Roadside assistance management

• US 9,286,587 B2
• Filed: 05/06/2015
• Issued: 03/15/2016
• 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., Smith, Eva, Shah, Priya, Wilson, Thomas J., Jordan, William C., Burns, Lawrence David
• Primary Examiner(s): Marc, McDieunel
• Application Number:
  US14/705,387
• Publication Number:
  US 20150324720A1
• Time in Patent Office: 314 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 plurality of second computing devices associated with a plurality of second vehicles; and

a third computing device configured to;

determine, based on insurance information, locations of a plurality of base stations at which the plurality of second vehicles are stationed;

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

in response to receiving the first information, transmit second information to a particular second computing device, among the second computing devices, to dispatch a particular second vehicle associated with the particular second computing device from a first base station, among the plurality of base stations, to assist the first vehicle;

after transmitting the second information to dispatch the particular second vehicle, determining whether to reallocate resources; and

in response to determining to reallocate resources, send a request to a specific second computing device, among the plurality of second computing devices, to relocate a specific second vehicle associated with the specific second computing device from a second base station, among the plurality of base stations, to the first base station.

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

receive a response from the specific second computing device; and

determine whether the request is accepted by the specific second computing device based on the response.

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

determine a level of demand for roadside assistance; and

in response to determining that an area is in need of additional support based on the level of demand, send a request to at least one of the plurality of second computing devices to report to the area.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the request to report to the area indicates a reward or incentive to an entity in exchange for reporting to the area.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the third computing device is further configured to:

determine whether the request to report to the area was rejected or accepted; and

send another request to another one of the plurality of second computing devices in response to determining that the request to report to the area was rejected.

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

receive first location information for the first vehicle from the first computing device;

receive second location information for the particular second vehicle from the particular second computing device;

determine whether the particular second vehicle has arrived at a location of the first vehicle based on the first location information and the second location information; and

in response to determining that the particular second vehicle has arrived at the location of the first vehicle, store an arrival time.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the third computing device is further configured to, prior to transmitting the second information to the particular second computing device, select the particular second computing device based on a location of the first vehicle that is disabled.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the selection of the particular second computing device is further based on an estimated time of arrival of the particular second vehicle to a location of the first vehicle.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the third computing device is further configured to determine the estimated time of arrival based on traffic information.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the first information further comprises information indicating a type of service desired for the first vehicle and the third computing device is further configured to, prior to transmitting the second information to the particular second computing device, select the particular second computing device based on the type of service desired for the first vehicle.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the third computing device is further configured to, prior to transmitting the second information to the particular second computing device, select the particular second computing device based on a preferred service provider of a user associated with the first vehicle or the first computing device.

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

determine a drop location at which the first vehicle is to be delivered by the particular second vehicle; and

send information indicating the drop location to the particular second computing device.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the third computing device is further configured to, after transmitting the second information to dispatch the second particular vehicle, monitor a location of the particular second vehicle.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the third computing device is further configured to determine whether the particular second vehicle has started moving, within a predetermined time, to a location of the first vehicle based on the location of the particular second vehicle.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the third computing device is further configured to, in response to determining that the particular second vehicle has not started moving, within the predetermined time, to the location of the first vehicle, transmit information to the particular second computing device to withdraw an assignment that assigned the particular second vehicle to provide assistance to the first vehicle.

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

determine whether service for the first vehicle is complete; and

after determining that the service is complete, direct the particular second vehicle to a base station different from the first base station.

17. A computing device, comprising:

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

at least one processor configured to;

determine, based on insurance information, locations of a plurality of base stations at which a plurality of service vehicles are stationed, the plurality of service vehicles associated with the plurality of second computing devices, respectively;

receive, via the network interface, first information from a first computing device among the one or more first computing devices, the first information comprising information indicating that a first vehicle is disabled;

in response to receiving the first information, transmit, via the network interface, second information to a particular second computing device, among the second computing devices, to dispatch a particular service vehicle associated with the particular second computing device from a first base station, among the plurality of base stations, to assist the first vehicle;

after transmitting the second information to dispatch the particular service vehicle, determining whether to reallocate resources; and

in response to determining to reallocate resources, send, via the network interface, a request to a specific second computing device, among the plurality of second computing devices, to relocate a specific service vehicle associated with the specific second computing device from a second base station, among the plurality of base stations, to the first base station.

18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

receive first location information for the first vehicle from the first computing device;

receive second location information for the particular service vehicle from the particular second computing device;

determine whether the particular service vehicle has arrived at a location of the first vehicle based on the first location information and the second location information; and

in response to determining that the particular service vehicle has arrived at the location of the first vehicle, store an arrival time.

19. A method, comprising:

determining, by a first computing device, based on insurance information, locations of a plurality of base stations at which a plurality of service vehicles are stationed;

receiving, from a second computing device, a service request for providing roadside assistance to a disabled vehicle;

in response to receiving the service request, transmitting an instruction to a third computing device to dispatch a first service vehicle, among the plurality of service vehicles, from a first base station, among the plurality of base stations, to assist the disabled vehicle;

after transmitting the instruction to dispatch the first service vehicle, determining whether to reallocate resources; and

in response to determining to reallocate resources, send a transfer request to a fourth computing device to move a second service vehicle from a second base station, among the plurality of base stations, to the first base station.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

determining a level of demand for roadside assistance; and

in response to determining that an area is in need of additional support based on the level of demand, send a request to a fifth computing device to send a third service vehicle to the area.