System and method for allocating replacement vehicle rental costs using a virtual bank of repair facility credits

• US 8,160,907 B2
• Filed: 07/24/2008
• Issued: 04/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Crawford Group Incorporated (Jack Taylor Family Voting Trust U A D 4 14 99)
• Original Assignee: The Crawford Group Incorporated (Jack Taylor Family Voting Trust U A D 4 14 99)
• Inventors: Smith, David G., Miller, Owen R., Tinsley, Trent
• Primary Examiner(s): Boyce, Akiba Robinson
• Application Number:
  US12/179,071
• Publication Number:
  US 20090030747A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,363 Days
• Field of Search: 705/5, 705/8, 705/7, 705/6, 705/7.11, 705/305
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

Systems and methods for managing a virtual bank of repair facility credits are disclosed. Various operations for adding and subtracting credits from a repair facility virtual bank account are disclosed. Adjustments to credit totals can be based on repair facility performance with regard to an individual vehicle repair or a plurality of vehicle repairs.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for maintaining a virtual bank account of repair facility credits, the method comprising:

maintaining a virtual bank in a memory, the virtual bank comprising a repair facility account for storing a credit total for a repair facility;

for a replacement rental vehicle reservation associated with the repair facility, determining whether the repair facility completed repairs to a disabled vehicle corresponding to the reservation in accordance with a schedule;

in response to a determination that the repair facility completed repairs to the disabled vehicle ahead of schedule, increasing the credit total in the repair facility account;

in response to a determination that the repair facility completed repairs to the disabled vehicle behind schedule, decreasing the credit total in the repair facility account; and

in response to a determination that decreasing the credit total will reduce the credit total below a predetermined threshold, allocating a charge to the repair facility for a portion of a cost for the reservation;

wherein the method steps are performed by a processor.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the credit total comprises a credit total for a first type of credits, the method further comprising:

the processor adding a second type of credits to the virtual bank account in response to a condition being met by the repair facility.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising the processor decreasing either type of credit in the virtual bank account to determine whether the credit total for either type of credit will be reduced below a predetermined threshold.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising the processor allocating a charge to the repair facility for a portion of a reservation cost that results from a repair delay in the event that both credit totals would otherwise be reduced below a predetermined threshold.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining step comprises, for a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations associated with the repair facility, the processor determining whether the repair facility completed repairs to a plurality of disabled vehicles corresponding to the reservations in accordance with a schedule.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the determining step further comprises the processor determining in an aggregate form whether the repair facility completed repairs to the plurality of disabled vehicles corresponding to the reservations in accordance with a schedule.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising the processor associating each credit total adjustment with at least one selected from the group consisting of (1) a particular repair transaction that is pertinent to the credit total adjustment, (2) a particular replacement rental vehicle reservation that is pertinent to the credit total adjustment, and (3) a particular insurance claim number that is pertinent to the credit total adjustment.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the processor performing the determining, increasing, and decreasing steps on a periodic basis.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the processor performing the determining, increasing, and decreasing steps each time a replacement rental vehicle reservation closes.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

the processor storing data in the memory, wherein the data is indicative of a performance quality by the repair facility with respect to how the repair facility has repaired a plurality of disabled vehicles corresponding to a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations;

the processor generating an audit report about the repair facility based on the stored data, the audit report indicative of the performance quality of the repair facility.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the storing step comprises the processor storing data in the memory that is indicative of the performance quality of a plurality of repair facilities with respect to how the repair facilities have repaired a plurality of disabled vehicles corresponding to a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations;

the method further comprising;

the processor generating comparative data based on the stored data, the comparative data being indicative of a comparative performance quality for a repair facility relative to at least one of the other repair facilities, wherein the audit report includes the generated comparative data.

37. The method of claim 1 wherein the processor and memory comprise part of a rental vehicle reservation management computer system, the rental vehicle reservation management computer system configured to create and manage a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations in response to data received from a plurality of business partner computer systems, each replacement rental vehicle reservation being associated with a business partner that operates one of the business partner computer systems, the method further comprising the rental vehicle reservation management computer system performing the method steps for a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations associated with the repair facility.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein the repair facility virtual bank account is associated with a business partner that operates one of the business partner computer systems, wherein the processor performs the increasing and decreasing steps for the credit total in the repair facility virtual bank account based on the determination of whether the repair facility completed repairs to a disabled vehicle ahead or behind schedule only for those disabled vehicles corresponding to a replacement rental vehicle reservation associated with the repair facility and managed by the business partner associated with the repair facility virtual bank account, and wherein the charge allocating step comprises the processor allocating the charge to the repair facility for the repair facility to pay the reservation cost portion to the business partner associated with the repair facility virtual bank account.

39. The method of claim 38 wherein the processor maintains a plurality of the repair facility virtual bank accounts in the memory corresponding to the same repair facility, each repair facility virtual bank account associated with a business partner that operates one of the business partner computer systems such that the repair facility has a plurality of repair facility virtual bank accounts associated with a plurality of different business partners, and wherein the processor performs the determining, increasing, decreasing, and allocating steps independently for each of the repair facility virtual bank accounts with respect to the repairs performed on disabled vehicles corresponding to the respective replacement rental vehicle reservations associated with the repair facility and managed by each of the business partners associated with the repair facility virtual bank accounts.

40. The method of claim 38 wherein the business partner associated with the repair facility virtual bank account comprises an insurance company.

10. A computer system for maintaining a virtual bank account of repair facility credits, the computer system comprising:

a processor and memory configured to;

maintain a virtual bank, the virtual bank comprising a repair facility account, the repair facility account being configured to store a credit total for a repair facility;

for a replacement rental vehicle reservation associated with the repair facility, determine whether the repair facility completed repairs to a disabled vehicle corresponding to the reservation ahead of schedule;

in response to a determination that the repair facility completed repairs to the disabled vehicle ahead of schedule, increase the credit total in the repair facility account;

in response to a determination that the repair facility completed repairs to the disabled vehicle behind schedule, decrease the credit total in the repair facility account;

in response to a determination that the repair facility completed repairs to the disabled vehicle behind schedule, determine whether the credit total is sufficient to cover a repair delay corresponding to the completed repairs; and

in response to a determination that the credit total is not sufficient to cover the repair delay, charge the repair facility for a portion of a cost for the reservation.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein the credit total comprises a credit total for a first type of credits, the processor and memory further configured to:

add a second type of credits to the virtual bank account in response to a condition being met by the repair facility.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to, before charging the repair facility for a portion of a reservation cost that results from a repair delay, examine both types of credits in the virtual bank account to determine whether there are a sufficient amount of credits in the virtual bank account to cover the repair delay.

15. The system of claim 10 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to, for a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations associated with the repair facility, determine whether the repair facility completed repairs to a plurality of disabled vehicles corresponding to the reservations in accordance with a schedule.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to determine in an aggregate form whether the repair facility completed repairs to the plurality of disabled vehicles corresponding to the reservations in accordance with a schedule.

17. The system of claim 10 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to associate each credit total adjustment with at least one selected from the group consisting of (1) a particular repair transaction that is pertinent to the credit total adjustment, (2) a particular replacement rental vehicle reservation that is pertinent to the credit total adjustment, and (3) a particular insurance claim number that is pertinent to the credit total adjustment.

18. The system of claim 10 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to perform the determining, increasing, and decreasing operations on a periodic basis.

19. The system of claim 10 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to perform the determining, increasing, and decreasing operations each time a replacement rental vehicle reservation closes.

41. The system of claim 10 wherein the processor and memory are resident within a rental vehicle reservation management computer system, the rental vehicle reservation management computer system configured to (1) create and manage a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations in response to data received from a plurality of business partner computer systems, each replacement rental vehicle reservation being associated with a business partner that operates one of the business partner computer systems, and (2) perform the schedule determination, increase, decrease, credit total sufficiency determination, and charge operations for a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations associated with the repair facility.

42. The system of claim 41 wherein the repair facility virtual bank account is associated with a business partner that operates one of the business partner computer systems, wherein the rental vehicle reservation management computer system is further configured to selectively increase or decrease the credit total in the repair facility virtual bank account based on the determination of whether the repair facility completed repairs to a disabled vehicle ahead or behind schedule only for those disabled vehicles corresponding to a replacement rental vehicle reservation associated with the repair facility and managed by the business partner associated with the repair facility virtual bank account, and wherein the rental vehicle reservation management computer system is further configured charge the repair facility to pay the reservation cost portion to the business partner associated with the repair facility virtual bank account.

43. The system of claim 42 wherein the rental vehicle reservation management computer system is further configured to maintain a plurality of the repair facility virtual bank accounts corresponding to the same repair facility, each repair facility virtual bank account associated with a business partner that operates one of the business partner computer systems such that the repair facility has a plurality of repair facility virtual bank accounts associated with a plurality of different business partners, and wherein the rental vehicle reservation management computer system is further configured to perform the schedule determination, increase, decrease, credit total sufficiency determination, and charge operations independently for each of the repair facility virtual bank accounts with respect to the repairs performed on disabled vehicles corresponding to the respective replacement rental vehicle reservations associated with the repair facility and managed by each of the business partners associated with the repair facility virtual bank accounts.

20. A computer-implemented method for allocating replacement vehicle rental costs, the method comprising:

maintaining a virtual bank in a memory, the virtual bank comprising a repair facility account for storing a credit total for a repair facility;

a processor adjusting the credit total as a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations associated with the repair facility are processed by the processor to determine how costs for the reservations are to be allocated such that (1) the credit total is increased when the repair facility completes repairs to a disabled vehicle corresponding to one of the reservations ahead of schedule and (2) the credit total is decreased when the repair facility completes repair to a disabled reservation corresponding to one of the reservations behind schedule; and

charging the repair facility for a reservation cost should the credit total otherwise be reduced below a predetermined threshold.

21. A computer system for allocating replacement vehicle rental costs, the computer system comprising:

a processor and memory configured to;

maintain a virtual bank, the virtual bank comprising a repair facility account for storing a credit total for the repair facility;

adjust the credit total as a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations associated with the repair facility are processed to determine how costs for the reservations are to be allocated such that (1) the credit total is increased when the repair facility completes repairs to a disabled vehicle corresponding to one of the reservations ahead of schedule and (2) the credit total is decreased when the repair facility completes repairs to a disabled reservation corresponding to one of the reservations behind schedule; and

charge the repair facility for a reservation cost should the credit total otherwise be reduced below a predetermined threshold.

22. A computer-implemented method for maintaining a virtual bank account of repair facility credits, the method comprising:

adjusting a credit total in a virtual bank account for a repair facility in response to a condition being met by the repair facility; and

before charging a repair facility for a portion of a replacement rental vehicle reservation cost that results from a repair delay, examining whether the credit total in the virtual bank account would otherwise be reduced below a predetermined threshold; and

wherein the method steps are performed by a processor.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

the processor computing an aggregate data value based on vehicle repair data for a plurality of different disabled vehicles;

the processor comparing the computed aggregate data value with a threshold; and

the processor determining how the credit total should be adjusted based on the comparing step.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the aggregate data value comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of (1) an average authorization period length for replacement rental vehicle reservations pertaining to the disabled vehicles, (2) an average rental cost per replacement rental vehicle reservation for replacement rental vehicle reservations pertaining to the disabled vehicles, (3) an average extension length per replacement rental vehicle reservation for replacement rental vehicle reservations pertaining to the disabled vehicles, (4) a percentage of replacement rental vehicle reservations pertaining to the disabled vehicles that needed an extension.

25. The method of claim 23 further comprising the processor conditioning performance of the comparing, determining, adjusting, and examining steps on a total number of repair transactions for disabled vehicles that pertain to replacement rental vehicle reservations being performed over a predetermined time period.

26. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

the processor determining a particular repair transaction that is pertinent to the credit total adjustment; and

the processor storing data in a memory, wherein the stored data is indicative of the credit total adjustment in association with the determined repair transaction.

27. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

the processor determining a particular replacement rental vehicle reservation that is pertinent to the credit total adjustment; and

the processor storing data in a memory, wherein the stored data is indicative of the credit total adjustment in association with the determined replacement rental vehicle reservation.

28. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

the processor determining a particular insurance claim number that is pertinent to the credit total adjustment; and

the processor storing data in a memory, wherein the stored data is indicative of the credit total adjustment in association with the determined insurance claim number.

29. A computer system for maintaining a virtual bank account of repair facility credits, the computer system comprising:

a processor and memory configured to;

adjust the number of credits in a virtual bank account for a repair facility in response to a condition being met by the repair facility; and

before charging a repair facility for a portion of a replacement rental vehicle reservation cost that results from a repair delay, examine whether a credit total in the virtual bank account would otherwise be reduced below a predetermined threshold.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to:

compute an aggregate data value based on vehicle repair data for a plurality of different disabled vehicles;

compare the computed aggregate data value with a threshold; and

determine how the credit total should be adjusted based on the comparison operation.

31. The system of claim 30 wherein the aggregate data value comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of (1) an average authorization period length for replacement rental vehicle reservations pertaining to the disabled vehicles, (2) an average rental cost per replacement rental vehicle reservation for replacement rental vehicle reservations pertaining to the disabled vehicles, (3) an average extension length per replacement rental vehicle reservation for replacement rental vehicle reservations pertaining to the disabled vehicles, (4) a percentage of replacement rental vehicle reservations pertaining to the disabled vehicles that needed an extension.

32. The system of claim 30 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to condition a performance of the comparing, determining, adjusting, and examining operations on a total number of repair transactions for disabled vehicles that pertain to replacement rental vehicle reservations being performed over a predetermined time period.

33. The system of claim 29 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to:

determine a particular repair transaction that is pertinent to the credit total adjustment; and

store data indicative of the credit total adjustment in association with the determined repair transaction.

34. The system of claim 29 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to:

determine a particular replacement rental vehicle reservation that is pertinent to the credit total adjustment; and

store data indicative of the credit total adjustment in association with the determined replacement rental vehicle reservation.

35. The system of claim 29 wherein the processor and memory are further configured to:

determine a particular insurance claim number that is pertinent to the credit total adjustment; and

store data indicative of the credit total adjustment in association with the determined insurance claim number.

36. A computer-implemented method for maintaining a virtual bank account of repair facility credits, the method comprising:

maintaining a virtual bank in a memory, the virtual bank comprising a repair facility account for storing a credit total for a repair facility;

for a replacement rental vehicle reservation associated with the repair facility, determining whether the replacement rental vehicle was returned in accordance with a schedule;

in response to a determination that the replacement rental vehicle was returned ahead of schedule, increasing the credit total in the repair facility account; and

in response to a determination that the replacement rental vehicle was returned behind schedule, decreasing the credit total in the repair facility account; and

in response to a determination that decreasing the credit total will reduce the credit total below a predetermined threshold, allocating a charge to the repair facility for a portion of a cost for the reservation;

wherein the method steps are performed by a processor.

44. The method of claim 36 wherein the processor and memory comprise part of a rental vehicle reservation management computer system, the rental vehicle reservation management computer system configured to (1) create and manage a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations in response to data received from a plurality of business partner computer systems, the method further comprising the rental vehicle reservation management computer system allocating a charge to the repair facility in response to the credit total in the repair facility virtual bank account falling below a threshold, wherein the repair facility virtual bank account is associated with a business partner that operates one of the business partner computer systems, wherein the processor performs the increasing and decreasing steps for the credit total in the repair facility virtual bank account based on the determination of whether the replacement rental vehicle associated with a repair facility was returned ahead or behind schedule only for those replacement rental vehicle reservations associated with the repair facility and managed by the business partner associated with the repair facility virtual bank account, and wherein the charge allocating step comprises the processor allocating the charge to the repair facility for the repair facility to pay the reservation cost portion to the business partner associated with the repair facility bank account.