unit goes down outside your hours.
She identifies the unit before the person
Name and callback number first, then the unit number and the account, the mileage or the due interval, the nature of the request, whether the vehicle is down and since when, and who approves spend on that account.
The shop is scheduled, the approval is requested
The visit is booked, the approval request goes to the authorised person, and you can see at a glance what is waiting on a yes. Cost and downtime are reported back to the fleet account concerned.
What the Auto shops and services base covers
A receptionist who answers for you, in both languages, identifies the unit and the account, and schedules the visit inside the resources you allow. No setup fee, and you keep your number.
- Identify the caller, the vehicle and the service being asked for
- Book a service or a diagnostic in the resources you allow
- Move a visit and pass the practical details to the driver
- Answer from the known work status, or ask the shop for an update
- A written summary after every call, readable in the app, and the option to ask her what happened
She does not treat a driver's agreement as authority to spend: approval comes from the authorised person on the account.
Decisions that stay with you
- She does not confirm a return to service: the shop is what declares a unit ready to roll.
- She does not promise a repair lead time before inspection, or the availability of a part at the supplier.
- She does not diagnose over the phone what a driver describes: she documents and passes it on.
- She does not decide to go past a ceiling: she requests the approval and records the answer.
Ask your receptionist, too
This is included in your base plan. She answers using the calls, requests and business information you are allowed to access.
Talk to your receptionistA question you can ask
For which fleet units is the driver not the designated approver?
She reads recorded roles and contacts. Repair approval requires the authorized workflow and approver.
What else you can hand to her
Beyond the base plan. Each one is added on purpose, separately from the base. None is switched on unless you choose it.
When your customers prefer to write
You can add a channel so she can continue the conversation with your customers. Any action she takes follows the same rules and the options you have chosen.
Optional customer channel
Your email inbox
Attach fleet-manager emails to the unit and account while keeping driver and approver distinct.
The transactional messages provided by your base plan and your own questions to the receptionist remain included.
Keeping your current software?
Check the actions supported, connection requirements and how to work when your software cannot perform the requested action.
Customers, vehicles, orders and inventory are documented on the vendor side. The unit, mileage, maintenance schedule and fleet-specific approvals still have to be proven on a real account.
The category exists, but a category does not connect: it takes a named product and an owner on the customer side. A public portal existing is not enough to qualify an interface.
Your accounts, units, ceilings and approvers are described directly in Zenvox. The receptionist applies the right account's rules even when no external system is connected.
The person calling is not the person paying
A fleet shop lives with a contradiction retail mechanics does not face: the voice on the line is the driver, the one who knows what is wrong and how urgent it is — but authority to spend belongs to the fleet manager, who did not call and will find out about the file later. In between, your advisor spends the morning chasing an approval he could have asked for in the first minute.
Your receptionist takes the driver's call and does both things at once: she identifies the unit and the account, qualifies the downtime — does it drive, is it loaded, is a route running —, and asks for approval from the authorised person on that account rather than waiting for your advisor to be free.
She also knows that accounts do not share rules. A captive fleet has a stable contract and a stable approver; a shop serving several fleets lives with ceilings, service agreements and billing arrangements that differ from one account to the next. Those rules are described once, and they apply on every call without anyone having to remember them.
In the same section
The other lines of work in this section run on the same engine, with their own requests and their own rules.
Garages & auto servicesRepair shops and specialist centres
Fleet maintenance shops — your questions
Why not simply accept the driver's go-ahead?
Because a driver's mandate often stops short of the spend. The documented trade situation describes that exact failure: work accepted beyond the mandate, then disputed at invoicing. She records what the driver asked for and goes to get the authorised person's approval.
How does she know which ceiling applies?
The ceiling and the approver are attached to the fleet account, not to the call. As soon as the unit is identified, that account's rules apply — which is what makes a multi-fleet shop workable on the phone.
Can she confirm a unit is back in service?
She answers from the known status, the one the shop recorded, and asks for an update when there is none. Return to service is declared by the shop; she passes it on, she does not decide it.
What about a unit down at night or on a weekend?
Your urgency rule applies at the hours you choose. The order followed is the one in the towing preset: people's safety first, exact location second, then the vehicle and the destination. A window is announced, not a precise arrival time.
Does she handle more than one shop?
With the Multiple sites and entities option, yes: the call is routed to the location that has the unit or is nearest the driver, each site carries its own rights, and volume is read on one consolidated view.
Your rules, before the first call
Start your free trial with your email. Your website can help prepare your business information, but it is optional. Confirm the facts, choose a first task and test your receptionist. You can try options too, starting with the ones you need.
Keep my phone numberFleet maintenance shops