Overview
AVA® Drive previously offered the same schedule to every dealership: nine to five, every day of the week. You can now set your own hours per day, choose your appointment length, build in breaks, close days entirely, and have every time shown in your dealership’s timezone rather than the shopper’s.
Why This Setup Matters
- Customers only see slots your team can actually cover, so fewer bookings need to be rescheduled.
- Extended evening hours and different weekend schedules are supported instead of worked around.
- A shopper booking from another timezone sees your store’s clock, not their own.
- Confirmations, calendar invites, and ICS files all carry the same time the customer selected.
Requirements
Before starting, ensure you have:
- AVA® Drive enabled for your company. If it is not, the Drive tab is hidden.
- Company administrator access to the AVA® Portal.
- Your actual operating hours for each day of the week, including any breaks.
Setup Instructions
Step 1 — Open the Drive settings page
In the AVA® Portal, go to Settings → Account → Drive.
Step 2 — Set your dealership timezone
Under Booking Preferences, choose your timezone. Every hour and appointment time on this page, and everything the customer sees in the widget, is based on it.
Step 3 — Choose your appointment length
Select 30 or 60 minutes. Sixty is the default. This determines how each day is divided into bookable slots.
Step 4 — Set your availability for each day
Under Test Drive Availability, set an opening and closing time for each day of the week. Three options are worth knowing:
- Copy to all days — set one day, then apply it across the week and adjust the exceptions.
- Add another time — adds a second window to that day. A lunch break is simply the gap between two windows.
- Closed — marks the day fully unavailable for test drive bookings.
Step 5 — Save
Use Save Changes in the sticky header. The widget cache clears immediately, so your new hours are live right away.
Confirm Setup
After saving, open your AVA® Drive widget and check that:
- Closed days cannot be selected.
- Available slots match your hours, your breaks, and your 30- or 60-minute length.
- Times display in your dealership’s timezone — 9:00 AM means 9:00 AM at the store.
- Today’s remaining slots follow your clock, so a shopper ahead of you cannot book a time that has already passed at the store.
- The confirmation screen, Google and Outlook calendar links, and the ICS file all show that same time and length.
DEALER GROUPS
On a dealer group widget, the customer picks a rooftop first. From that point on, the selected store’s hours, timezone, and appointment length apply.
Good to Know
Until you save your hours for the first time, the widget continues to offer the previous default of 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, in your dealership’s timezone once one is set.
This release does not currently cover:
- Holiday or one-off blackout dates.
- Limiting how many customers can book the same slot.
- Different hours for separate locations operating under one rooftop.
- Blocking a submission from a widget page a customer left open before you changed your hours.
Best Practices
- Set the timezone before anything else. Every other field on the page is interpreted through it.
- Build your staff break in as a gap between two time windows rather than shortening the day.
- Revisit your hours when seasonal or holiday schedules change, since blackout dates are not yet supported.
Need Help?
Chat inside your AVA® Portal
support@autocorp.ai
1 (877) 255-8627