WO2009058117A1 - Procédé et système pour fournir un service de transport - Google Patents

Procédé et système pour fournir un service de transport Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2009058117A1
WO2009058117A1 PCT/US2007/022961 US2007022961W WO2009058117A1 WO 2009058117 A1 WO2009058117 A1 WO 2009058117A1 US 2007022961 W US2007022961 W US 2007022961W WO 2009058117 A1 WO2009058117 A1 WO 2009058117A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
customer
driver
information
transportation
reservation
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/US2007/022961
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
Alex Mashinsky
Original Assignee
Qlimo, Llc
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Qlimo, Llc filed Critical Qlimo, Llc
Priority to PCT/US2007/022961 priority Critical patent/WO2009058117A1/fr
Publication of WO2009058117A1 publication Critical patent/WO2009058117A1/fr

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
    • G06Q10/08—Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Definitions

  • the present invention is directed to providing aggregation and distribution of transportation and travel services to customers, and more particularly to a method, system and apparatus for matching customers and providers of transportation services with a real-time reservation system that enables dynamic and predictable pricing scheme for buyers, providers and aggregators, while rewarding certain transportation providers based on their performance and customers based on their usage.
  • New York itself has over 1500 transportation providers which operate 65,000 private cars in addition to 12,000 regular cabs.
  • the main problem facing customers is the unpredictable level of availability, service levels and pricing provided by the different companies and different drivers.
  • current systems are highly inefficient due to significant degree of system fragmentation and lack of technological solutions to these problems, therefore such services are not efficiently utilized from a customer standpoint.
  • service fragmentation adversely affects the ability of the service provider to respond quickly and efficiently to service requests and available jobs are not dispatched in a fair manner.
  • the current pricing system does facilitate applying flexible rates and more efficient matching and bidding to account for such drastic supply and demand characteristics to affect the actual prices paid by users for the service.
  • the system automatically accepts and sends jobs to affiliates and independent drivers to balance supply and demand and keep internal fleet utilization at optimal levels.
  • the present invention is directed to a method and system for assisting customers with a real-time transportation reservation system that enable a dynamic and predictable pricing scheme for buyers and aggregators, while rewarding certain transportation providers based on their performance.
  • vehicles are used that have intermittent, changing availability as they are continually in traffic serving or are ready to serve.
  • Traffic conditions are seldom static. As a result, a unique environment for providing a way to match the supply and demand in the ground transportation industry is created.
  • An embodiment of the invention thus creates a car service network that employs realtime traffic and schedule reports for a wide range of transportation services, data available from wireless technology, and Global Positioning System (GPS) with Real-Time Traffic monitoring means to track the average speed and location of chauffeured transportation on particular routes and to appraise trip duration information which may be communicated to customers and operators as well as third parties.
  • GPS Global Positioning System
  • the multitude of data and information that is gathered is processed in accordance with predetermined computations to validate, monitor and execute orders placed by individuals and groups for ground transportation or for a combination of ground and air reservations, such that efficient allocation and prompt car arrival times and reliable services to customers is permitted.
  • customers and drivers and matches are performed between at least one customer and driver to assign and select a driver to a specific job request, as well as to permit transparency for drivers and customers with respect to ensuring efficacy in communication and solving current problems in the transportation business.
  • the present invention also permits customers to be served by affiliate drivers by taking customer orders and then assigning the customer orders for reservations with individual affiliate drivers or companies.
  • the affiliates may utilize the same software or interface via different systems.
  • patrons and drivers are provided with updated job information.
  • the method and system links, aggregates and correlates a multitude of information using programs, such as Ajax.
  • programs such as Ajax.
  • the disclosed embodiments of the invention allow customers to rate the service they receive, pre-select preferred drivers from historical jobs or a pool of available drivers, and allow passengers to select lower priced drivers by participating in reverse auction pricing.
  • users enjoy a better level of service and guaranteed availability, while drivers receive higher prices and financial rewards for providing the better level of service.
  • the disclosed embodiments of the invention thus provide a more efficient way to provide services that match supply and demand within the transportation services industry.
  • FIG. 1 is an exemplary schematic block diagram of a main engine in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
  • FIGS. 2 (a) thru 2(c) is a flow chart illustrating the steps associated with processing a reservation;
  • FIGS. 3 (a) thru 3(c) is a flow chart illustrating the steps associated with a method for a job that is to be performed as soon as possible;
  • FIGS. 3(d) thru 3(f) show a flow chart of the steps associated with an alternative method for a job that is to be performed as soon as possible (ASAP) ;
  • FIGS. 3(h) thru 3(j) show a flow chart of the steps associated with an exemplary method for assigning scheduled jobs of FIG. 3(d) thru
  • FIG. 4 is an exemplary schematic illustration of the main engine of FIG. 1 connected to a variety of communication systems
  • FIG. 5 is an illustration of the interaction that occurs when booking a reservation from the perspective of the customer
  • FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating information flow within the transportation reservation system for a random user in accordance with the contemplated embodiments;
  • FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating the zero- level information flow for a random user in accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention.
  • FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating the context level information flow for a random user when redirected by a site in accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention.
  • FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the zero- level information flow for a random user when redirected by a website in accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention.
  • FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating the context level information flow for reservations performed by travel agents in accordance with the disclosed embodiments of the invention;
  • FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating the zero- level information flow for reservations performed by travel agents in accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention.
  • FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating the context level information flow for reservations for a corporate or an account user in accordance with the disclosed embodiments of the invention;
  • FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating the zero- level information flow for corporate clients in accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention.
  • FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating the context level information flow for administration in accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention.
  • FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating the zero- level information flow for administration in accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention.
  • FIGS. 16 (a) thru 16 (d) is a flow chart illustrating the steps associated with booking a reservation via IVR in accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention;
  • FIG. 17 is a illustration of a screen capture of a dispatch screen showing distances and jobs.
  • FIG. 18 is an illustration of a screen capture of the dispatch screen of FIG. 17 showing the status of drivers on a waiting list.
  • the present invention is directed to a method and system for assisting customers with using a realtime transportation reservation system that enables a dynamic and predictable pricing scheme for buyers and aggregators, while rewarding certain transportation providers ' based on their performance.
  • the method and system of the invention aggregates all service demands from users, books their reservations by providing real-time pricing and availability information and then allocates such jobs to a variety of providers associated with the system electronically or via web interface.
  • the system employs proactive error and alarm management to minimize errors and problems by utilizing GPS and other real-time information to render automated decisions about jobs which are entered into the system, are in progress and their chance of completing without any incidents.
  • the method and system provide a car service network comprising a plurality of cars, belonging to one or more fleet formations, with the ability to interact with each other and various customers by wireless technology and/or through the intermediation of a main engine.
  • the main engine provides a central node of a transportation reservation system, where all data is received, processed, integrated and directed to an appropriate party or database to permit the smooth and accurate functioning of the car service network.
  • the central node of the transportation system or main engine feeds and retrieves information, respectively, into and from various external databases and engines that assist in the acquisition of reservations, processing of an initial reservation request, process and validate reservations, addresses, flights, landmarks, , selecting and assigning a specific driver for a requested job, validating credit card and individual VIP account information, processing billing and financial transactions, providing real-time updates regarding the arrival time of various transportation services, as well as coordinating communication between the parties involved.
  • the main engine monitors traffic violations for any driver and validates their Taxi and limousine Commission (TLC) license and insurance.
  • TLC Taxi and limousine Commission
  • the parties involved in a transaction over the car service network, and whose interactions are sustained by the main engine comprise the following: customers and their representatives, drivers and affiliate drivers, call center agents, dispatchers, third parties, such as travel agents, and administrators, as well as referral sites.
  • the transportation reservation system provides two interfaces to allow the parties to interact with the main engine.
  • the interfaces comprise, for example, a web interface for parties wishing to schedule reservation as well as account holders and providers, and an office interface for internal use of the service providers as well as third parties, such as affiliates.
  • Figure 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an exemplary main engine in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
  • a random customer 110 accessing transportation system 100 for the first time via a web interface (not shown) , becomes an account holder with the transportation system by opening an account while making a first reservation and filling out the required dynamic forms on the website pertaining to personal and financial information as well as pickup and destination locations .
  • the transportation system 100 will allow the customer to provide information to a trusted source via an input methodology, such as SMS gateway, web services agent, or via a call center through direct communication with an agent. All information related to a particular customer and his reservations is captured and stored in the customer database 120, where a customer profile 125 is created and associated with a customer number for internal identification purposes.
  • the transportation system 100 saves all the historical, personal and billing information of a customer, as well as information associated with all reservations made by the customer or his organization 110 in the database 120.
  • the information in the database 120 pertaining to a specific customer is displayed to the customer via the Internet as a customer profile comprising at least four categories, e.g., customer reservations 125a, customer preferences 125b, customer addresses 125c and customer billing or accounting 125d.
  • customer reservations 125a category of the customer profile 125 comprises all of the reservations for that specific customer, including reservations to be performed in the future, closed jobs and cancellations.
  • Information pertaining to each reservation further comprises a confirmation code, reservation date and time, pickup and destination addresses, as well as the status of the reservation, such as open, confirmed, assigned, on location, picked up, dropped off, billed , paid or closed.
  • Open reservations are reservations for which services have not been completed or for which the final billing is unapproved by the customer 110
  • closed reservations are reservations for which the billing and accounting module 130c of the main engine 130 has verified and closed the job for the detailed charges of an approved voucher.
  • the customer 110 may obtain details regarding each reservation by selecting a respective confirmation code from a menu.
  • the reservation details comprise information such as a copy of the electronic voucher, indication of the car type used, form of payment, dropoff date and time, passenger's name, the name of the person who made the reservation, the pickup phone, as well as the amount of the fare.
  • the category customer preferences 125b of the customer profile 125 comprises information such as login information, account settings such as default class of services, credit card information and default settings.
  • the login information further comprises information such as the name of the customer, e-mail address, cell phone, alternative phone and fax number. It should readily be appreciated that the customer preferences 125b provides the customer 110 with the option to change his password.
  • the account settings information of the customer preferences 125b comprises information such as the account number associated with the account profile, the authorization code, class of account (such as VIP, regular or corporate) , and department information for corporate accounts.
  • the credit card information comprises the type of credit card, the card number, and the expiration date, credit card billing address, and an optional second credit card; while the default settings information comprises the form of payment (such as an account charged according to a billing cycle, or immediate payment by credit card) and class of car.
  • the customer 110 is provided with the ability to update the billing arrangement to be by the job or weekly or monthly, pay by credit card or corporate account and allocate as personal or business use. Such information and the default settings may be adjusted at anytime according to his needs.
  • the category addresses 125c of the customer profile 125 comprise all addresses used by the customer either as pickup or drop-off locations world wide.
  • the system validates such addresses and assigned geodata longitude and latitude markings so it could be recognized by any system or GPS computer.
  • the customer 110 is provided with the opportunity to edit and delete information that is already stored in the transportation system 100, as well as to add new addresses into the transportation system.
  • the transportation system 100 when a new customer makes a reservation and enters the pickup and destination location for the first time, the transportation system 100 saves these locations as default parameters. However, upon re-accessing the transportation system 100 to make subsequent reservations, the transportation system will auto fill in the default locations automatically and prompt the customer by providing the option to edit these parameters, according to the current needs of the user. In addition, the transportation system 100 offers the option to have the new parameters saved as new default settings or reoccurring events, rather than temporary settings. In any event, the transportation system 100 always provides the user or customer with the initial default settings each time a new reservation is made, unless new default settings are entered for permanent storage into the database 120.
  • the customer 110 is permitted to import and place into their personal customer profile 125 a photograph of themselves.
  • drivers as well as agents who meet the customers at an airport, for example are provided with a way to assist in recognizing or identifying the customer.
  • the transportation system 100 facilitates the customer's ability to add identifying parameters.
  • the time required for a customer service agent to find and escort a customer to their car is reduced dramatically.
  • a user having a previous flight reservation can simply enter his confirmation number, which will prompt the system to access the right air carrier, retrieve the itinerary and suggest a pickup at the local and remote airports with suggested travel times and traffic information.
  • a user sends an email or SMS message inviting the system as an attendee in a meeting.
  • the system translates the information into a reservation indicating the user's office or home pickup based on time of day and the email specified meeting place and suggests a pickup time and may also send an email or update a web page with the reservation.
  • the user may edit any of the parameters or accept the reservation and obtain instant confirmation .
  • the billing category of the customer profile or accounting 125d comprises listings of all invoices associated with their respective reservations and charges, as well as the name of the account holder, the account number, the address of the account holder, the name of the contact person, the telephone number and the e-mail address of the account holder.
  • the customer 110 selects a specific invoice to view, he is permitted to view the voucher associated with that invoice, including a detailed breakdown of the charges of the final billing.
  • the customer 110 will also be able to view the respective reservation information comprised of the transaction log information, such as the name of the passenger, the telephone number of the account holder, the name of the person who made the reservation, the car class, the number of the job, the time of the pickup, and the pickup and drop-off addresses.
  • the customer 110 is permitted to print a page, download the voucher to a computing device (not shown), view the job route via GPS and e-map (not shown) , and listen to any recorded conversation associated with that specific reservation.
  • the customers are permitted to verify charges on the final billing for a ride and reconcile the billing information with the time the driver was on location, the number of stops performed during the ride, the duration of the ride, as well as the number of tolls.
  • the customer can assign any job as a personal or a business related transaction and link it to any other account or company he may be associated with.
  • the transportation system 100 also provides full details of the internal communications and interaction between the drivers, dispatchers and operators who handled any reservation so the customer can see what transpired at any moment. Moreover, the customer can rank and add or remove any driver or affiliate from his profile for future use. On pending jobs clients are provided with the ability to see information, such as the status being verified, missing info, unassigned, assigned, in route with distance and estimated time from location, on location, pickup with distance and time to drop off, drop off time and . route map .
  • the main engine 130 includes a reservation module 130a, a dispatch module 130b, a billing and accounting module 130c, a pricing module 13Od and a reports module 13Oe.
  • an account When an account is opened, it is designated as either a regular or corporate account.
  • a regular account is setup by creating a customer profile 125, as described above for the benefit of a single individual, while a corporate account is set-up for the benefit of a business or a corporation.
  • a corporate account is assigned an account number, and each individual employee of the corporate customer receives a customer profile associated with that corporate account number, as well as an individual number associated with his personal profile.
  • the transportation system 100 permits corporate account holders to manage their own accounts, by employing different levels of access to the financial and reservation information associated with the corporate account in the billing and accounting module 130c, including the individual customer profiles of the employees associated with the respective accounts. For instance, the transportation system 100 permits a web administrator of a corporate account to manage the entire corporate account and to access all the billing information of that account, including the individual customer profiles of the corporate employees.
  • the transportation system 100 allows account administrators of the corporate account to schedule reservations at the reservation module 130a; however, they are not permitted to access any billing information, either for the corporate account or individual corporate employees .
  • the transportation system 100 provides corporate customers with the flexibility to manage their own accounts by selecting to submit payments on a billing cycle, where the billing cycle is selected in agreement with the corporate customer's wish, or upon completion of a specific task.
  • the transportation system 100 permits corporate employees to settle their own billing associated with their individual customer profile either according to a billing cycle or upon completion of a task or job.
  • a corporate employee has the option to use a corporate charge account or a personal credit card to effect payments.
  • the transportation system 100 provides corporate customers with the flexibility to manage their own accounts by selecting to submit payments on a billing cycle, where the billing cycle is selected in agreement with the corporate customer's wish, or upon completion of a specific task.
  • the transportation system 100 permits corporate employees to settle their own billing associated with their individual customer profile either according to a billing cycle or upon completion of a task or job.
  • a corporate employee has the option of using a corporate charge account or a personal credit card to effect payments.
  • the system offers flexibility in settling of account charges.
  • each corporate employee has the options of perfecting payment according to the billing cycle of the corporate account, settling bills at the time the services are completed, or a combination of both. For instance, when a corporate employee receives services from the transportation system for personal use, the corporate employee has the option of paying at the end of the ride by a personal credit card or cash and the main engine will ensure that his account will be credited for the respective payment and the billing statement for his account will reflect payment for the personal use. Additionally, the corporate employee has the option of deferring payment when the services are completed, and his billing statement at the end of the billing cycle will reflect the charge for the personal use.
  • large entity customers may interface to the transportation system and continuously update and receive information from the system that is necessary to permit them to perform their operations.
  • a law firm may update the transportation system with matter or approved project numbers that must be used when any of its lawyers or clients use the car service network worldwide.
  • the transportation system is permitted to then validate in real time if a job request is authorized and report in real time back to the client what is being used by whom and how often.
  • the transportation system collects job information and vouchers from drivers and affiliates and correlates them to specific matter numbers, and may generate reports or files to clients that are sorted by project matters to enable real time billing by the clients to their users.
  • each customer profile 125 is associated with a ranking number.
  • the ranking number is used by the main engine 130 to perform computations to match a driver 140 to a reservation request located in the reservation module 130a.
  • each customer 110 is ranked by the main engine 130 based on the type of account held, the frequency of usage, as well as the amount of money derived from that account as indicated by the reporting module 13Oe.
  • each account is further classified into one of many categories, for example budget, luxury, VIP or platinum, etc.
  • the main engine 130 takes into account the "regular" or "VIP" designation on an account for the purpose of ranking a customer. Based on the amount of money derived from the accounts, and the type of cars requested, each customer will be ranked in a manner that permits VIP customers to receive the highest level of priority and service, such as the best cars and the highest ranked drivers as derived, for example, through customer-satisfaction surveys and feedback as described below.
  • VIP customers will be assigned cars and drivers based on the profile assignment in the account of each individual employee of the corporate customer, either budget, regular or VIP; . However, for each new customer, the transportation system 100 may automatically upgrade the service to a VIP standard over a predefined time period, such as for 90 days. Subsequent to the predefined time period, the customer 110 will be required to pay an additional fee for the VIP standard or will be assigned to an account based on his dollar usage level.
  • Customer accounts are also classified according to categories, such as intensive care account, special account, farm-in account, affiliate account and master account.
  • each category is designated with a special color code indicating its tier of significance. For example, intensive care and special accounts are red for the first tier, farm-in accounts are yellow for the second tier, affiliate accounts are green for third tier, and master accounts are white for the fourth tier.
  • a color and/or tier scheme is achieved that permits automatic assignment of a specific type of car service to a customer 110 or customers associates with a specific account, based on the monthly fare income derived from that specific account,
  • the other main party of the automated transportation system of the car service network is the driver 140.
  • the driver 140 must be either a member of a fleet or an affiliate of the transportation system 100.
  • affiliate drivers represent individual drivers or drivers employed by local or remotely located affiliated car services.
  • affiliate drivers serve to provide services when the market demand for car services exceeds the fleet capacity, provide services within remote locations anywhere in the world for the transportation system or on behalf of the system, and to provide services as local or remotely located affiliates by using the system and method in accordance with the disclosed embodiments of the present invention.
  • each driver Upon becoming a member of the fleet or an affiliate, each driver is provided with a phone, a computer or both (not shown) that is associated with the transportation system.
  • the driver 140 can download a free software program to a personal phone or computer, which will enable the driver to become part of the automated car service network.
  • the transportation system 100 maintains control over the affiliates as it monitors all jobs and inventory.
  • each driver is assigned an ID number, which is stored into an individual driver profile located in driver database 150.
  • the profile of an individual driver includes information, such as the name of the driver, his license number, a description of the driver based on a ranking score, such as from 0 to 4, association with a particular type of car from a class of cars that the driver is able to chauffeur, GPS with Real-Time Traffic monitoring information, as well as an association with a particular type of service, such as budget, VIP or luxury.
  • the ranking score is derived from a ranking methodology that is based on a predefined scale, such as 0 to 4, and reflects an overall assessment of the driver 140 based on parameters rated on the same scale, such as experience, language proficiency, punctuality, cleanliness, courteous behavior, ability to speak additional languages, professionalism, the weekly average income, as well as criticism from customers. In certain embodiments, some parameters are rated by management alone. In other embodiments, parameters are rated by both customers and management.
  • each customer 110 is provided with the opportunity to provide feedback information and rate his driver as well as his ride by filling out a short questionnaire listing key parameters.
  • the customer 110 is also provided with the opportunity to include additional comments to reflect his satisfaction or indicate any problems with his driver and/or his ride.
  • the latest input that is provided permits a recalculation of the driver's ranking, which is stored into the driver database 150.
  • customers are provided with the ability to block or request the services of certain drivers based on the driver ranking.
  • customer surveys and comments are key to aiding the transportation system 100 to improve the overall service of the fleet, because the driver rankings are used in computations to accurately and appropriately match a driver 140 with the appropriate customer 110 who made a request for a reservation.
  • customers may access an on-line profile of a driver at any time after a reservation has been made and a driver has been assigned for the job.
  • a customer 110 can provide feedback information during the performance of a job, or even days after the service has been rendered in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.
  • the transportation system 100 may access the on-line profile of the driver 150, and rate certain parameters of the survey or present additional comments to express his dissatisfaction with the attitude of the driver.
  • the transportation system 100 is provided with a way to ensure that a particular driver is never reassigned to a particular customer.
  • the transportation system 100 collects all such information and uses it to generate a ranking for the driver, by assigning each complaint or problem a specific point value, and by adding the points on a cumulative basis and dividing the number of jobs performed by a driver by the points maintained for each driver. As result, a score that can be viewed by the customers is obtained.
  • the transportation system 100 may automatically reassign a driver profile from VIP to budget if the driver's score falls below a certain threshold.
  • drivers have access to their score via an on-line interface and may receive a summary of their pay reports, historical and pending jobs or complaints via email. In addition, the drivers are permitted to see future jobs assigned to them, as well as specific reasons or logic explaining why their score or performance and ranking are what they are.
  • drivers enrolled with the car service network load an application onto their phone and/or their computer which allows them to communicate with the transportation system 100. This application accesses internal GPS software of the phone or computer, retrieves the driver location and sends this information to the transportation system 100. In addition, the application on the phone and/or computer of the driver uses a wireless data network to send such information to the transportation system via the wireless network used by the driver.
  • the transportation system 100 calculates the location of the driver and his speed based on the progress he is making between readings.
  • the transportation system uses this information to decide which jobs to assign to a specific driver, as well as to determine when he is on location or estimate when he is going to a drop off point.
  • the transportation system is configured to electronically send the driver details of a job, as well as directions from his current location to the pickup location or from the pickup location to the destination.
  • the software allows the driver to mark when he is on location and when he completed a pickup and drop off, as well as enter voucher or confirmation numbers so that the billing and accounting module 130c can link a scanned voucher to a specific job or driver.
  • This data is also used to calculate the details of what payments are owed to the driver and from the customer.
  • the driver is provided with the ability to accept or reject jobs, as well as mark himself as available or unavailable. Here, the driver can place himself in a specific zone and request certain type of jobs.
  • the transportation system can validate extra stops or change the pricing on a job based on stored GPS information, which indicate the route path and the required time to complete the trip.
  • the transportation system 100 therefore collects and calculates the performance of drivers based on a combination of data collected from the GPS system, as well as entries made by the drivers and validated by the GPS system. This information is processed and is used to rank all drivers and decide what score and jobs they are qualified to perform.
  • the driver obtains additional information as customers interact with the system. For example, if a customer indicates he needs 10 more minutes when he get a call from the IVR module 420, the information is sent to the driver's phone or computer via a data message, when a flight lands and the transportation system obtains a notification from an outside database of the terminal and arrival time. This information is then sent to the driver so that the driver can approach the right terminal for pickup of the customer .
  • the transportation system 100 uses pricing module 13Od to also calculate the driver' s weekly average hourly income based on the total amount earned divided by the total hours worked, and uses this information to perform an even and fair automated distribution of the jobs among all the drivers within a certain category via the dispatch module 130b.
  • the transportation system 100 promotes responsible drivers by ensuring that all available drivers receive at least a minimum amount of jobs on a daily basis.
  • One objective of the transportation system of the disclosed embodiments is to also maintain the average of each individual driver close to the fleet average for a particular seven-day week period, in a particular car category or service category. Consequently, the transportation system is configured such that unlimited driver categories are supported. As a result, an accurate classification of drivers and affiliate drivers can be merged.
  • the fleet average for a specific class of cars serves as a baseline for comparison to the weekly average of each individual driver for that same specific class of cars.
  • the total weekly working hours for all the fleet cars in a class are divided by the total weekly fare income for that respective class.
  • the weekly average of each individual driver within the same specific class of cars is obtained by dividing the total weekly hours worked by the individual driver to the total weekly fare income generated by the same driver.
  • driver's weekly average when a driver's weekly average is below the fleet's average, the transportation system will tend to assign to that driver jobs which have a higher dollar value and will bring him within a certain range of the fleet's weekly average, while at the same time assigning other lower value jobs to drivers whose weekly average is above the fleet's weekly average.
  • the fleet average my be obtained or computed in the reports module 13Oe of the main engine 130 in conjunction with information obtained from the reservations module 130a and dispatch module 130b.
  • drivers are also categorized based on the type of transportation service they provide. Similarly to the cars that the drivers chauffeur for their customers, the drivers fall into categories of service, such as standard, luxury or VIP.
  • Classes of cars may consist of sedans, SUV's, specialty, stretch, armored, bus, van, luxury and other types of vehicles, each having their own pricing, fleet rules and affiliate network.
  • the main engine 130 of the transportation system 100 will perform a series of computations to validate and then match the reservation request with a specific driver.
  • the computation in accordance with the disclosed method of the invention accounts for whether the reservation request is for a regular customer or a VIP customer, the location and time of the pickup, the drivers from a class of cars appropriate for the job, the ranking of the driver, the location of the driver in relation to the pickup time and location, as well as the traffic and weather conditions.
  • a customer waiting list is a job list comprising a queue, regardless of whether the customer reached the transportation system via interactive voice response (IVR) , a land based or wireless telephone system or network (e.g., GSM, CDMA, VoIP/PSTN), a communication server, or a web server (see FIG. 4) .
  • IVR interactive voice response
  • a land based or wireless telephone system or network e.g., GSM, CDMA, VoIP/PSTN
  • the jobs in the queue are listed on a first come first serve basis, i.e., in a descending manner, and further sorted based on a numerical value calculated in accordance with the customer algorithm, and updated each time a new reservation request is made and/or each time a driver is assigned to a job in the queue.
  • the customer algorithm accounts for characteristics such as the amount of the fare, the class of the requested car, the customer class, the location, time, and type of car requested, the willingness to share a ride, willingness to have more stops to destination, as well as the request for a particular driver and many other parameters.
  • the computation permits the transportation system 100 to accommodate specific requests from customers for particular types of cars that do not match their accounts.
  • the transportation system 100 may provide an upgrade in the service provided to a customer, if a regular car is not available or a customer provides a request for a luxury or VIP car. Likewise, the transportation system 100 may perform a temporary downgrade of the service provided to a customer, if a VIP customer requests an economy car.
  • the waiting list of a driver is a sorting list comprising all available drivers and affiliates at a particular time.
  • the sorting list is based on a driver algorithm that accounts for characteristics of a specific driver and includes information such as the time the driver has been idle, the weekly average for the driver, waiting time on the list of queue, the location of the driver " constantly updated by GPS, the error ranking of the driver, the type of car chauffeured by the driver, the kind of jobs already performed by the driver (i.e., whether a driver has recently performed two high value out of town trips, then the third trip will most likely be local), type of car, smoking or nonsmoking, hybrid or non-hybrid, traffic conditions, return rides from a destination that other drivers may not be able to fulfill, offers or availability from affiliates for a lower price or a "better" type of car, balancing of supply and demand for cars within the next two hours of the reservation request, as well as any restrictions, such as no pets or nonsmokers, as well as many other parameters .
  • a driver algorithm that accounts for characteristics of a specific driver and includes information such as the time the driver has been idle, the
  • the sorting list presents the driver service categories in descending order, which may be identical for all or different for different car classes or different customers, according to the quality of the service a particular driver is permitted to perform.
  • the VIP category is listed first
  • the luxury category second is listed third.
  • the corresponding drivers are listed according to their ranking on a scale from 0 to 4.
  • a driver from the driver's list is further selected based on the driver algorithm.
  • the transportation system 100 determines the highest type of service that the specific driver can render and places that driver within one of the corresponding VIP, luxury, or standard category of his driver sorting list.
  • the available driver 140 is sorted in a descending manner based on his waiting time, income, ranking on a scale, such as from 0 to 4.
  • drivers with a higher numerical ranking value, such as 4 will be listed above drivers having a lower numerical ranking value, such as 3, who in turn will be listed above drivers having an even lower numerical ranking value, such as 2.
  • Drivers with an exemplary numerical ranking value of 2 will be listed above drivers with an exemplary numerical ranking value of 1, who in turn will be listed above drivers with the lowest numerical ranking, such as 0.
  • the contemplated embodiments of the invention thus permit drivers from a higher category to render service to customers requesting reservations from a lower category.
  • the reverse does not apply unless authorized by the customers requesting the job.
  • a VIP driver can render services to customers requesting luxury or standard cars, but a standard driver cannot render services for customers requesting luxury or VIP cars.
  • a luxury driver can render services to customers that request standard cars; however, a luxury driver cannot render services to customers requesting VIP cars.
  • the drivers are further selected based on the driver algorithm. As a result, an available driver placed within one of the disclosed service categories and sorted according to his rank will be further eliminated for selection based on specific requirements for a job.
  • the main engine 100 Upon placement of a reservation request with the transportation system and after the customer and driver lists are updated, the main engine 100 performs a match between each reservation request from the job list with drivers from the driver waiting list. Hence, selecting a driver from the waiting list is performed by the numerical value produced in accordance with the algorithm, unless a customer requests a particular driver who is available and willing to perform the job. In a contemplated embodiment, whenever a customer places a request for reservation, the transportation system 100 performs the matching process to assign a driver to the job.
  • the main engine 130 determines, based on the pickup time, whether the request is for an urgent job (i.e., an ASAP job), indicates a pickup time within a maximum time period, or is a job at some time in the future, i.e., a time greater than a predetermined time period from the moment the request was placed.
  • the maximum time period is 45 minutes and the predetermined time period is at least 2 hours .
  • the transportation system 100 aggregates selected customers who are willing to share a ride and who are going to the same general area or direction, thus permitting the selected customers to benefit from lower rates and discount fares.
  • customers can be transported in a private car, minivan or by bus.
  • the customers can either travel in a vehicle and be all dropped off at a final designated area without additional stops or they can travel to their individual final designations while the vehicle makes various stops to drop off each individual customer.
  • the same transportation system 100 can be used to provide aggregated private jet travel by the same reservation system.
  • priority is given to higher categories, such as platinum and VIP.
  • cars are assigned within such a class until all jobs are covered by a specific driver. At this point, the next car class will then be covered, in descending order until all jobs are covered.
  • priority is assigned based on title and monetary usage of within the care service network.
  • all accounts are marked based on whether they are eligible to be outsourced, and the transportation system will attempt to outsource as many jobs as possible, where only the treat remaining jobs are treated in the above-discussed priority.
  • the contemplated embodiments of the invention permit aggregation of customers willing to share a ride and matches them based on profile information.
  • affiliates offering such services can list their limitations and the transportation system 100 can thus calculate in real-time whether a four or two-leg reservation by a customer falls within or outside the parameters specified for such a designation. If the transportation system cannot match any affiliate to provide a flat service at the desired price, the transportation system may attempt to charge the split between the originating affiliate and the affiliate performing the second or third leg, put the job up for bidding or auction or ask the customer or affiliate booking the job for an increased price. If it still not possible to perform a match, then the job is allocated to an agent who will try to resolve the issue.
  • the main engine 100 will also take into account information available from GPS and real-time traffic monitoring (see FIG. 4) to ensure the possibility of creating a route which will be cost and time efficient. For instance, if the customers are located in a general area, but their geographic location is divided by a river or some other natural or manmade barrier, which creates an unpractical detour for all the aggregated customers, then the transportation system 100 will be able to assign the customers for aggregation into two different vehicles designated for two different routes, or may even decline to aggregate a customer if not enough customers can be aggregated to the respective area.
  • the transportation system 100 is provided with the capability to match a series of jobs based on information such as the drop-off location, the time of drop off or the car type to optimize job dispatch.
  • the jobs are assigned one at a time when it becomes clear that the drop off of previous job is going to occur on time and when there is enough time for the driver to get to the pickup location.
  • the transportation system 100 of the disclosed embodiments comprises an application with two user interfaces, i.e., a driver interface and a customer interface (not shown) .
  • the driver interface is accessible by registered drivers and dispatchers who are equipped with a wireless device, such as the phone, which includes GPS and wireless location capabilities and all necessary software.
  • the software permits management of car inventory and availability, car and job tracking; it permits drivers and dispatchers to be notified of job assignments and in certain situation to bid for queued reservation requests or receive requests for quotes .
  • the software is configured to operate on wireless devices, but may also operate on computers connected to the Internet or by using phones to call or SMS into an interactive voice response (IVR) reservation system (see FIG. 4) .
  • IVR interactive voice response
  • the contemplated transportation system 100 may also interface with reservation software operated by other travel, rental and limo companies, thus allowing for such functions to be performed automatically based on real-time matching and according to rules designed to optimize the service and fleet utilization.
  • the customer interface permits access to the transportation system 100 by any user, such as registered customers or wholesale reservation networks, equipped with an interface protocol via computer network or any wireless access device such as Palm VII, Blackberry, WAP phone, IPhone, and the like. Interacting with the interface allows the users to place reservation requests, view current and past jobs associated with their respective accounts, bid for available cars, track cars and rate driver service.
  • the application server may reside anywhere on the Internet, and comprises commercial Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) , middleware and presentation software with custom programming.
  • RDBMS Relational Database Management Systems
  • a reservation system provider may receive percentage fees or subscription fees from customers, transaction fees from customers, subscription fees from drivers' percentages, transaction fees from drivers and/or platform licensing fees from other interested businesses.
  • a customer wishes to make a reservation via IVR or SMS (see FIG. 2) , the customer calls in or sends a message to indicate a request for a job.
  • the transportation system 100 uses the caller automatic number identification (ANI) to identify the job and driver, as well as automatically connect the parties or inform the customer of the location of the car. In addition, the transportation system 100 also prompts the customer or driver to perform certain actions based on their location to assist them in finding each other.
  • ANI caller automatic number identification
  • the "make reservation" procedure is a process by which a customer calls the transportation system 100, and based on known voice recognition methodologies or conventional DTMF, the details of the reservation are recorded.
  • the user may receive options to select his default settings or indicate by voice commands whether he wishes to be picked up from home or office. Since default addresses are pre-registered by the transportation system, a simple voice command "home to office today at 6 pm" may result in an accurate reservation which will be read back and emailed to the user.
  • the information entered by the user combined with his identification by his ANI or entered account information is subsequently processed.
  • the system 100 sends a confirmation number to the customer after the credit card has been validated at the credit card validator 160.
  • the confirmation number and job information is also sent to the customer in a known manner by e-mails, SMS or IVR (see FIG. 4) .
  • the transportation system 100 Upon selection of a driver 140 for the job, the confirmation number is sent to the driver 140, thus allowing the selected driver to perform the job. Any future necessary interaction with the user or customer 110 is performed by means of IVR, e-mail and/or SMS. In accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention, the transportation system 100 continues to monitor, such as every 30 minutes, all relevant information to ensure that no critical changes regarding the driver or the customer's itinerary occur. For instance, if a flight is delayed or a driver is sick, the transportation system 100 will automatically reconfigure the reservation and inform the relevant party of the changes in the reservation details.
  • all aspects of the reservation are validated, which includes but is not limited to pickup and drop off addresses, time of travel and its relevance to a flight or an event, calculation of sufficient time for travel based on time of day and day of the week, type of vehicle availability for day and time of travel, other reservations made by the same person or entity and any duplications or inconsistencies, historical errors and their relevance to current reservation details, pickup or drop off information as to any street closure or traffic limitations and many others.
  • the transportation system 100 resolves any conflicts by updating the information or by contacting the customer via email or SMS for clarification or changes.
  • the main engine 130 will either forward the reservation information from the reservation module 130a to an operator or automatically contact the customer 110 for additional information.
  • the operator or the transportation system 100 will be able to contact the customer, via telephone, e-mail, IVR or SMS and retrieve the rest of the information in order to complete and update the reservation request.
  • the transportation system 100 is able to correlate the actual GPS information with the data collected.
  • the "find my car" procedure ensures the car is on location or accounts for the scenario in which a car has not yet arrived at its expected location.
  • the customer 110 may "call in” or receive a call from the transportation system 100 via IVR and the customer can be connected to the driver to elucidate further details for the reservation. Furthermore, by using GPS information, the IVR can read to the user the exact address and the location of the car and estimate the time of arrival. In this case, the customer can also see in real time on the web via a computer or web-enabled cellphone, the location of the car by accessing transportation system data.
  • IVR can be used to inform the customer 110 that the car is on location.
  • the driver 140 may send a signal to the main engine 130 to indicate his arrival at the location.
  • the main engine 130 receives the signal from the driver 140, the main engine 130 initiates a communication with the customer via e-mail, SMS or telephone by use of IVR, based on the profile setting of the customer, and a recording will inform the customer that the car is on location.
  • the customer 110 may be provided with the option to delay pickup by a predetermined time period, such as by 5, 10 or 15 minutes. Where selection of a delay is communicated to the system and the driver, it is designated as non-critical and is reflected as "green" on any interface that may be is current use.
  • An automatic feature is implemented in the exemplary embodiment of the transportation system 100.
  • the automatic feature permits use of e-mail, SMS, or IVR to call to inform a customer when, for example, a flight is delayed and/or inform them that the car will pick them up later to correspond to the new flight schedule, or call the customer while in flight if necessary to confirm that a car will be waiting at the airport based on the new flight schedule.
  • the IVR can be used to correlate the ANI or caller ID of the incoming calls with users to eliminate the need for them to be identified or to specify which job they are referencing to allow them to immediately interact with the system by voice or touch tone.
  • the method of the invention permits ground transportation services or individual drivers anywhere in the world to enroll as affiliates (see FIG. 4) of the transportation system 100, and provide services to customers as part of the car service network.
  • a user may access the transportation system 100 via web or SMS and book a four-leg reservation for car services in a remote location during an originating leg of a trip.
  • an affiliate limousine company using such a platform in one city may be identified as a qualified provider by the transportation system 100 and assigned the job.
  • the qualified provider obtains a confirmation to provide service for the users in that particular city. For instance, if a customer based in a US city calls a local limousine service and desires to have service in a different city in the US, the local company in accordance with the system and method of the invention is able to provide that service by taking the reservation and outsourcing the reservation request to other affiliates of the car service network, as long as they all use the transportation system or place their jobs through such system.
  • the company will be required to call back the customer with the price quote and confirmation details for the second leg of the trip in Memphis.
  • the limousine company in Los Angeles may have a difficult time ensuring that the affiliate in Memphis performs its tasks adequately and up to the standards of the Los Angeles limousine company.
  • the current practice of providing reservations for the second leg of a trip is not only cumbersome and inefficient with respect to time and cost for both the user and the limousine company, but it also fails to provide the Los Angeles limousine company with a way to monitor the services for the second leg of the user's trip to ensure adequate service.
  • the disclosed embodiments of the present invention address many of the current problems associated with booking a reservation for the second leg or third leg of a four-leg trip, by utilizing the transportation system and method to provide a remote affiliate with an automated way to integrate services within the car service network and communicate in a real-time manner with a user or customer.
  • fixed pricing from the transportation system 100 is available.
  • the fixed price is calculated as a function of the distance from the airport of the remote location to the general downtown area of the city of the remote location.
  • the distance from an airport, in a remote location, to the general downtown area of a city, within the same remote location, will vary from city to city based on the allowed radius of the diameter provided by the affiliate as part of their flat offer to the affiliate car service network.
  • an embodiment of the invention permits the user to access a transportation system website via a web server (see FIG. 4) and book reservations for the first and second leg of the trip.
  • the first leg of the trip comprises a local ride to a local airport
  • the second leg comprises a ride from the destination airport to the general downtown area of the destination city.
  • a trip from an airport in a remote location to the general downtown area of a city in that remote location is a standard price for each city and it is stored in a database.
  • the transportation system 100 uses a geo database to validate the address and confirm if the remote location is within the specified radius provided by the local affiliate.
  • Each affiliate that joins the car system network 400 registers the geographical region and type of service that they provide, as well as the price associated with such service.
  • the transportation system is also connected to the local company software or can get manual web based availability updates to keep current information about both price and availability.
  • a user or consumer may obtain real-time confirmation of price and availability for many legs of any trip, as well as an exact pricing quote for each individual ride.
  • the pricing on the reservation request in remote areas could be based upon an auction process or a pre-negotiated rate with each affiliate or individual drivers, which has been stored into, for example, database 150 as part of the transportation system 100.
  • the user or customer 110 is permitted to access the transportation system website via the web server (see FIG. 4) and order a local ride to the local airport within the geographical data, for the first leg of the trip, while receiving an exact price for the services requested. Subsequently, the user or customer 110 is able to book a reservation for the second leg of the trip, from the destination airport, in the remote location, to an area of the city of the said remote location other than the general downtown area of the remote city. In accordance with the present embodiment, the customer 110 or user will receive a second confirmation from the transportation system 100 specifying the pricing quote for the second leg of the trip.
  • the quote is obtained from a process involving one or many remotely located affiliates of the transportation system 100 who have registered to provide service in such areas pursuant to a bidding process or as a flat rate when the trip is to a standard location or destination from the airport.
  • the transportation system of the present contemplated embodiment decides whether the request for a reservation is a fleet job or an affiliate job. Upon deciding whether the reservation request is for an affiliate job, the transportation system 100 transmits the request to a specific or multiple affiliates that are selected based on a predetermined computation.
  • This predetermined computation is based on information such as response time, price, availability, historical performance, proximity to the destination airport, number of jobs performed in the past for the transportation system, the number of jobs received by the transportation system from the affiliate, and the level of service requested, such as VIP, luxury or standard.
  • a remote affiliate links to the remote affiliate account and retrieves a reservation request from the reservation module 130a of the main engine 130, the request fully describes the order and provides the agreed upon price, or a blank space for the price or a target price suggested by the transportation system based on an acceptable and competitive rate.
  • the remote affiliate may fill in and submit a price quote and the transportation system 100 can either accept or reject the offer. In the event the offer is rejected, the original remote affiliate may resubmit another offer.
  • the reservation request will also be communicated to other remote affiliates servicing the same area and allow them to bid for the same job.
  • the transportation system 100 when the transportation system 100 provides a competitive and reasonable price for the fare to several local affiliates, they can either accept the offer or enter a new price. If the offer is accepted by more than one affiliate, then the transportation system submits the same reservation request with the new lowest suggested price quote to more affiliates from that remote location and provides a second chance to bid for the job, if no response is received the job is awarded. However, if a new lower price is received, then the job is awarded to the lowest bidder and the others bidders are notified of the award. [00106] The system and method of the contemplated embodiments sends the reservation request to more than one affiliate to ensure that at least one quote and a successful booking of the reservation is obtained.
  • the transportation system may manage and apply such credits to ensure that more jobs get performed by the car service network.
  • the transportation system receives the order for the second leg of the trip, it automatically sends an order for the second leg of the trip to a remote affiliate of transportation system in that second city.
  • the affiliate can access a link that leads it to its own account on the transportation system.
  • the account will provide information related the user's reservation, such as time, date, price, pickup and final destination within the remote location.
  • the reservation information comprises all the details necessary for the pickup and identification of the user by the affiliate, including billing information.
  • the affiliate has the option of either accepting or rejecting the request for reservation. In the event the respective affiliate declines the reservation request or the respective affiliate fails to submit a timely acceptance the reservation request is cancelled from the account of that respective affiliate.
  • the reservation request is then offered to an alternative affiliate within the remote location. Alternatively, multiple offers are sent to all the affiliates, and the first to respond or the lowest price quote wins the job. In accordance with the disclosed embodiments, such a process can be automatically performed between the two software systems of the transportation system and the affiliate's transportation system.
  • the user or customer 110 is permitted to book a reservation for the second leg of the trip, in a remote location with a final destination outside the general downtown area of the destination city, and the user or customer will be provided with a standard price for that particular final destination in the remote location.
  • the transportation system 100 accomplishes the calculation of a standard price by computations based on GPS coordinates of the pickup and drop off remote locations, as well as application of the coordinates to a map similar to MapPoint®. Based on this calculation, the transportation system 100 can determine the total mileage of the second leg of the trip, and in addition to a predetermined agreement with each affiliate for the base charge and distance charge by an affiliate, the system can determine a standard pricing for each different remote location anywhere in the world.
  • a user or customer 110 receives a standard price for the second leg of the trip to a specific remote location, as well as a real-time on-line confirmation, for both the pickup and the standard price.
  • the transportation system 100 accesses external databases (not shown) to automatically complete the trip information and minimize the information needed from the user. For example, on the first leg when the customer enters the pickup location and flight number, the system will access the flight' s departure and arrival time from the FAA or the airline database to acquire the destination, time of landing, airport terminal and city.
  • the transportation system 100 will also verify whether the pickup time for the first leg of the trip is reasonable based on the departure time, traffic conditions, requested pickup time and day of the week.
  • the information is dynamically completed and the customer is merely required to fill in the drop-off location for the second leg address and proceed to the third leg, where the price of each leg is displayed as part of the completed information.
  • the third leg of the trip information is also dynamically completed and the customer is only required to provide the return flight information.
  • the system automatically enters the airport, terminal and pickup time for the third leg, by calculating the distance and expected traffic conditions based on the time of the day, and proceeds to the fourth leg on which both "from” and "to” is completed based on the assumption that the customer' s destination is the same drop off point as his original pickup point.
  • the transportation system 100 knows the landing time and airport terminal information. Based on the time of day, the transportation system can thus extrapolate whether the customer is going home or to work because this information is already in the system for most frequent users. Customers may change the information or add legs, but the transportation system 100 minimizes the amount of information each customer is required to provide. After the full four-leg trip is booked, the price and distance of the trip is confirmed and all the information is sent to all the parties involved .
  • the entire process that is performed is fully automated, i.e., once a user places the reservation request over the Internet and remote affiliates have provided their coverage areas and pricing information, the transportation system 100 can automatically process each part of the request until the entire job is booked and confirmed by the different affiliates who agreed to provide service on the travel legs specified by the client .
  • the transportation system 100 provides a matching service that allows any provider/affiliate that has an empty leg to post it on the website of the transportation system via the web server (see FIG. 4) at a price to thereby allow the system to find a match with a customer or affiliate customer to use the empty legs.
  • Many affiliates may use the transportation system to manage all their trips.
  • the transportation system 100 possesses all relevant inventory information and can easily provide matching and accounting reconciliation, which result in lower costs for all parties involved.
  • the transportation system is permitted to increase the number of affiliate jobs.
  • the transportation system 100 will be able to detect if any of the customers of the fleet were landing at the airport in the remote location and will offer the remote affiliate the opportunity to transport the customer 110 for the second leg of the trip.
  • the computer will automatically generate a new confirmation to the original customer, covering both the first and the second leg of the trip and specifying the pricing for the second leg of the trip.
  • the transportation system 100 then continues to monitor the situation on the day of the second leg and automatically issues ⁇ an email to the customer and remote affiliate on the day of the pickup.
  • the email provides a reminder to the remote affiliate of the pickup and requests reconfirmation of the pickup, unless the information was already provided by the driver 140 via phone .
  • the transportation system 100 can also provide a photograph of the customer, in addition to an optional printable pickup sign to be displayed by the driver or placed into the window of a specific car identifying the passenger by name, identifying the car by a brand.
  • the transportation system requests confirmation of when the on-location, pickup and drop-off times actually occurred, and requires the affiliate to fill in the completed voucher information on-line in a known manner.
  • the system and method of the contemplated embodiment of the invention are performed in an automated manner and, thus, require almost no additional increase associated with the transportation system for any operational personnel to supervise the affiliates. All such information is provided to the originating affiliate or customer and combined with the first and fourth legs of the transaction.
  • the transportation system 100 monitors all "hubs" and maintains management by exception, because it generates red flags if there are failures to accept or respond to various emails or requests generated by the transportation system. If there are no red flags, then the operation of the system and method of the contemplated embodiments occurs in an optimal, automated manner. If there are red flags, however, then intervention by a dispatcher (see FIG. 4) supervising the transportation system 100 occurs to ensure that customers obtain car service.
  • a dispatch screen (see, e.g., FIGS. 17 and 18) provided to allow system administrators to perform or override all automated functions of the transportation system is designed to show the user all pending jobs and all actions taken for each job by the transportation system or third parties.
  • the dispatcher can select different views and affect actions to provide a desired service to the clients.
  • the transportation system 100 records this information and adjusts its parameters to learn and perform tasks in the format adjusted by the dispatcher.
  • the transportation system 100 has many users, with each one being an independent operator who has selected to use the system as their fleet manager.
  • the transportation system may use the inventory of a single user and compare this inventory to the inventory of another user within the same geographical location to allow automated outsourcing of jobs between different users.
  • the transportation system 100 may obtain a flat fee or a percentage of a transaction or the spread between what the client or customer pays and what can be obtained to complete the job by other remote affiliates.
  • the transportation system 100 is permitted to sign up clients or customer in other cities, such as Washington, DC, where the transaction will be entirely serviced by affiliates within Washington, DC and other cities to which the client or customer from DC travels.
  • the only involvement of the transportation system personnel will be on an exception basis.
  • the transportation system use geodata database and calculations to perform real time pricing of a job from any location to any location. The calculation is based on information, such as a base fare plus a fee per mile, which may vary country by country, based on a multiplier calculated from a sample of fares provided by local affiliates and drivers.
  • the fare can be increased based on the type of car, long duration trips, or special requests requested by the customer, such as stops.
  • the transportation system may also adjust prices offered to the customer based on the time of day and day of the week the job is to be performed and the acceptance level experienced by web and phone customers for each pricing level.
  • different customers may obtain different rates based on promotions and total monthly spending of such clients with the specific driver or affiliate.
  • Figures 2 (a) thru 2 (c) show a flow chart of the steps associated with processing a reservation.
  • a user provides details associated with a desired reservation along with their credit card information to the main engine 130, as indicated in step 200.
  • the reservation module 130a provides all reservation information to the customer for approval, as indicated in step 205.
  • the customer approves the reservation, as indicated in step 210.
  • the reservation module 130a provides a reservation confirmation code and reservation information to the customer database 120, as indicated in step 215.
  • the reservation information is stored in an appropriate "sub folder" located in the customer database, as indicated in step 220.
  • the credit card validator 160 performs a check of the customer database 225 pursuant to obtaining immediate payment, as indicated in step 225.
  • the main engine 130 validates the credit card information of the customer 110 via the credit card validator 160, as indicated in step 230.
  • a confirmation code is sent to the customer 110 or user if payment is possible.
  • the system informs the user of the credit card decline and offers the user another chance to make a reservation.
  • the transportation system 100 sends the reservation information to the local affiliates. This reservation information may be sent from the local affiliate's dispatchers or drivers who are able to render the service required, and respond to the main engine by submitting their individual driver ID and a request for acceptance .
  • the main engine 130 selects a driver 140 from the drivers who provided a request for acceptance and sends a confirmation code to the selected driver, as indicated in step 235.
  • the confirmation code indicates to the driver the information regarding the user or customer, such as name, pickup address, time, and destination, in addition to other information which can be obtained upon further prompting by the driver.
  • the dispatch module 130b sends an acceptance request to the driver 140, as indicated in step 240.
  • the driver indicates his acceptance of the job associated with the request, as indicated in step 245.
  • the driver provides an indication of the pickup time to the dispatch module 130b and the billing and accounting module 130c, as indicated in step 250.
  • the driver also provides the billing and accounting module 130c with unscheduled stops, tolls and other information such as requests for child cars seats, as indicated in step 255.
  • the driver 140 provides an indication to the dispatch module 130b and billing and accounting module 130c that the service has been completed, as indicated in step 260.
  • the driver 140 sends billing information to the main engine 130, where the billing and accounting module 130c calculates the final billing for the ride and transmits a fully completed voucher to the driver 140, as indicated in step 265.
  • the driver then obtains the customer's approval for the billing charges, i.e., the customer 140 or an originating affiliate to validate the charges associated with the ride, as indicated in step 270. It should be noted that upon validation of the charges by the customer 140 or the originating affiliate, the main engine 130 contacts a credit card validation system (not shown) for processing of the payment or bills the originating party and credits the remote affiliate. [00124] In accordance with the contemplated embodiment, there are multiple options for processing a payment, such as charging a credit card or debiting a VIP account. Moreover, if a third party referred the customer, a commission is processed by the main engine 130, which ensures that the third party receives prompt payment.
  • the transportation system 100 of the contemplated embodiment thus functions as a clearing and settlement network between the affiliates and drivers 140.
  • the driver 140 permits the voucher to reflect that payment was made immediately and provides an indication of this to the billing and accounting module 130c, as indicated in step 275.
  • the driver transmits the approved final billing to the billing and accounting module 130c, as indicated in step 280.
  • the credit card validator 160 retrieves final billing and obtains a payment authorization code from the credit card validation system, as indicated in step 285.
  • the credit card validator 160 forwards this payment authorization code to the customer database 120 for storage, as indicated in step 290.
  • billing and accounting module 130c retrieves the payment authorization code and performs an offset of its accounting records, as indicated in step 295. The billing and accounting module 130c then transmits the information that the job is closed or completed to the customer database for storage, as indicated in step 297.
  • the transportation system sorts drivers based on one methodology and sorts the jobs based on another methodology. Matching is performed between sorted drivers and jobs until one side is exhausted. If the driver side becomes exhausted first, the transportation system allocates additional jobs to affiliates. However, if the jobs cannot be covered by the affiliates, then the transportation system attempts to change the pickup time with the customer or informs the customer that the job cannot be performed as requested.
  • the transportation system 100 continually monitors for jobs for an extended period of time, such as 2 hours.
  • the transportation system 100 Upon receipt of jobs, the transportation system 100 places the jobs in order based on the following: (1) pickup time (ascending) ; (2) account/customer grade (descending) ; and (3) within each grade order by: (1) account jobs; (2) pre-paid jobs; (3) credit card jobs and (4) cash jobs.
  • the drivers are initially assigned based on the following: (1) ASAP jobs receive priority (e.g., pickup time in 45 minutes or less); (2) assigned requested driver if available; assign jobs by the job sort order; and (4) return to the ASAP job assignment.
  • Figures 3 (a) thru 3(c) show a flow chart of the steps associated with an exemplary method for a job that is to be performed as soon as possible (ASAP) .
  • the transportation system 100 determines whether the customer indicated a specific driver for the requested job, as indicated in step 305. An affirmative response will cause the transportation system 100 to further determine whether the specific driver is available. If the driver is available, the transportation system will then forward the reservation request to the specific driver 140, as indicated in step 310. Here, the driver may either accept or decline the reservation request, as indicated in step 315. If the driver accepts the request for reservation by pressing a certain button on his communication device, such as his phone, then the transportation system 100 will assign the job to that driver and matching is terminated, as indicated in step 320.
  • main engine 130 determines whether there are any available drivers either working or on standby, as indicated in step 325. If there are available drivers, the main engine 130 determines whether there are any available drivers authorized for the job associated with a particular geography or are at that particular geographic location, as indicated in step 330. In the event that there are no available drivers, then the transportation system will forward the job to an affiliate .
  • the main engine 130 determines whether any of the selected drivers are chauffeuring the type of car requested by the customer, as indicated in step 335. If there is not at least one driver that chauffeurs the requested type of car, then the transportation system will forward the job to the affiliates. However, in the event that at least one driver chauffeurs the requested car type, then the main engine 130 determines whether any of the selected drivers are qualified to service any one of the VIP, luxury and Standard class of cars to match the job request, as indicated in step 340. [00134] If none of the available drivers are qualified to service any one of the VIP, luxury and standard class of cars to match the job request, then the transportation system will determine whether there are available drivers who could perform jobs for a lower rank class of cars, as indicated in step 345.
  • a VIP driver can be assigned to a standard car,- if there are no standard or luxury drivers available. If the transportation system is able to find a match for this requirement, it will proceed to the next step; however, if no matches are available for this requirement, the main engine will forward the job to the affiliates . [00135] Next, the main engine 130 determines whether any of the drivers selected in step 345 are close to the pickup location, as indicated in step 350. An affirmative response will advance the contemplated method to the step 355; however, a negative response will permit the main engine to skip this step and in effect advance to step 355.
  • the main engine 130 determines whether any of the drivers selected in steps 345 or 350 have lower than average weekly income, as indicated in step 355. An affirmative result will advance the method to step 360; however, if none of the drivers match this requirement, the main engine skips this step and in effect advances directly to step 360. [00137] Next, the main engine 130 determines whether any of the drivers selected in at least one of the steps 345-350 have an on-time percentage rate of at least 80%, as indicated in step 360. An affirmative response will cause the method to advance to the step 365; however, if none of the drivers match this requirement, the main engine skips this step and in effect advances directly to step 365.
  • the main engine 130 determines whether any of the drivers selected in at least one of the steps 345- 360 match the language skill requested by the customer for the job, as indicated in step 365. An affirmative result will advance the process to the next step; however, if none of the drivers match this requirement, the main engine skips this step and in effect advances to the step 370.
  • the main engine 130 determines which driver from among the drivers selected in at least one of the steps 345-365 has been waiting on the list the longest, as indicated in step 370.
  • the driver who has been idle the longest is selected and the main engine 130 forwards an acceptance request for the reservation request to that driver.
  • the driver may accept or decline acceptance request, as indicated in step 375.
  • the main engine 130 assigns the job to that driver and the matching is terminated, as indicated in step 380. If the selected driver declines and notifies the main engine 130 of refusal to perform the job, then the main engine 130 will perform a new match, where a return to step 310 occurs, or if no other candidate drivers are available then the main engine forwards the job to an affiliate. [00141] It is to be appreciated that at any point during matching, when only one driver remains as part of the selection process, matching is terminated and the main engine 130 sends that driver a request for acceptance of the reservation request. Naturally, it will be understood that the driver may accept or decline the request.
  • main engine 130 assigns the job to that driver and the matching is terminated. If the selected driver declines and notifies the main engine 130 of his refusal to perform the job, then main engine 130 will forward the job to an affiliate.
  • FIGs 3 (d) thru 3(f) show a flow chart of the steps associated with an alternative method for a job that is to be performed as soon as possible (ASAP) .
  • a customer requests a job, as indicated in step 400.
  • a check is performed to determine whether the customer requests a specific driver, as indicated in step 405. If a specific driver is requested, then a check is performed to determine whether the specific driver is available, as indicated in step 410. If the specific driver is available, then the job is assigned to the specific driver for the duration of the task, as indicated in step 420. However, if the driver is not available, then the method proceeds to the next step and continues as if a specific driver was not requested.
  • step 425 all working and standby drivers are selected, as indicated in step 425.
  • a check is performed to determine whether any of the selected drivers are available, as indicated in step 430. If no selected drivers are available, then the job is assigned to an affiliate.
  • all the drivers that are authorized for the job geography or that are within the authorized geographic area for the job are matched to the job to identify at least one qualifying driver, as indicated in step 435.
  • a check is then performed to determine if at least one driver is authorized for the job or is within the authorized geographic area, as indicated in step 440. If at least one driver is not authorized for the job or is not within the authorized geographic area, then this step is skipped.
  • step 445 all the selected drivers that have the requested car type are matched to the job, as indicated in step 445.
  • the classes of car types are separated into categories, such as budget, luxury, VIP or platinum and the like.
  • a check is then performed to determine whether at least one driver has the requested car type, as indicated in step 450. If no driver has the requested car type, then this step is skipped.
  • step 455. A check is performed to determine whether at least one driver is close to the pickup location of the job, as indicated in step 460. If no driver is located close to the pickup location, then this step is skipped.
  • step 465 A check is performed to determine whether there is at least one driver that has a lower-than-average driver income, as indicated in step 470. If no driver has a lower-than-average income, then this step is skipped.
  • step 475 all drivers that have an on-time percentage above a predetermined percentage are matched to the job, as indicated in step 475.
  • the percent is 80%.
  • a check is performed to determine whether at least one driver has an on-time percentage above the predetermined percentage, as indicated in step 480. If no driver has an on-time percentage above the predetermined percentage, then this step is skipped.
  • All drivers that have requested language skills are then matched to the job, as indicated in step 485.
  • a check is then performed to determine whether at least one driver has the requested language skills, as indicated in step 490. If no driver has the requested language skills, then this step is also skipped.
  • drivers that have been waiting on the wait list i.e., waiting for a pickup order, for the longest period of time are matched to the job, as indicated in step 495.
  • the job is then assigned to the driver having the longest period of time on the wait list, as indicated in step 500.
  • a check is performed to determine whether the selected driver accepted the job, as indicated in step 510.
  • FIGS. 3(d) thru 3(f) show a flow chart of the steps associated with an exemplary method for assigning scheduled jobs of FIGS. 3(d) thru 3(f) .
  • the requested customer job is scheduled, as indicated in step 600.
  • a check is performed to determine whether the customer requested a specific driver, as indicated in step 605. If a specific driver was requested, then the job is assigned to this specific driver, as indicated in step 610.
  • step 615 a check is performed to determine whether the specific driver accepted the job, as indicated in step 615. If the driver accepted the job, then a confirmation code is sent to the driver as indicated in step 620. However, if the driver did not accept the job, then the method proceeds to the next step and continues scheduling of the job.
  • step 625 all scheduled drivers are selected, as indicated in step 625.
  • a check is then performed to determine whether any of the selected drivers are available, as indicated in step 630. If no selected drivers are available, then the scheduled job is assigned to an affiliate.
  • step 635 If at least one of the selected drivers is available, then all the drivers that are authorized for the job geography or that are within the authorized geographic area for the job are matched to the job to identify at least one qualifying driver, as indicated in step 635. A check is then performed to determine if at least one driver is authorized for the job or is within the authorized geographic area, as indicated in step 640. If at least one driver is not authorized for the job or is not within the authorized geographic area, then this step is skipped.
  • step 645 all the selected drivers that have the requested car type are matched to the job, as indicated in step 645.
  • the classes of car types are separated into categories, such as budget, luxury, VIP or platinum, etc.
  • a check is then performed to determine whether at least one driver has the requested car type, as indicated in step 650. If no driver has the requested car type, then this step is skipped.
  • step 655. A check is performed to determine whether at least one driver is close to the pickup location of the job, as indicated in step 660. If no driver is located close to the pickup location, then this step is skipped.
  • step 665 all drivers that have a lower-than- average driver income are matched to the job, as ⁇ indicated in step 665.
  • a check is performed to determine whether there is at least one driver that has a lower-than-average driver income, as indicated in step 670. If no driver has a lower- than-average income, then this step is skipped.
  • step 675 all drivers that have an on-time percentage above a predetermined percentage are matched to the job, as indicated in step 675.
  • the percent is 80%.
  • a check is performed to determine whether at least one driver has an on-time percentage above the predetermined percentage, as indicated in step 680. If no driver has an on-time percentage above the predetermined percentage, then this step is skipped.
  • All drivers that have requested language skills are then matched to the job, as indicated in step 685. A check is then performed to determine whether at least one driver has the requested language skills, as indicated in step 690. If no driver has the requested language skills, then this step is also skipped.
  • drivers that have been waiting on the wait list for the longest period of time are matched to the job, as indicated in step 695.
  • the job is then assigned to the driver having the longest period of time on the wait list, as indicated in step 700.
  • a check is performed to determine whether the selected driver accepted the job, as indicated in step 710. If the driver accepted the job, then the job is assigned to this specific driver for the duration of the task, as indicated in step 715. If the driver did not accept the job, then a return to step 625 occurs, where the scheduled driver is removed from the list of schedule jobs and the method is repeated. [00160] In each of the methods shown in FIGS. 3(d) thru 3(g) and FIGS.
  • the transportation system 100 classifies clients and drivers into multiple groups and automatically matches them when jobs are presented to the car reservation system.
  • customers or clients are classified by title, monetary usage, the parent organization to which they belong, time of use during the day or type of job.
  • Drivers are grouped based on the year of vehicle that may drive and experience of driver, the type of job, i.e., local or overtime, the price of the job and driver trailing weekly income or the error rate of driver in comparison to the driver fleet.
  • Allocation of jobs allocation to drivers is based on a calculation of all drivers in the same class and their average hourly income for the trailing week.
  • the transportation system 100 will try attempt to allocate a qualifying job to the driver that has a higher monetary value, while taking into consideration other parameters, such as the location of the driver on the waiting list and his waiting time.
  • the job is moved to the missing info or emergency folders which are closely monitored by dispatchers and customer service personnel and the problem is resolved.
  • the system may use such resolution on the next occurrence of the problem.
  • the system also provides real time reports to show the dispatchers load coming from supply and demand so they may perform further adjustments to change promotions or block certain jobs such as budget ASAP to lower the load on the demand side.
  • FIG. 4 is an exemplary schematic illustration of the main engine 130 of FIG. 1 connected to a variety of communication systems, such as telephone services 410 (e.g., VoIP/PSTN), interactive voice response (IVR) 420, communication servers 415 (e.g., SMS or e-mail) , or web servers 425 in an exemplary car service network 400.
  • the main engine 130 simultaneously maintains communication with a transportation fleet and the affiliates 430 through a communication server 440 having a GPS and Real-Time Traffic Monitoring technology 440a, and a dispatch server 440b.
  • the affiliates 440 may also communicate with the main engine 130 by means of an application specific program (ASP) 445 on their wireless device, such as their phones, or their computers (not shown) .
  • ASP application specific program
  • the affiliates 440 or drivers are provided with web access to a proprietary application which they can install in their own wireless devices and use the car service network to conduct their business within the transportation network.
  • Customers 140 as well as on line affiliates and aggregators 450 may request service by transmitting information via the telephone service 410 (e.g., VoIP/PSTN), IVR 420, the communication server 415 (e.g., SMS or e-mail) or the web server 425.
  • the on-line affiliates and aggregators 450 may directly access the main engine 130 via a pricing engine 455 and then place a request for service through the web server 425.
  • Unlike other conventional affiliate networks however, all interaction and billing transactions are performed with the car service network 400 and not directly with other affiliates.
  • the main engine 130 is also connected to a call center for agents 460.
  • customers 140 who sent service requests via the telephone services 410 or telecommunication system may be rerouted to the call center 460 for live communications with an operator who, in turn, can communicate with the main ' engine 130, process requests and assist with additional information.
  • the car service network decides when to use IVR 420 or a live agent based on the customer 140 or the job profile.
  • the call center 460 is also in direct contact with the dispatch engine 440b of the communication server, which transmits information from the drivers 470 and the affiliate drivers and companies 430.
  • the dispatch engine 440b is connected to the communication server 440 having the GPS with real-time traffic monitoring 440a to provide the call center agents 460 with pertinent information regarding the geographical location and availability of the drivers 470 and the affiliate drivers and companies 430.
  • calls received into the car service network 400 via the telecommunication system 410 may be routed directly to the IVR 420 or the main engine 130 or they may be connected to the call center agent 460 for live assistance. In the event the calls are routed to the call center agent 460, the main engine 130 is reached indirectly.
  • a call center agent places the information into the main engine 130 which performs a match with the available service providers.
  • the customer 140 is provided with the option to request a specific driver, rather than relying on the matching provided by the main engine 130.
  • the main engine 130 effectuates matches based on computations to select a driver 140 for a job associated with a request from a customer.
  • the job request from the customer 140 requires a specific choice of a car type from among one of the classes of cars, and it is also a function of the type of account held by a customer, such as a regular, VIP or corporate account.
  • the main engine 130 takes into account the characteristics of the driver, such as his skill, professionalism, availability, language, efficiency, as well as his geographical location, time of the day, type of car chauffeured, and his traffic status.
  • the customer contacts the main engine 130 via IVR 420 and makes a request for car service.
  • the IVR 420 sends the information to the main engine 130, which performs a search and match function and rapidly provides the customer with a selected car for service.
  • the dispatch module 130b Prior to sending the driver information to the customer 140, the dispatch module 130b (see Fig. 1) of the main engine 130 sends a request for acceptance to the selected driver, and only when the driver has accepted the job will the dispatch engine 130b send the selected driver's information to the customer 140. If the selected driver declines, the transportation system 100 will perform another search until a favorable outcome is obtained.
  • the customer 140 accesses the main engine 130 via the communication server 415 using SMS or e-mail.
  • the request is transmitted to the main engine 130 where it is interpreted and converted into a reservation.
  • the converted reservation is sent back to the customer for confirmation, and searching and matching is performed to provide the customer with the appropriate car service.
  • the main engine provides the customer with the selected driver's information via the communication server.
  • a customer sends a request for car service via the web server 425.
  • the customer interface (not shown) permits the input of information pertaining to the pickup and drop-off location, as well as the date and time the service is requested.
  • the main engine 130 is connected either directly or via the web server 425, and the customer 140 is provided with car type options. Once the customer selects an option, the customer interface permits the customer to enter additional information such as name, e-mail information including a password, and billing information to complete the steps toward the final transaction. The information is collected by the main engine 130, validated for accuracy. Once all the necessary information has been provided, the customer 130 is presented by the main engine 130 with a complete reservation details form for confirmation. When the customer confirms the reservation details, the main engine 130 performs an internal match for a driver. Upon receipt of the driver' s acceptance to perform the job, the main engine 130 transmits the selected driver's information to the customer.
  • a customer may use third party programs to make direct reservations with the car service network 400. For instance, a customer may add Limores Jobs@Limores .net as an invited party to a meeting that the customer has scheduled on a Microsoft Outlook schedule.
  • the main engine 130 receives an e-mail from the customer in a preset format, which includes the originator, the meeting address, the number of participants, the time, the duration, and other information. The main engine 130 then translates such information into a pickup reservation for the meeting from the customer' s home or office (based on the time of the meeting) to the meeting place and another reservation for the time the meeting ends back to the office or other preferred location.
  • Such a job confirmation with details is e-mailed or sent by SMS to the customer who can make changes or confirm the details.
  • the car service network of the contemplated embodiments can predict what options the user may change. As a result, additional options may be sent as embedded Ajax code plug-ins to accelerate the processing and menu selections performed by the customer 130.
  • the car service network of the contemplated embodiments may employ web services and other elements to easily and tightly integrate with hundreds of such programs to allow users simple and fast ways to reserve ground and air transportation from their native daily applications .
  • the transportation system of the contemplated embodiments enables third parties to place electronic reservations and for them to be paid commissions and booking fees, which are then deducted from the appropriate affiliates.
  • the transportation system aggregates the demand for service that is generated on hundreds of different travel websites and proprietary reservation systems and channels these orders to specific drivers or affiliates who bid for such jobs or who agreed in advance to such prices or terms. If it is unclear which job should go to which driver, the transportation system 100 or dispatch module utilizes algorithms to include other information pursuant to calculating where to allocate the job. The calculations include information, such as average customer satisfaction, average wait time on the list for drivers over a rolling period of time, average hourly earnings for a driver over a rolling period of time, on time performance, class type, number of complaints and driver knowledge of the destination desired.
  • the transportation system 100 may also integrate with third party applications, such as Evite®, Microsoft Outlook® or GoogleTM desktop which allow the booking of appointments or the management of schedules.
  • third party applications such as Evite®, Microsoft Outlook® or GoogleTM desktop which allow the booking of appointments or the management of schedules.
  • the transportation system of the car service network will provide corporate customers with the flexibility to manage their own accounts by selecting to submit payments to be processed based either on a billing cycle, the billing cycle being selected in agreement with the corporate customer' s wish or upon the completion of a job. Furthermore, the transportation system will permit corporate employees to settle their own billing associated with their individual customer profile either by using a corporate charge account, or a personal credit card, also according to a billing cycle or upon completion of a job. Moreover, the transportation system permits customers to categorize any job as private or business or split. Here, selected private jobs are then moved to the customer's personal account.
  • Customers are ranked by the transportation system as regular customers, VIP customers and ICU customers. These designations are based on the amount of income that is derived from each customer, and entails a higher level of service that is associated with the best cars, the best drivers and the most courteous servicing and processing of their reservations. According to these designations customers are not only served on a first come first serve basis, but also according to the type of treatment they require from the transportation system. For example, if one regular customer, a VIP customer and an ICU customer call at the same time and request reservations for the same date and time, the transportation system will first attend to the ICU customer, then the VIP customer and lastly to the regular customer.
  • the main engine 130 compiles information gathered from a map server 475, traffic and weather servers (not shown) to obtain traffic and weather alerts, as well as information from the communication server 440 which provides a constant update of the geographical location of all individual drivers 470 in the fleet, as well as the affiliate drivers 430.
  • the main engine 130 differentiates between service cars which are available or occupied.
  • the main engine 130 constantly possesses information on the availability of cars, their location, the traffic status and the weather reports .
  • the transportation system allows company managers to have superior cost and behavior control, which are not currently available from conventional systems.
  • the transportation system By combining GPS trip information, trip time stamps for on- location, pickup and drop-off, reservation recordings, and electronic vouchers, any stops information, airfare information, travel dates and times, and comparing all of this information to each customer policy and procedure for each class of employees, the transportation system functions as a gatekeeper enforcing customer dictated usage policies before, during and after trips are performed, and ensures cost savings and cost controls.
  • the transportation system 100 provides supervisors and authorized personnel with real-time access to all such data and marks suspected jobs which are outside such parameters. This solution advantageously permits the focus of enforcement to switch to an offender, instead of the random checks that are currently performed manually by most companies.
  • affiliates and drivers may add themselves to the car service network 400 and indicate whether they agree to participate in different promotions arranged by the transportation reservation system 100. For example, if the transportation reservations system creates a flat rate four-leg program for domestic rides at $249, different participants will sign up and agree to provide two legs of the trip for 40% of a job dollar total within their geography, with a specific maximum mileage radius they will cover from the airports they serve. In addition, they may agree to an arrangement where if they originate the four-leg job, then they will keep 50% of the job value and so on. By getting all affiliates to participate based on the same terms and conditions, seamless global advertising can be achieved which will provide users with predictable service and pricing levels.
  • drivers may login to the driver module 140 of the transportation system 100 on their phones or via the web and, at any time, view their standing, ranking and accounting with the affiliate or with the car service network.
  • the drivers are provided with the ability to resolve any disputes or instantly deal with any outstanding issues, as well as view the amounts due to them at any time.
  • the transportation system 100 of the disclosed embodiments supports multiple price levels and car classes, and allows account administrators to set usage levels and restrictions for their staff.
  • the transportation system uses these rules to match specific job requests of the users to their provided profiles and the drivers that are authorized to service such customers.
  • the dispatch module 130b and the pricing module 13Od the transportation system can ensure that all corporate and user guidelines are observed and maintained, while allowing the customers to use the system to enact usage and price controls to ensure that the provided service is within the budget they have authorized.
  • the transportation system 100 human dispatchers are used only upon specific request from customers or in emergency situations when the transportation system detects a problem in the performance or completion of a job which cannot be corrected without human intervention.
  • the transportation system 100 monitors the activity of the dispatchers and provides ways to engage the dispatchers into activities to stimulate the business.
  • the main engine 130 minimizes the downtime of dispatchers by detecting idle dispatchers and assigning them to various tasks. For instance, when no calls are in a call queue and no calls are being actively detected, the transportation system 100 will assign a priority list of the appropriate customers who have not used the services in at least one month or have lowered their number of jobs to different dispatchers, based on each dispatcher's experience and ability.
  • the dispatcher will be required to search the list and contact all the customers by e- mails, for example, or over the telephone.
  • the transportation system of the present contemplated embodiment records all the activity of a dispatcher once a dispatcher has selected a customer from the contact list. As such, the system saves e-mails and SMS communications sent to each respective customer, and records conversations with the customers.
  • the record of the conversation comprises information, such as the date and time the customer was contacted, as well as the amount of time the dispatcher was on the phone with that customer.
  • the transportation system permits the dispatchers to provide additional information about the outcome of the communication with the customer, and even make specific notations if the customer indicates that he does not wish to be re-contacted in the future.
  • the main engine 130 also alerts the dispatchers to call back abandoned or dropped calls.
  • the main engine 130 detects that a call was dropped or abandoned (e.g., calls that have been on hold for longer than 2 minutes)
  • the main engine 130 immediately sends a warning to the respective dispatcher and places the dropped or abandoned call at the top of the priority list of the dispatcher.
  • the main engine 130 will ensure that no new calls can be routed to that dispatcher until the dropped or abandoned call has been addressed.
  • the main engine 130 also alerts the dispatchers when customers have reached the system via the IVR and a call back is required. For instance, when a customer provided information that is incomplete, and the only way to communicate with this customer is via telephone, the main engine 130 alerts a dispatcher that the customer needs to be called back for retrieval of additional information related to the reservation request. Moreover, the transportation system 100 will alert the dispatcher to call back a customer who made a specific request to be called back to confirm or discuss reservation details. [00186] As described previously, with respect to FIG.
  • the main engine 130 is comprised of a plurality of modules, such as the reservation module 130a, the dispatch module 130b, the reports module 13Oe, as well as the billing and accounting module 130c, while at the same time is connected to the map server 475 and a database 480.
  • the communication server 440 has a GPS and real-time traffic monitor 440a, and the communication server 415 is provided to permit communication by SMS and/or e-mails.
  • the reservation module 130a receives reservations and collects reservation information, performs a logistics check to ensure that there is no missing or inappropriately entered information, validates the information, and upon a favorable outcome, presents the customer 140 with a final form comprising reservations details for confirmation. After the customer 140 confirms the reservation detail, the reservation module 130a transmits a confirmation code to the customer and also sends the reservation information for storage in the customer profile 125b of the customer database 120.
  • the dispatch module 130b performs constant checks of the customer profile 125 of the database, indexed by date. In advance of the requested reservation time, such as a day, the dispatch module 130b determines whether the job will be performed by a driver from the fleet or an affiliate. In the event of a determination that the job will be performed by a driver from the fleet, the dispatch module 130b will access the drivers' profiles of the database 480 and perform a match based on the driver algorithms to determine and select a driver for the job. On the other hand, if the job will be performed by an affiliate 430. An affiliate system equipped with the system and method in accordance with the disclosed embodiments of the invention will be able to select a driver for the job or provide an affiliate driver for the job should the fleet capacity be presently exceeded.
  • the dispatch module 130b will constantly monitor the job status. Consequently, at key moments in time, the dispatch module 130b will send the appropriate signals for commencement of the job, ensure the car is on location and that the customer has been picked up and determine that the customer was timely dropped off.
  • the system performs continuous checks on every job during the creation of a reservation, as well as before and during the job and after completion. For example, the system checks the addresses and flight numbers to ensure they exist in third party software such as MapPoint® and FlightView®. If the information is unconfirmed by the software, the customer is prompted during the booking of a reservation, or after the reservation has been completed.
  • the main engine 130 transmits the information to the dispatch module 130b, which checks in increasing increments for any schedule changes related to the event, flight, connection, meeting or schedule of others to ensure that the job is still current and can be performed as scheduled. If there is a delay or cancellation, then the transportation system 100 informs the customer or multiple entities and awaits changes or cancellation of the service request. If all the information verified after the affiliate or driver is dispatched, the transportation system monitors with high frequency the actions and progress of the jobs by collecting and comparing various data, such as the driver GPS location, which may be sent to the transportation system by a device provided to the driver or by third party, such as Lojack® that is contacted to monitor vehicles.
  • various data such as the driver GPS location
  • the IVR 420 or communication server 415 will call or message the driver at a predetermined time to ensure he is ready to perform the job.
  • the driver will accept such a call by entering a DTMF tone or sending a reply message, at which point the transportation system will start to monitor the distance the driver is from the pickup location and ensure that the car is getting closer to the pickup location.
  • the transportation system 100 will also calculate the driver' s speed to ensure the driver will get to his location before pickup time. If any errors or unexpected results are occurring, the transportation system may mark such jobs as problem jobs, with a description of the problem and have a dispatcher review it to take corrective actions.
  • the transportation system will proceed to contact the customer based on the selection made on their profile.
  • customers may have multiple entries that change by day of the week, hour, location, and so on. In this case, due to an early pickup hour, the customer may have selected to receive an SMS message as a way to be notified of the arrival of the driver, or a may simply receive a regular phone call.
  • the transportation system 100 makes such a call or sends such a message and awaits confirmation. While receiving the confirmation, the transportation system 100 informs the driver 140 that the customer has been contacted and awaits receipt of a message that the customer was picked up.
  • the transportation system 100 Upon pickup the transportation system 100 monitors the driver to ensure he is moving toward the drop off location and that the customer reaches his destination. If any information received varies from the planned itinerary the transportation system tries to obtain additional information or refers the job to a dispatcher 460. In addition, the transportation system 100 may detect stops and changes in the itinerary and attempt to amend and re-price the job accordingly. If all the necessary information is received from the driver or a third party, the transportation system 100 proceeds as planned. However, if all information is not received, then the transportation system 100 will escalate the job and await instructions.
  • the transportation system 100 updates the entire job information and populates the customer files such that the customer and others can see the final data. At all times during the job, the transportation system 100 updates the job in real-time such that third parties are permitted to view real-time information on the job. After drop-off has occurred, the transportation system 100 then monitors any remaining legs on the job and checks to determine whether any changes or problems have occurred, and repeats the process. When there is a change in a flight or a connection, the transportation system 100 informs the customer and any third parties to receive confirmations and/or instructions. If no confirmations or instructions are received, then an escalation to the dispatcher 460 occurs so that the dispatcher can deal with the problem job. Any unresolved issues are escalated to the shift manager, and so on. As a result, a dramatic reduction of errors and problems is achieved by anticipating and resolving them prior to their occurrence .
  • the billing and accounting module 130c performs functions associated with validating payment information, collecting information pertaining to additional charges for a ride, such as unscheduled stops, tolls, and car seats, processing the final billing, and closing a job.
  • the reservation module 130a transmits the reservation information to the customer profile 125 of the customer database 120
  • the credit card validator 160 commences searching the database for new credit card information and validates a customer's credit card. In the event the credit card is declined, the credit card validator 160 will attempt to validate the second default credit card on file, or if a second default credit card is not available, a message is transmitted from the credit card validator 160 to the customer database 160 that the credit card was declined.
  • the dispatch module 130b checks the customer database, it retrieves information regarding the declined credit card and transmits a request for a new credit card to the customer 140. Once a credit card has been validated and a customer has been picked up, the driver 140 sends to the billing and accounting module 130c information pertaining to the number of unplanned stops executed during the ride, the tolls paid, as well as gratuities, which the billing and accounting module 130c adds to the final bill. At the time of the drop-off, the driver re-signals the billing and accounting module 130c that the job has been completed. Once all the computations regarding the fare are performed by the billing and accounting module, the data to generate an electronic voucher reflecting the final billing is forwarded to the driver 140.
  • the driver 140 presents the voucher to the customer and the customer approves the electronic voucher reflecting the final billing and the itemized charges by signing the electronic voucher.
  • the billing and accounting module 130c ensures that all the charges and the computations were properly performed, reconciles its records for accounting purposes, and transmits the approved electronic voucher to the customer profile 125 of the database 120.
  • the customer profile of the database storing the approved voucher is checked by the credit card validator 160 to process the payment.
  • the credit card validator 160 transmits the approval code to the customer database 120, thus indicating that the payment has been processed.
  • the billing and accounting module 130c constantly checks whether new approvals for payments are received at the customer database.
  • the billing and accounting module 130c retrieves the information and closes the job on that particular ride by reconciling his records to indicate approval for payment of the final billing.
  • the billing and accounting module 130c retrieves the information and closes the job on that particular ride by reconciling his records to indicate approval for payment of the final billing.
  • a customer who has reached a reservation page, may select the default addresses saved in his profile for use as the pickup and destination locations, the list of past addresses for each location, respectively, or he may opt to add an entirely new set of locations, according to his needs.
  • the customer 140 must enter the date and the time for the reservation. If the destination is an airport location, then the customer 140 will have the option of simply entering his flight number. In the event a flight number is entered, the transportation system 100 will fill in the rest of the information, such as the date and pickup time of the departure for a specific flight. The transportation system 100 determines the pickup time based on computations that take into account the departure time for a specific flight, information from third parties regarding live flight checks, traffic conditions, as well as historical performance of similar jobs on similar days or with similar events.
  • the customer 140 can proceed by confirming the settings and when the need arises he may edit the information and change the settings of his profile. Once all the reservation information has been selected, the transportation system 100 will provide the customer with the opportunity to review all the information and edit information, if necessary. In addition, at that time, the customer can select an option to be called a predetermined time, such as 15 minutes, ahead of the reservation time and/or when the car is on location, and he must confirm the reservations data .
  • a predetermined time such as 15 minutes
  • the transportation system 100 provides a confirmation code to the customer.
  • the customer then has the option to print a voucher for the reservation or to order a return ride.
  • the point-to-point settings are dynamically entered by the transportation system, under an assumption that the customer will return from the point of drop-off to the point of initial pickup. Notwithstanding, the customer is required to input the pickup time and date for the return ride. As before, if the destination location is an airport, the customer will only be required to input the flight number, and the transportation system 100 will dynamically fill in the date and time of the pickup for the return trip. In addition, the customer can change the default settings of the pickup and destination of the return ride, in accordance with his needs.
  • the voucher contains important information regarding the reservation, such as the confirmation code, the name of the customer, an account number, the pickup time and date, the drop-off time, the list of point-to-point locations, fare, additional stops, waiting time, subtotal, tips, tolls, parking, car seat, processing fees, taxes and estimated total.
  • a print out of the voucher may be useful for the customer's own accounting purposes, even though the transportation system 100 retains and stores an electronic copy of the voucher.
  • Figure 5 is an illustration of the interaction that occurs when booking a reservation from the perspective of the customer. Customers divide reservations into two groups, i.e., immediate (ASAP) 550 or future reservations 555.
  • SASAP immediate
  • the system and method of the disclosed embodiments treats each transaction differently based on the history of the random customer 140 or user 450, as well as the current market conditions which dictate whether it's a user or provider market in each geographical region. Such conditions are determined by overall demand and supply, as well as weather and other external factors.
  • the random customer 140 or user 450 request may be priced based on a fixed price formula 560 that the transportation system 100 maintains in a database.
  • the reservation placed for bidding 565 by third parties or drivers may be used.
  • the transportation system of the contemplated embodiments supports multiple legs for the transaction. Consequently, if the random customer 140 or user 450 wishes to book multiple reservations related to the same trip, all of them can be linked and managed as a single transactions, while each can be based on fixed or bid prices. In addition, the transportation system may also provide a fixed price, which is later lowered, because of a received bid that has a lower price.
  • the system and method in accordance with the disclosed embodiments will provide a highly efficient method of completing such a "four leg" reservation.
  • the customer will be required to provide his flight number and the transportation system will dynamically fill in the necessary forms with the date and time of the flight, as well as the appropriate pickup time.
  • the second leg of the trip 520 all the customer 140 must provide is the address of the drop-off location, because the transportation system will possess the information of the arrival at the destination city based on the flight number.
  • the customer will need to provide the return flight number for the third leg of the trip 530.
  • the transportation system will fill in the pickup time from the destination city based on predetermined calculations and in accordance with the date and time of the return flight and other variables.
  • the customer will be required to confirm that he is returning to the initial pickup location for the fourth leg of the trip, because the transportation system is already aware of the time for pickup from the airport.
  • the customer is only required to provide the flight number for the trips to and from the destination city and the drop-off location for the second leg of the trip 520 in the destination city, and he is required to confirm the information dynamically filled in by the transportation system.
  • the customer 140 or a third party acting as an agent can only provide a reservation number for a round trip ticket and the dropoff location for the second leg of the trip 520 at the destination city.
  • the transportation system 100 fills in the rest of the information pertaining to pickups and drop-offs .
  • the customer 140 provides the pickup location and the flight number for the trip to a destination city for the first leg of the trip 510, the address of the drop-off location at the destination city for the second leg of the trip 520, the flight number for the trip back to the original city, if the ticket was not a round trip ticket for the third leg of the trip 530.
  • the customer 140 must confirm the drop-off location for the fourth leg of the trip, if it coincides with the initial pickup location. At any point when the forms are being dynamically completed, the customer 140 has the option of either confirming the travel data or editing the data to provide additional locations.
  • the customer 140 must edit the pickup information for the third leg of the trip 530 to reflect his new location at the destination city.
  • the customer does not return to the initial pickup location at the original city, during the fourth leg of the trip, the customer must edit the drop-off location for the fourth leg of the trip. If such information is available electronically, the customer is not required to enter it and will simply confirm the full reservation.
  • Third parties 450 such as travel agents or online booking agencies, such as Sabre®, will be required to perform the same steps to confirm and dynamically edit the completed forms once the original pickup location, the travel reservation number for a round trip ticket and the drop-off location at the destination city have been provided.
  • the third party 450 can edit the pickup and drop-off locations to indicate any changes in the customer's itinerary.
  • more legs i.e., n Leg 540 can be added to match any itinerary, where n is the number of trip legs.
  • the transportation system 100 provides a confirmation code which is displayed instantly, for an on-line customer.
  • an e-mail is also sent to the customer, regardless of whether the customer made the reservation on-line or via IVR.
  • the e-mail comprises information, such as reservation data, a confirmation number, as well as a plurality of links, which permit the customer to edit the job, locate his assigned car via GPS mapping, cancel the reservation, print a voucher, access the homepage of the transportation services' website, login for existing users to view their profile, and registering for new users, who have contacted the system via IVR.
  • the voucher is generated electronically upon creation of the initial reservation, and is modified during performance of a job.
  • the drivers are equipped with a system and requisite software that permits recordation of the time the driver accepted the job, the time the car arrived on location, the customer who boarded the vehicle, the unanticipated stops made during the ride, the unanticipated tolls, and any other last minute requests for car seat or changes in the route to be taken.
  • the driver will provide an indication of the event by utilizing the phone provided to affiliates of the car service network, which immediately informs the transportation system that the voucher is being updated to reflect all the changes.
  • the transportation system also calculates the waiting time by subtracting the initial scheduled reservation time from the time the customer boarded the car.
  • the transportation system performs the necessary computations to produce a final billing, which the customer approves by signing the voucher or by completing an electronic signature.
  • the driver forwards the approved voucher to the billing and accounting module 130c of the main engine 130, where the final billing is reviewed for accuracy and sent to the customer database 120 for storage (FIG. 1) .
  • the customer database 120 transmits the new approved voucher to the credit card validator 160 for processing of the payment.
  • the credit card validator 160 returns the information to the customer database 120.
  • the billing and financial module 130c then continues to perform checks to ensure whether there are any new approval payment codes in the customer database 120. New approval payment codes that are retrieved from the customer database and financial offsets are posted while the job is being closed. Next, the billing and accounting module transmits information that the job is closed and it is stored into the customer data base 120.
  • the system and method of the contemplated embodiments provides an efficient way to ensure that delays or no-shows do not occur.
  • the transportation system will search for another driver who is in the proximity of the pickup location, who fits the selection criteria and then reassigns the job to the new driver.
  • the transportation system sends a message to the customer at a predetermined time, such as 15 minutes, prior to pickup to provide them with "driver on the job information" and ensure that the driver arrives at the pickup location in a timely manner.
  • the driver uses his phone based application to signal the transportation system about his problems and the system select a replacement driver for the job.
  • the transportation system 100 verifies the location of the car and ensures that the car is following an alternative route to avoid traffic and delays by sending such information to the driver phone or device. If the system notices that the car has not switched to an alternative route, the system contacts the driver and informs him of the traffic conditions and the alternative route.
  • the transportation system 100 also checks to ensure that the driver performs all the scheduled stops. Moreover, when the driver is within the proximity of the scheduled stop, the transportation system 100 sends the driver a reminder message to ensure the driver has not forgotten to make the scheduled stop. If there are any other special requests on the job, the transportation . system 100 sends such requests as reminders to the driver phone ahead or during the job.
  • the transportation system 100 is in constant communication with the phone or device used by the driver, because it tracks the car via the GPS device 440a and communicates with the drivers via Internet Protocol (IP) data, SMS or wireless phone to rectify any problems that may arise with the selected car or driver so as to substitute one driver with another driver if necessary.
  • IP Internet Protocol
  • drivers are also sent messages reminding them of special requests or rules they may need to follow, if a customer prefers a special newspaper or would like the driver to talk to him, and the like.
  • any driver in the fleet can perform the same job as a private chauffeur.
  • the transportation system 100 may request the involvement of a dispatcher to solve the problem.
  • FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating information flow within the transportation reservation system for a random user in accordance with the contemplated embodiments .
  • the transportation system 100 allows a random user 610 to make a reservation and have all the details processed by the main engine 130 to ensure timely service and prompt payment.
  • the main engine 130 decides whether the reservation is a local or remote job, and whether it involves fleet drivers or affiliate drivers.
  • the main engine 130 will determine whether the fleet can honor the reservation request or whether the reservation request should be honored by an affiliate driver or company.
  • the transportation system 100 will perform computations that take into account information, such as the pickup location, the ranking of the drivers, the traffic and weather conditions.
  • the main engine 130 forwards the reservation request to an affiliate company and allows the affiliate company to use its own transportation system to process the request .
  • the process for making a reservation commences when a random user 110 sends a reservation (1) and credit card information (2) to the main engine 130.
  • the main engine 130 then obtains validation of the credit card and automatically sends a confirmation code (3) to the customer or random user 610. Subsequently, the main engine 130 performs a computation to obtain a match and selects a driver for the job. Once the driver is selected, the main engine forwards the driver an acceptance request (4) in order to assign the driver to the customer. If the driver declines the request to accept the job, the main engine 130 performs another match and selects another driver and the acceptance request is resent.
  • the main engine 130 transmits the final confirmation information (7) to the customer, which will include the driver info (6) .
  • the selected driver sends an indication (9) to the main engine 130 that the services have been rendered.
  • the transportation system 100 calculates the final billing (10) that is presented to the customer, and transmits to the driver an electronic voucher with all the ride details for print out or completion.
  • the driver obtains the customer's approval, by having the customer sign the electronic voucher and sends the approved voucher to the main engine 130 to close the job.
  • the main engine 130 reconciles the records, closes the job and transmits the final billing to the credit card validator 160 to obtain payment.
  • the main engine 130 sends payment (12) to the driver for his services.
  • Figure 7 is a diagram illustrating the zero- level information flow for a random user in accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention.
  • the transportation reservation system 100 is configured to integrate the main engine 130 with additional databases, such as a credit card validator 160, a database Dl client file 710 consisting of all the clients, a database D2 LA File 720 consisting of all the local affiliates, as well as the local affiliates main engine 730 System, airline, map, weather, traffic, events, program and travel aggregator.
  • a random user 610 sends reservation information (1) as well as credit card information (2) to the client main engine 130.
  • the credit card information is forwarded (3) to the credit card validator 160, which in turn returns the verified credit card (4) information back to the client main engine 130.
  • the client main engine 130 sends a confirmation code (5) to the random user 110, based on which the user is enabled to receive the requested service.
  • the client main engine 130 also sends the reservation information (6) to a selected local affiliates main engine 730, which in turn, communicates with the local affiliates 470 as well as the D2 LA file database 720 to commence the process of selecting a driver for the job.
  • the local affiliates main engine 730 sends the reservation information (7) initiated by the random user 610 to the local affiliates 470.
  • the local affiliates 470 respond to the reservation information by sending an acceptance request (8) as well as individual driver's information (9) pertaining to the particular driver requesting acceptance.
  • the local affiliates main engine 730 performs the necessary matching operations based on the information retrieved from the D2 LA file database 720. After a match is obtained and a driver is selected from the local affiliates 470, the selected driver's information (10) is forwarded to the client main engine 130. The client main engine 130 then forwards the selected driver's information (11) to the random user 610. At the same time, the client main engine 130 sends the selected driver a confirmation of acceptance of the request for a job, as well as the user's information.
  • FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating the context level information flow for a random user when redirected by a site in accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention.
  • a random user 610 may reach the transportation system 100 of the contemplated embodiments by referral from a different website 800 on the Internet.
  • FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the zero- level information flow for a random user when redirected by a site in accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention.
  • the transportation reservation system 100 is configured to integrate the main engine 130 with additional databases such as the credit card validator 160, a database Dl client file 710 consisting of all the clients, a database D2 LA file 720 consisting of all the local affiliates 470, as well as the local affiliates main engine 730 and flight check or the arrival time of any transportation resources.
  • the random user 610 is directed to a website, such as LimoRes.net, by a referring site 800, such as a travel agency. Referring sites provide referrals in exchange for a fee based on the number of links or successful transactions . [00222]
  • a random user 610 sends reservation information (1) as well as credit card information (2) to the client main engine 130.
  • the credit card information is forwarded (3) to the credit card validator 160, which in turn, returns the verified credit card information (4) to the client main engine 130.
  • the client main engine 130 sends a confirmation code (5) to the random user 610, based on which the random user 610 is enabled to receive the requested service.
  • the client main engine 130 also sends the reservation information (6) to the local affiliates main engine 730, which in turn, communicates with the local affiliates 470 as well as the D2 LA file database 720 to commence the process of selecting a driver for the job.
  • the local affiliates main engine 730 forwards the reservation information (7) initiated by the random user 610 to the local affiliate 470.
  • the local affiliates 470 responds to the reservation information by sending an acceptance request (8) , as well as information of individual drivers (9) pertaining to the particular driver requesting acceptance.
  • the local affiliates main engine 730 performs the necessary matching based on the information retrieved from the D2 LA file database 720, selects a driver form the local affiliates upon obtaining a match and forwards the selected driver's information (10) to the client main engine 130.
  • the client main engine 130 forwards the selected driver's information (11) to the random user 610, while at the same time sending the selected driver of the local affiliates 470 a confirmation of the acceptance of the request for the job, as well as the user's information.
  • the selected driver of the local affiliates 470 sends a final billing to the local affiliates main engine 730, which in turn, forwards the final billing (12) to the client main engine 130 that forwards the final billing (13) to the random user 610.
  • the local affiliate main engine 730 places an order to process the credit card of the random user 610 to the credit card validator 160 in accordance with the final billing.
  • the client main engine 130 sends a final billing to the referring site 800, such as the travel agent, and the local affiliates main engine 730 ensures that a commission is paid to the referrer site 800.
  • the user approves the billing, and money is deducted from the credit card (14) of the random user 610.
  • FIG 10 is a diagram illustrating the context level information flow for reservations performed by travel agents in accordance with the disclosed embodiments of the invention.
  • a reservation may be made by a travel agent on behalf of a user.
  • the travel agent 1000 can book a reservation by providing reservation information (1) and credit card information (2) to the main engine 130.
  • the main engine 130 Upon receipt of the reservation and credit card information, the main engine 130 forwards a confirmation code (3) to the travel agent 1000, as well as the reservation information (4) to the local affiliates 470.
  • the local affiliates 470 sends the response of individual drivers (5) to the main engine 130, which comprises information, such as an individual driver' s information and request for acceptance.
  • the main engine 130 Upon performing a computation to determine a match, the main engine 130 selects a driver and forwards information consisting of a driver's information (6) and meeting instructions (7) to the travel agent 1000, while sending a confirmation of the driver selected to the local affiliates 470.
  • the local affiliates 470 Upon completion of the service (8) , the local affiliates 470 sends a final billing (9) to the client which final billing is forwarded (10) to the travel agent 1000 who approves the charges (11) . Payment (12) is then made to the local affiliates 470.
  • the main engine 130 of the contemplated embodiment also pays a commission to the travel agent for booking the reservation.
  • the credit card account can be charged at the time the reservation is made and the travel agent received the commission within 24 hours. However, if the ride extends beyond the initially booked reservation, or the reservation destination is changed or canceled, the credit card is charged at the end of the ride or a refund is generated, and once the user approves the charges, the travel agent is paid his commission.
  • FIG 11 is a diagram illustrating the zero- level information flow for reservations performed by travel agents in accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention.
  • the transportation reservation system 100 is configured to integrate the main engine system 130 with additional databases such as a credit card validator 160, a Dl client file database 710 consisting of all the clients, a D2 LA file database 720 consisting of all the local affiliates 470, as well as the local affiliates main engine 730.
  • a travel agent 1000 sends reservation information (1) as well as credit card information (2) to the client main engine 130.
  • the credit card information is forwarded (3) to the credit card validator 160, which in turn, returns the verified credit card information (4) back to the client main engine 130.
  • the client main engine 130 sends a confirmation code (5) to the travel agent 1000, based on which a customer is enabled to receive the requested service.
  • the client main engine 130 also sends the reservation information (6) to the local affiliates main engine 730, which in turn, communicates with the local affiliates 470 as well as the D2 LA file database 720 in order to commence the process of selecting a driver for the job.
  • the local affiliates main engine 730 sends the reservation information (7) initiated by the travel agent 1000 to the local affiliates 470.
  • the local affiliates 470 responds to the reservation information by sending an acceptance request (8) as well as individual driver's information (9) pertaining to the particular driver requesting the acceptance.
  • the local affiliates main engine 730 performs the necessary matching operations based on the information retrieved from the D2 LA file database 720 and once a match is obtained and a driver is selected from the local affiliates, forwards the selected driver's information
  • the client main engine 130 forwards the selected driver' s information
  • the selected driver of the local affiliates 470 sends a final billing to the local affiliates main engine 730 that forwards the final billing (12) to the client main engine 130.
  • the local affiliates main engine 730 places an order to process the credit card of the customer according to the final billing to the credit card validator 160.
  • the client main engine 130 sends a final billing (13) to the travel agent 1000.
  • the customer approves the billing and money is deducted from the customer's credit card (14), and the local affiliate main engine 730 ensures that a commission (15) is paid to the travel agent.
  • FIG 12 is a diagram illustrating the context level information flow for reservations for a corporate or account user in accordance with the disclosed embodiments of the invention.
  • a reservation is made by a corporate or account user 1200.
  • the information pertaining to the corporate or account user, as well as the charge account information pertaining to a particular corporate or account user are already present in the transportation system 100.
  • the corporate or account user 1200 submits reservation information (1) to the main engine 130.
  • the corporate or account 1200 user provides either credit card verification or a VIP code or a limit verification (2) to the main engine 100.
  • the main engine 130 Upon receipt of the information from the corporate or account user 1200, the main engine 130 forwards a confirmation code (3) to the corporate or account user 1200 and forwards the reservation information (4) to the local affiliates 470.
  • the local affiliates 470 provides an acceptance request (5) for each individual driver to the main engine 130, as well as information pertaining to particular drivers (6) available and willing to undertake the job.
  • the main engine 100 performs computations to selects a driver, and forwards to the corporate or account user 1200 driver information and meeting instructions (7) , while providing feedback information to the local affiliates regarding the driver selected.
  • the local affiliates 470 Upon completion of the job (8), the local affiliates 470 sends a final billing (9) to the main engine 130, which is then forwarded (10) by the engine to the corporate or account user for validation.
  • the main engine 130 charges the account (11) of the respective corporate or account user 1200.
  • the main engine 130 then ensures that the local affiliates are paid (12 ) .
  • Figure 13 is a diagram illustrating the zero- level information flow for corporate clients in accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention.
  • the transportation system 100 is configured to integrate the main engine 130 with additional databases, such as the credit card validator or client limit validator 160a, a Dl client database file 710 consisting of all the clients, a D2 LA database file 720 consisting of all the local affiliates, as well as the local affiliates main engine 730.
  • additional databases such as the credit card validator or client limit validator 160a, a Dl client database file 710 consisting of all the clients, a D2 LA database file 720 consisting of all the local affiliates, as well as the local affiliates main engine 730.
  • a corporate or account user (1) sends reservation information as well as credit card information or a VIP code (2) to the client main engine 130.
  • the credit card information or the VIP code is forwarded (3) to the credit card validator or client limit validator 160a which in turn returns the verified credit card information or the client's credit limit (4) back to the client main engine 130.
  • the client main engine 130 sends a confirmation code (5) to the corporate or account user 1200, based on which a customer is enabled to receive the requested service.
  • the client main engine 130 also sends the reservation information (6) to the local affiliates main engine 730, which in turn, communicates with the local affiliates 470 as well as the D2 LA database file 720 to commence the process of selecting a specific driver for the job.
  • the local affiliates main engine 730 sends the reservation information (7) initiated by the corporate or account user 1200 to the local affiliates 470.
  • the Local affiliates 470 responds to the reservation information by sending an acceptance request (8) , as well as information (9) pertaining to the particular driver requesting the acceptance.
  • the local affiliates main engine 730 performs the necessary matching operations based on the information retrieved from the D2 LA database file 720, and upon obtaining a match and selecting a driver from the local affiliates 470, forwards the selected information (10) of the selected driver to the client main engine 130.
  • the client main engine 130 forwards the information of the selected driver (11) to the corporate or account user 1200, while at the same time sending a confirmation of acceptance of the request for a job the selected driver of the local affiliates 470.
  • the selected driver of the local affiliates 470 sends a final billing to the local affiliates main engine 730, which in turn forwards the final billing (12) to the client main engine 130.
  • the local affiliates main engine 730 places an order to process the credit card of the customer according to the final billing to the credit card validator or client limit validator 160a.
  • FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating the context level information flow for administration in accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention.
  • a reservation may be made by an administrator 1400, such as a travel agent, on behalf of a customer.
  • the travel agent 1400 can book a reservation by providing reservation information (1) and credit card information (2) to the main engine 130.
  • the main engine 130 Upon receipt of the reservation and credit card information, the main engine 130 forwards a confirmation code (3) to the travel agent 1400 and forwards the reservation information (4) to the local affiliates 470.
  • the local affiliates sends the response of individual drivers to the main engine 130, which consists of an acceptance request (5) and information of an individual driver (6) .
  • the main engine 130 selects a driver and forwards information (7) consisting of driver's information and meeting instructions to the travel agent, while sending a confirmation of the driver selected to the local affiliates 470.
  • the local affiliates 470 Upon completion of the service (8), the local affiliates 470 send a final billing (9) to the main engine 130, which in turn, forwards the final billing (10) to the travel agent 1400 who approves the charges (11) , and payment is made to the local affiliates (12) .
  • the main engine 130 also pays a commission (13) to the travel agent 1400 for booking the reservation.
  • FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating the zero- level information flow for administration in accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention.
  • the transportation reservation system 100 is configured to integrate the main engine system 130 with additional databases such as a credit card validator 160, a Dl client database file 710 consisting of all the clients, a D2 LA file database 720 consisting of all the local affiliates, as well as a local affiliates main engine 130.
  • an administer 1400 such as a travel agent, sends reservation information (1) and credit card information (2) to the client main engine 130.
  • the credit card information is forwarded (3) to the credit card validator 160, which in turn, returns verified credit card information (4) back to the main engine 130.
  • the client main engine 130 sends a confirmation code (5) to the travel agent 1400, based on which the customer is enabled to receive the requested service.
  • the client main engine 130 also sends the reservation information (6) to the local main engine 730, which in turn, communicates with the Local affiliates 470 and the D2 LA file database 720 to commence the process of selecting a driver for the job.
  • the local affiliates main engine 730 sends the reservation information (7) initiated by the travel agent 1400 to the local affiliates 470.
  • the local affiliates 120 responds to the reservation information by sending an acceptance request (8) and the information of an individual driver (9) pertaining to the particular driver requesting acceptance.
  • the local affiliates main engine 730 performs the necessary matching operations based on the information retrieved from the D2 LA file database 720, and upon obtaining a match and selecting a driver from the local affiliates 470, forwards the information of the selected driver (10) to the client main engine 130.
  • the client main engine 130 forwards the information of the selected driver (11) to the travel agent 1400, while at the same time sending the selected driver of the local affiliates a confirmation of acceptance of the request for a job, as well as the customer'
  • the selected driver of the local affiliates 470 sends a final billing to the local affiliates main engine 730, which in turn, forwards the final billing (12) to the client main engine 130.
  • the local affiliates main engine 730 places an order to process the credit card of the customer according to the final billing to the credit card validator 160, where the client main engine 130 sends a final billing (13) to the travel agent and the local affiliates main engine 730 ensures that a commission is paid to the travel agent, and where the customer approves the billing and then money is deducted from the credit card (14) .
  • Figures 16 (a) thru 16 (d) is a flow chart illustrating the steps associated with booking a reservation via IVR in accordance with the contemplated embodiments of the invention.
  • a customer accessing the system via IVR can be a new user or an established user.
  • the system initially checks to determine whether a customer is a new or returning customer, as indicated in step 1600.
  • the customer When the customer is an established user, the customer must enter his account number, as indicated at step 1610. If the customer does not remember his account number, then the customer will be prompted to provide an identifier, such as the first four letters of his last name, as indicated in step 1620.
  • the transportation system 100 will perform a search and match to provide the customer with a list of the results so as to permit the customer to select his appropriate name, as indicated in step 1630.
  • the transportation system 100 assigns the appropriate account number with a reservation request and the customer is prompted to enter the date of the reservation, as indicated at step 1640. The customer is then prompted to select an AM or a PM pickup time, as indicated at step 1650.
  • the customer provides the time for pickup, as indicated in step 1660.
  • the customer is then prompted to speak his name, as indicated in step 1670.
  • the customer also provides the pickup address, as indicated in step 1680.
  • the customer will be given the option to select an old address saved in the system as a default pickup address, select from among the previous addresses saved in the customer's profile, or provide a new pickup address, as indicated in step 1685.
  • the customer In the event the customer wishes to select from among addresses saved in his customer profile, he is prompted to enter the first four numbers or letters of the address he wishes to select, and the system will perform a search and match and provide a menu with options corresponding to all the addresses in the system matching the information input by the customer. Upon appropriate selection of the pickup address by the customer, the customer must then provide the drop-off address, as indicated at step 1690. [00242] Next, the customer provides the drop-off address, as indicated in step 1700. However, similarly to entry of the pickup address, a returning customer will have the options of selecting the default drop-off address, an address from the list of addresses saved within the customer's profile of the database, or of providing information with respect to a new address, as indicated in step 1705.
  • the transportation system 100 performs data mining by using internal and external databases to extract repeated events and to select customers who travel frequently and periodically to a specific location. Data mining permits aggregation of customers for flights and ground transportation and provides them with private jet travel, as part of a package, rather than commercial airline. This kind of arrangement could be provided for very convenient fees and offers the perks of small airports associated with the same level of security but with zero wait time.
  • the use of data mining permits the detection of information regarding past customer trips and permits the determination of how many people are traveling in one direction such that it becomes possible to fill all seats on a airplane. For instance, certain people fly every Tuesday and return every Friday, thus permitting them to be aggregated into a small group for private jet transportation.
  • Customers, destined for the same location, on the same day, can be aggregated and offered group travel ground transportation, and they can be chartered to a small plane for optimal prices since all the seats on the plane will be filled.
  • the transportation system aggregates customers in a like fashion.
  • the transportation system may utilize internal and external databases to combine data to increase the accuracy of the data mining.
  • the transportation system of the contemplated embodiments determines the price of a fare to a remote location
  • the system also takes into account criteria which will indicate whether a customer will not be adverse to paying for VIP services. For instance, if the flight number on a reservation indicates a private jet, the transportation system will automatically assign VIP service to that customer.
  • the transportation system In deciding whether a job to a remote location should be designated for an affiliate driver of a fleet driver, the transportation system compares the price of an affiliate will charge for the job with the price charged by a fleet driver.
  • the system In deciding to allocate the job, the system will select the driver which will ensure the largest profit margin, or in the event there is no fleet driver available the system will select the highest between the percentage of the fare or the flat fee on such a fare.
  • the system may even allow affiliate drivers or companies to bid for the job, when fleet drivers are not available for the job.
  • the transportation system 100 in order to maintain a competitive price, the transportation system 100 will wait for a predetermined time period before the date of the job to send requests for acceptance from affiliate drivers or companies and decide on allocation of a particular job. In the preferred embodiment, the predetermined time period is 1 day.
  • the transportation system utilizes a calculation to provide real time pricing to callers, web users and affiliates connected to the car service system. By calculating the distance between pickup and drop off destinations, the transportation system is permitted to apply a preset formula that takes into account car type and special requests, and then applies a country or State multiple to provide accurate and consistent pricing for any location throughout the world.
  • the transportation system 100 calculates its job capacity on a daily basis by estimating the number of drivers scheduled to work the next day and multiplies this value by the number of average jobs that the fleet can perform to obtain a capacity value. Next, a comparison of this capacity value to pre-existing jobs in the transportation system and an estimate of expected additional jobs based on last years data obtained from the same time period as well as the current usage and input from weather and other reports and generates a number that represents total jobs which need to be outsourced to third parties. In addition, the transportation system than selects the jobs to be outsourced and automatically assigns these jobs to affiliates that are notified by email or xml file transfer.
  • the transportation system re-executes this process to further adjust the outsourcing based on final changes in number of drivers, incoming jobs and fleet utilization during the day that may be effected by traffic or weather changes.
  • the transportation system 100 calculates the total jobs for the next or current day, and decides to direct waiting drivers to specific waiting zones or locations in anticipation of the demand for cars or jobs in queue.
  • the transportation system may use historical data to perform these calculations and adjust its automated directions to drivers based on real time input generated by operators and web users. As a result, optimal utilization of the fleet and increased income to the operator is achieved.
  • the transportation system uses vehicle GPS data to predict errors and proactively issue alarms so that people in or third parties can take action to resolve the problem or cancel the job, or substitute and reassign the job to another driver.
  • the transportation system of the contemplated embodiment also uses internal computations to compare historical trip information and job entries to locate reservation errors or potential problems, prior to the job being assigned to a driver.
  • the transportation system allocates jobs to local affiliates when the transportation systems fleet is almost or fully booked and when there is a high demand for services that cannot be satisfied by the transportation systems fleet. Thus, if a local subject fleet is booked, a local affiliate fleet will be used to satisfy current demand.
  • the transportation system allocates jobs to affiliate drivers or other affiliate transportation systems. It should be noted that for remote affiliates, and in the case of a multiple leg trip, the transportation system or the customer may select a flat rate for the customer's ride anywhere in the world; however, the fee is not divided equally with the affiliate who is performing the job. Rather, the affiliate responsible for originating the job obtains a greater portion of the fee based on the market price or a prearranged formula determined by the transportation system.
  • the provider for a second and third leg of a trip is selected from a pool of affiliates who agreed to perform jobs under a flat multi leg formula, and have agreed in advance to the origination and division of the fee.
  • the transportation service of the contemplated embodiments thus manages all the financial transactions and statements and may charge different fees to different providers or classes.

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Abstract

L'invention porte sur un procédé et sur un système pour fournir à des chauffeurs individuels et leurs affiliés la possibilité de gérer leurs clients de flotte et leurs réservations. Tous les utilisateurs sont connectés par l'intermédiaire d'un système principal central. Des tâches provenant de clients d'origine sont mises en correspondance avec des fournisseurs locaux, et sont allouées sur la base d'un profil de client et de chauffeur. Des informations de réseau concernant chaque inventaire d'affilié et allocation de tâche sont utilisées pour fournir une correspondance optimale de « parcours » vides et permettent une capture plus rapide de tâches aussi vite que possible n'importe où dans le monde. N'importe quel fournisseur de transport dans le monde est autorisé à offrir des transferts d'aéroport à 4 parcours instantanés, par exemple, au lieu de voyages en un parcours classique vers l'aéroport. Par conséquent, le volume d'affaire avec des clients est potentiellement augmenté d'un facteur de 4.
PCT/US2007/022961 2007-10-31 2007-10-31 Procédé et système pour fournir un service de transport WO2009058117A1 (fr)

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US20150302342A1 (en) * 2014-04-21 2015-10-22 Wei-Yen Yeh Taxi management apparatus and taxi management system
US20170039504A1 (en) * 2015-08-04 2017-02-09 Nadav Ullman Systems and methods to administer a dispatch platform affiliate program
US20170262908A1 (en) * 2008-06-27 2017-09-14 E-Lantis Corporation Gps and wireless integrated fleet management system and method
WO2018089446A1 (fr) * 2016-11-11 2018-05-17 Operr Technologies, Inc. Système et procédé de vérification de facturation de transport géolocalisée
WO2018117782A1 (fr) * 2016-12-19 2018-06-28 Kitazawa Molina Elvia Isabel Procédé fondé sur le niveau d'état d'alerte d'opérateurs de camions pour l'attribution automatique de tâches dans un système de gestion de flottes
US20200160251A1 (en) * 2018-11-15 2020-05-21 International Business Machines Corporation Adaptive Dispatching Engine For Advanced Taxi Management
WO2021231979A1 (fr) * 2020-05-14 2021-11-18 Lacuna Technologies, Inc. Gestion de transport au sol

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US20060059023A1 (en) * 2002-08-02 2006-03-16 Alex Mashinsky Method system and apparatus for providing transportation services
US20070052586A1 (en) * 2003-11-12 2007-03-08 Horstemeyer Scott A Notification systems and methods enabling a response to change particulars of delivery or pickup

Cited By (12)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US20170262908A1 (en) * 2008-06-27 2017-09-14 E-Lantis Corporation Gps and wireless integrated fleet management system and method
US11232493B2 (en) * 2008-06-27 2022-01-25 E-Lantis Corporation GPS and wireless integrated fleet management system and method
US20140180741A1 (en) * 2012-12-20 2014-06-26 Abb Technology Ag System and method for automatic allocation of mobile resources to tasks
US20150302342A1 (en) * 2014-04-21 2015-10-22 Wei-Yen Yeh Taxi management apparatus and taxi management system
US20170039504A1 (en) * 2015-08-04 2017-02-09 Nadav Ullman Systems and methods to administer a dispatch platform affiliate program
WO2018089446A1 (fr) * 2016-11-11 2018-05-17 Operr Technologies, Inc. Système et procédé de vérification de facturation de transport géolocalisée
US10504079B2 (en) 2016-11-11 2019-12-10 Operr Technologies, Inc. System and method for geo-aware transportation billing verification
US11042856B2 (en) 2016-11-11 2021-06-22 Operr Technologies, Inc System and method for geo-aware transportation billing verification
WO2018117782A1 (fr) * 2016-12-19 2018-06-28 Kitazawa Molina Elvia Isabel Procédé fondé sur le niveau d'état d'alerte d'opérateurs de camions pour l'attribution automatique de tâches dans un système de gestion de flottes
US20200160251A1 (en) * 2018-11-15 2020-05-21 International Business Machines Corporation Adaptive Dispatching Engine For Advanced Taxi Management
US11823101B2 (en) * 2018-11-15 2023-11-21 International Business Machines Corporation Adaptive dispatching engine for advanced taxi management
WO2021231979A1 (fr) * 2020-05-14 2021-11-18 Lacuna Technologies, Inc. Gestion de transport au sol

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