System and Method for Improved Information Sharing by Repair Facilities for Managing Rental Vehicle Reservations
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method for managing a rental vehicle reservation for a replacement vehicle associated with a disabled vehicle, the method comprising:
- receiving an update corresponding to a disabled vehicle;
determining a purchaser for a rental vehicle reservation associated with the disabled vehicle corresponding to the received update;
selecting at least one required data item based at least in part on the determined purchaser; and
communicating a request for the at least one required data item to a computer.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system are disclosed for managing a rental vehicle reservation wherein the need for reservation managers to follow-up with repair facilities to gain additional information about repair work to disabled vehicles can be greatly reduced if not eliminated. Upon receipt of an update from a repair facility as to repair work for a disabled vehicle that pertains to a replacement rental vehicle reservation, an appropriate set of follow-up questions is directed to the repair facility by automated processes without the need for human intervention by the reservation manager. Furthermore, to support flexibility with respect to different informational needs by different purchasers of replacement rental vehicle services, the set of follow-ups questions that is selected and directed to repair facilities can vary based on a number of parameters.
121 Citations
83 Claims
-
1. A computer-implemented method for managing a rental vehicle reservation for a replacement vehicle associated with a disabled vehicle, the method comprising:
-
receiving an update corresponding to a disabled vehicle; determining a purchaser for a rental vehicle reservation associated with the disabled vehicle corresponding to the received update; selecting at least one required data item based at least in part on the determined purchaser; and communicating a request for the at least one required data item to a computer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
-
-
27. A computer system for managing a rental vehicle reservation for a replacement vehicle associated with a disabled vehicle, the computer system being configured to:
-
receive an update corresponding to a disabled vehicle; determine a purchaser for a rental vehicle reservation associated with the disabled vehicle corresponding to the received update; select at least one required data item based at least in part on the determined purchaser; and communicate a request for the at least one required data item to another computer. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51)
-
-
52. A computer-readable medium for managing a rental vehicle reservation for a replacement vehicle associated with a disabled vehicle, the computer-readable medium comprising:
a code segment executable by a processor, the code segment configured to (1) receive an update corresponding to a disabled vehicle, (2) determine a purchaser for a rental vehicle reservation associated with the disabled vehicle corresponding to the received update, (3) select at least one required data item based at least in part on the determined purchaser, and (4) communicate a request for the at least one required data item to a computer, wherein the code segment is resident on the computer-readable medium. - View Dependent Claims (53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58)
-
59. A computer-implemented method for managing a rental vehicle reservation for a replacement vehicle associated with a disabled vehicle, the method comprising:
-
receiving an update corresponding to a disabled vehicle; selecting at least one required data item based at least in part on the received update; and communicating a request for the at least one required data item to a computer. - View Dependent Claims (60, 61, 62, 63, 64)
-
-
65. A computer system for managing a rental vehicle reservation for a replacement vehicle associated with a disabled vehicle, the computer system configured to:
-
receive an update corresponding to a disabled vehicle; select at least one required data item based at least in part on the received update; and communicate a request for the at least one required data item to another computer. - View Dependent Claims (66, 67, 68, 69, 70)
-
-
71. A computer-implemented method comprising:
-
providing a first graphical user interface (GUI) screen for display on a repair facility computer, the first GUI screen being configured to request user input corresponding to a repair status update, the repair status update pertaining to repair work for a disabled vehicle, the disabled vehicle being associated with a replacement rental vehicle reservation; receiving the repair status update in response to user input through the first GUI screen; selecting at least one follow-up question about the repair work based at least in part on the received repair status update; providing a second GUI screen for display on the repair facility computer, the second GUI screen being configured to display each selected follow-up question and request user input corresponding to an answer to each selected follow-up question. - View Dependent Claims (72, 73, 74)
-
-
75. A computer-implemented method comprising:
-
collecting vehicle repair data in a database, the vehicle repair data comprising a plurality of responses to inquiries about progress of repair work on a plurality of disabled vehicles; querying the database to generate a report based on the collected vehicle repair data that includes a comparative analysis of the repair work. - View Dependent Claims (76, 77)
-
-
78. A computer-implemented method for managing a repair of a disabled vehicle, the method comprising:
-
receiving an update corresponding to a disabled vehicle; determining a repair facility associated with the disabled vehicle corresponding to the received update; selecting at least one required data item based at least in part on the received update and the determined repair facility; and communicating a request for the at least one required data item to a computer. - View Dependent Claims (79, 80)
-
-
81. A computer-implemented method for managing a rental vehicle reservation for a replacement vehicle corresponding to a disabled vehicle, the method comprising:
-
receiving vehicle repair data related to the disabled vehicle into a computer program, the received vehicle repair data including an estimate of labor costs for completing repairs to the disabled vehicle; and automatically computing with the computer program a term-related parameter for the rental vehicle reservation based at least in part on the received labor costs estimate. - View Dependent Claims (82, 83)
-
Specification