Here's an example to show that we use the allocation charge from the PLACEMENT reservation policy.
Say a title has two items, in two different collections.
We set up two reservation policies.
Both these policies have an allocation charge of $0.40. The DEFAULT reservation policy has no allocation charge.
When you place the reservation we have to work out which reservation policy to use. Since the items are in two different collections, we can't use the AF policy or the BES policy because we don't know which item will be allocated. We have to use the DEFAULT policy. So the DEFAULT policy is the PLACEMENT reservation policy. That's fine. All OK so far.
Now one of the items is returned and allocated. Say it's the AF one. So the ALLOCATION reservation policy we use will be the AF one. Again, that's fine.
Now you might think that the allocation charge will be $0.40 because that's what we've specified in the AF policy. But it's not. The allocation charge is $0.00.
The reason? Both the placement charge and the allocation charge are set when the reservation is placed. This is so that the borrower knows what charges he or she is going to incur before they confirm the reservation. So even though we're using the AF reservation policy at allocation and even though this policy has a $0.40 allocation charge, we use the allocation charge from the DEFAULT reservation policy, i.e. the one we used when the reservation was placed.