Roadside assistance management

• US 9,053,588 B1
• Filed: 03/13/2014
• Issued: 06/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Inventors: Briggs, Ryan M., Wilson, Thomas J., Jordan, William C., Smith, Eva, Shah, Priya, Burns, Lawrence David
• Primary Examiner(s): Marc, McDieunel
• Application Number:
  US14/208,883
• Time in Patent Office: 453 Days
• Field of Search: 701/32.4, 379/201.01, 379/201.02, 340/989, 455/456.3
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/006 Indicating maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Methods, computer-readable media, software, and apparatuses provide a system for establishing base stations and allocating service vehicles to the base stations in order to provide roadside assistance. The system may include computing devices associated with customer vehicles and service vehicles as well as network computing devices. The system may receive a service request from a customer regarding a disabled vehicle. The system may then identify an appropriate service vehicle to assist the customer and assign the service request to the identified service vehicle. The system may select the appropriate service vehicle based on a location of the disabled vehicle. In an example, the system may choose a service vehicle from a base station closest to or within the shortest driving time to the disabled vehicle. By setting-up base stations in advance of service requests, service vehicles may reach disabled vehicles within a predetermined period of time.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a first computing device associated with a first vehicle;

a second computing device associated with a second vehicle; and

a third computing device configured to;

receive first information from the first computing device, the first information comprising information indicating that the first vehicle is disabled; and

transmit second information to the second computing device in response to receiving the first information, the second information indicating that a request for service has been received,

wherein the second vehicle is stationed at a predetermined location that is established, by the third computing device, based on data indicating locations of where accidents frequently occur over a period of time.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising the second vehicle,

wherein the second vehicle is configured to tow the first vehicle,

wherein the first computing device is a mobile computing device of a first person associated with the first vehicle or a device integrated into the first vehicle,

wherein the second computing device is a mobile computing device of a second person associated with the second vehicle or a device integrated into the second vehicle, and

wherein the third computing device comprises a server configured to communicate with the first computing device and the second computing device via a network.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first information comprises information indicating a location where the first vehicle is disabled.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first information comprises global positioning system (GPS) coordinates of the first computing device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first information comprises one of a type of the first vehicle and a suspected issue with the first vehicle.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the second information comprises a request to provide service to the first vehicle.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the second computing device is configured to transmit information to the third computing device indicating an acceptance of or rejection of the request to provide service to the first vehicle.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the second computing device is configured to transmit information indicating when the second vehicle arrives as at a location of the first vehicle.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the third computing device is further configured to select the second computing device, from among a plurality of computing devices associated with a plurality of vehicles configured to provide service to disabled vehicles, based on a location of the first vehicle.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the third computing device is further configured to select the second computing device, from among a plurality of computing devices associated with a plurality of vehicles configured to provide service to disabled vehicles, based on a distance between the first vehicle and the predetermined location where the second vehicle is stationed.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the third computing device is further configured to select the second computing device, from among a plurality of computing devices associated with a plurality of vehicles configured to provide service to disabled vehicles, based on a time that the second vehicle is expected to arrive at a location of the first vehicle.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the data indicating locations of where accidents frequently occur comprises at least one of data obtained from insurance claim information that is collected over the period of time or data from government accident reports that are collected over the period of time.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the third computing device is further configured to:

determine that an increase in availability of at least one of servicemen or service vehicles is desired; and

in response to determining that the increase is desired, transmit a request to dispatch at least one additional serviceman or service vehicle to at least one of a plurality of base stations.

20. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a first database storing insurance claim information; and

a second database storing government accident reports,

wherein the third computing device is further configured to;

access, from the first database, the insurance claim information;

access, from the second database, the government accident reports;

based on at least one of the insurance claim information or the government accident reports, determine a new location for the second vehicle; and

transmit, to the second computing device, a transfer request for the second vehicle to move to the new location.

14. A method, comprising:

determining, by one or more computing devices, locations for a plurality of base stations for a service region based on at least one of insurance claim information or accident report information;

assigning, by the one or more computing devices, a plurality of service vehicles to a respective one of the plurality of base stations;

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, a service request for providing roadside assistance to a disabled vehicle within the service region;

identifying, by the one or more computing devices, a service vehicle, from among the plurality of service vehicles, that is positioned to arrive at a location of the disabled vehicle within a predetermined time period by at least comparing locations of the plurality of service vehicles with the location of the disabled vehicle; and

assigning, by the one or more computing devices, the service request to the identified service vehicle.

15. A computing device, comprising:

a network interface configured to communicate, via a network, with one or more first computing devices and one or more second computing devices; and

at least one processor configured to;

receive, via the network interface, a service request from a first computing device at a first location;

identify one of the one or more second computing devices that is positioned to arrive at the first location within a predetermined time period; and

assign, via the network interface, the service request to the identified second computing device;

track a position of the second computing device from a second position to the first location;

determine whether the second computing device is on target to arrive at the first location within the predetermined time period; and

reassign the service request to another of the one or more second computing devices if the second computing device is determined to arrive at the first location after the predetermined time period.

16. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the predetermined time period is fifteen minutes from a time at which the service request is received.

17. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the predetermined time period corresponds to an advertised time period that is advertised in a region including the first location.

18. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to, after the service request is completed, direct the second computing device to a different base station than a base station where the second computing device was located when it was assigned the service request.

19. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

identify a plurality of service vehicles;

determine whether additional support is desired based on the identified plurality of service vehicles and time and date information;

transmit, via the network interface, a request for additional support to at least one of the one or more second computing devices upon determining that additional support is desired;

determine whether to reallocate the plurality of service vehicles among a plurality of base stations; and

direct one of the plurality of service vehicles from a first base station of the plurality of base stations to a second base station of the plurality of base stations upon determining to reallocate the plurality of service vehicles.