THE CRAWFORD GROUP, INC. Patent applications |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20140278608 | Mobile Device-Enhanced Rental Vehicle Returns - A number of techniques are disclosed for making it more convenient and efficient for customers to conduct various rental vehicle transactions. As an example, a technique for performing an automated pickup of a rental vehicle using a mobile device is disclosed. As another example, a technique for performing an automated return administration of a rental vehicle using a mobile device is disclosed. As another example, a technique for permitting customer to select a particular rental vehicle for a rental vehicle transaction using a mobile device is disclosed. Also disclosed is a technique for permitting a customer to keylessly start a rental vehicle using a machine-sensible item such as his/her mobile device without requiring the customer to possess a smart key. | 09-18-2014 |
20140278607 | Mobile Device-Enhanced Pickups for Rental Vehicle Transactions - A number of techniques are disclosed for making it more convenient and efficient for customers to conduct various rental vehicle transactions. As an example, a technique for performing an automated pickup of a rental vehicle using a mobile device is disclosed. As another example, a technique for performing an automated return administration of a rental vehicle using a mobile device is disclosed. As another example, a technique for permitting customer to select a particular rental vehicle for a rental vehicle transaction using a mobile device is disclosed. Also disclosed is a technique for permitting a customer to keylessly start a rental vehicle using a machine-sensible item such as his/her mobile device without requiring the customer to possess a smart key. | 09-18-2014 |
20140278599 | Mobile Device-Enhanced User Selection of Specific Rental Vehicles for a Rental Vehicle Reservation - A number of techniques are disclosed for making it more convenient and efficient for customers to conduct various rental vehicle transactions. As an example, a technique for performing an automated pickup of a rental vehicle using a mobile device is disclosed. As another example, a technique for performing an automated return administration of a rental vehicle using a mobile device is disclosed. As another example, a technique for permitting customer to select a particular rental vehicle for a rental vehicle transaction using a mobile device is disclosed. Also disclosed is a technique for permitting a customer to keylessly start a rental vehicle using a machine-sensible item such as his/her mobile device without requiring the customer to possess a smart key. | 09-18-2014 |
20140278555 | Method and Apparatus for Driver's License Analysis to Support Rental Vehicle Transactions - A number of techniques are disclosed for making it more convenient and efficient for customers to conduct various rental vehicle transactions. As an example, techniques are disclosed for capturing and analyzing images of driver's licenses to assess a validity for the driver's licenses in support of various rental transactions. | 09-18-2014 |
20140266594 | Smart Key Emulation for Vehicles - Techniques are disclosed for permitting a person to keylessly start a vehicle using a machine-sensible item such as his/her mobile device without requiring the person to possess a smart key. | 09-18-2014 |
20140136249 | Method and Apparatus for Improved Listings of Branch Locations for Booking Rental Vehicle Reservations On-Line - Disclosed herein are techniques for permitting users to efficiently identify a desired branch location for a rental vehicle reservation. For example, a user-selectable link can be provided on a website page that, upon user selection, restricts a list of available branch locations in an area to only airport branch locations in that area. | 05-15-2014 |
20140095228 | System and Method for Improved Rental Vehicle Reservation Management - A method and system are disclosed for managing a rental vehicle reservation based at least in part on automated processing of vehicle repair data corresponding to a disabled vehicle that is related to the rental vehicle reservation. For example, a preferred method and system can automatically compute from the vehicle repair data an amount of time that is likely to be needed by a repair facility to complete repairs to the disabled vehicle, which in turn can drive more accurate management of an authorization period for the rental vehicle reservation. | 04-03-2014 |
20140052478 | Method and System for Marketing Vehicles for Sale or Lease to Replace Totaled Vehicles - Methods and systems are disclosed for marketing vehicles for sale or lease to drivers whose ordinary vehicles have been totaled. In an exemplary embodiment, data about a totaled vehicle may be entered by an insurance adjuster into a computer system, and this data can be leveraged to trigger the marketing of vehicles for sale or lease to a driver to replace the totaled vehicle. | 02-20-2014 |
20140046859 | Business to Business Computer System for Communicating and Processing Rental Car Reservations Using Web Services - A system, method, and computer program product are disclosed whereby a business partner computer system interfaces with a rental vehicle reservation management computer system via a web service connector. The web service connector can be configured to (1) receive, via a network, a document, the document comprising a web service request by a computer system of a business partner for a rental vehicle transaction with respect to a replacement rental vehicle reservation, (2) process the received document in accordance with a web service specification document to create one or more data objects having a format supported by a rental vehicle reservation management software program, and (3) communicate the one or more data objects to the rental vehicle reservation management software program for automatic processing thereby of the one or more data objects for management of the replacement rental vehicle reservation in accordance with the request. | 02-13-2014 |
20130268447 | Method and System for Providing and Administering Online Rental Vehicle Reservation Booking Services - A system and method is disclosed herein for customizing pages of a rental vehicle reservation booking website with deep-links for specialized rental vehicle reservations. The specialized rental vehicle reservations may comprise reservations for a division of a customer entity and/or promotional offer reservations. Multi-division and multi-offer pages can also be defined for the website through an administrative tool. | 10-10-2013 |
20130246104 | Extended Web Enabled Multi-Featured Business To Business Computer System For Rental Vehicle Services - A method and apparatus are disclosed for use in connection with managing rental vehicle reservations where different parties can be empowered to perform various management actions on the reservations. In this way, the workload with respect to reservation management can be spread over multiple parties. In a disclosed embodiment, the different parties can be parties such as insurance companies, repair facilities, assist companies, credit hire companies, lawyers, and fleet management companies. | 09-19-2013 |
20130238373 | Method and Apparatus for Tracking Repair Facility Performance for Repairs Relating to Replacement Rental Vehicle Transactions - Systems and methods for tracking repair facility performance in a replacement rental vehicle context are disclosed. Aggregate data that is indicative of a repair performance quality by the repair facility with respect to a plurality of disabled vehicles that are associated with a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations can be computed, and a determination can then be made based on this computed aggregate data as to whether the repair facility has satisfied a benchmark. | 09-12-2013 |
20130166331 | Method and Apparatus for Improved Control Over On-Line Reservations of Rental Vehicles - Disclosed herein are techniques for improved control over how customers can interact with a rental vehicle reservation booking site, including user interfaces for defining customer accounts and user interfaces for defining promotional offers with respect to rental vehicle reservations. | 06-27-2013 |
20130159033 | Extended Web Enabled Multi-Featured Business To Business Computer System For Rental Vehicle Services - A method and apparatus are disclosed for use in connection with managing rental vehicle reservations where the authorization periods for rental vehicle reservations can be automatically extended in response to various conditions being met. In an exemplary embodiment, an authorization period for a rental vehicle reservation for a replacement vehicle corresponding to a disabled vehicle can be automatically extended based on vehicle repair data for the disabled vehicle. In another exemplary embodiment, an authorization period for a rental vehicle reservation for a replacement vehicle corresponding to a disabled vehicle can be automatically extended if an extension request is within certain predetermined limits. | 06-20-2013 |
20130046565 | Method and Apparatus for Improved Customer Profiling for Rental Vehicle Reservations - Disclosed herein is a reservation booking website for rental vehicle reservations wherein the customer profiles include “favorite” or “preferred” branch locations for rental vehicle reservations to expedite the customers' rental vehicle reservation booking experiences. | 02-21-2013 |
20130030847 | Method and Apparatus for Expedited Rental Vehicle Reservation Creation Following a Previous Reservation - A method and apparatus are disclosed for expediting the ability of a customer to book a new rental vehicle reservation after booking a previous rental vehicle reservation. A link can be provided on a screen such as a confirmation page for a previous rental vehicle reservation that, upon customer selection, causes a new reservation transaction to be automatically loaded with data from the previous rental vehicle reservation. | 01-31-2013 |
20130018680 | Method and System for Providing and Administering Online Rental Vehicle Reservation Booking Services - A system and method is disclosed herein for customizing pages of a rental vehicle reservation booking website with deep-links for specialized rental vehicle reservations. The specialized rental vehicle reservations may comprise reservations for a division of a customer entity and/or promotional offer reservations. Multi-division and multi-offer pages can also be defined for the website through an administrative tool. | 01-17-2013 |
20120296681 | Method and Apparatus for Improved Listings of Branch Locations for Booking Rental Vehicle Reservations On-Line - Disclosed herein are techniques for permitting users to efficiently identify a desired branch location for a rental vehicle reservation. For example, a user-selectable link can be provided on a website page that, upon user selection, restricts a list of available branch locations in an area to only airport branch locations in that area. | 11-22-2012 |
20120290341 | Method and Apparatus for Customer Direct On-Line Reservation of Rental Vehicles Including Deep-Linking - A method and apparatus are disclosed for expediting how rental vehicle reservations can be booked by employing deep-link uniform resource locators (URLs) that encode aspects of a rental vehicle reservation transaction to relieve users of a need to enter reservation data themselves when booking a rental vehicle reservation. | 11-15-2012 |
20120209638 | Method and Apparatus for Improved Customer Direct On-Line Reservation of Rental Vehicles - Disclosed herein is a reservation booking website wherein customers who plan to travel via general aviation (GA) are provided with a GA reservation creation path that is responsive to their GA travel needs. | 08-16-2012 |
20120209637 | Method and Apparatus for Improved Customer Direct On-Line Reservation of Rental Vehicles - Disclosed herein is a reservation booking website for rental vehicle reservations wherein the functionality of managing customer profiles/accounts is expanded upon to provide customers with greater control over the profile data stored in their associated personalized accounts/profiles, particularly in connection with the “favorite” or “preferred” branch locations for rental vehicle reservations that are stored in the customer profiles/ accounts. | 08-16-2012 |
20120203582 | System and Method for Improved Rental Vehicle Reservation Management - A method and system are disclosed for managing a rental vehicle reservation based at least in part on automated processing of vehicle repair data corresponding to a disabled vehicle that is related to the rental vehicle reservation. For example, a preferred method and system can automatically compute from the vehicle repair data an amount of time that is likely to be needed by a repair facility to complete repairs to the disabled vehicle, which in turn can drive more accurate management of an authorization period for the rental vehicle reservation. | 08-09-2012 |
20120203581 | System and Method for Improved Rental Vehicle Reservation Management - A method and system are disclosed for managing a rental vehicle reservation based at least in part on automated processing of vehicle repair data corresponding to a disabled vehicle that is related to the rental vehicle reservation. For example, a preferred method and system can automatically compute from the vehicle repair data an amount of time that is likely to be needed by a repair facility to complete repairs to the disabled vehicle, which in turn can drive more accurate management of an authorization period for the rental vehicle reservation. | 08-09-2012 |
20120203580 | Method and Apparatus for Tracking Repair Facility Performance for Repairs Relating to Replacement Rental Vehicle Transactions - Systems and methods for tracking repair facility performance in a replacement rental vehicle context are disclosed. Various operations for adding and subtracting credits from a repair facility virtual bank account are disclosed. Adjustments to credit totals can be based on repair facility performance with regard to an individual vehicle repair or a plurality of vehicle repairs. | 08-09-2012 |
20120197672 | System and Method for Improved Rental Vehicle Reservation Management - A method and system are disclosed for managing a rental vehicle reservation based at least in part on automated processing of vehicle repair data corresponding to a disabled vehicle that is related to the rental vehicle reservation. A preferred method and system can also automatically schedule a callback reminder for the rental vehicle reservation based at least in part on the received vehicle repair data. | 08-02-2012 |
20110246246 | Method and System for Managing Vehicle Travel - Methods and systems for facilitating efficient travel management are disclosed. Exemplary embodiments comprise a processor configured to make selections from among a plurality of vehicle travel modes based on a vehicle travel mode selection rule using, at least in part, received travel plan information. In a preferred embodiment, this selection can be based on any of a number of factors, including monetary costs and carbon emissions associated with different vehicle travel mode options. | 10-06-2011 |
20110208551 | Method and System for Reducing Carbon Emissions Arising from Vehicle Travel - Methods and systems for facilitating efficient travel management in a manner such that the carbon emissions produced by vehicle travel are reduced are disclosed. Different vehicle travel modes under consideration for use to satisfy a travel plan are evaluated and selected based at least in part on their relative environmental impacts such that an aggregate reduction in carbon emissions can be achieved via a judicious selection of vehicle travel modes used to carry out a vehicle travel plan. | 08-25-2011 |
20110153375 | Method and System for Managing Rental Vehicle Reservations with User Authorization Limits - An Internet-enabled rental vehicle reservation management method and system are disclosed. Via the system and method, authorization limits can be assigned to the users who create and manage replacement rental vehicle reservations through the system, where these authorization limits impose financial commitment monetary limits that the users can make on replacement rental vehicle reservations over a specified period of time. In an exemplary embodiment, these authorization limits are customized on a per user basis. | 06-23-2011 |
20110153372 | Extended Web enabled Business to Business Computer System for Rental Vehicle Services - An Internet-enabled rental vehicle reservation management method and system are disclosed. Via the system and method, authorized purchasers can select a rental vehicle service provider from a among a plurality of competitive rental vehicle service providers via at least one graphical user interface (GUI) menu, and the authorized purchasers can further interact with the system and method to (1) automatically book a rental vehicle reservation with a selected competitive rental vehicle service provider without human intervention on the part of personnel of the selected competitive rental vehicle service provider operating the computer system and (2) manage the booked rental vehicle reservation. In an exemplary embodiment, the reservations created and managed through the system and method are replacement rental vehicles and the authorized purchasers are insurance company personnel. | 06-23-2011 |
20110144963 | Method and System for Reducing Carbon Emissions Arising from Vehicle Travel - Methods and systems for facilitating efficient travel management in a manner such that the carbon emissions produced by vehicle travel are reduced are disclosed. Simulations can be performed on vehicle travel plans and bodies of vehicles within various types of fleets to estimate their environmental impact. Based on such estimations, travel managers can adopt travel programs that employ a judicious selection of vehicle travel modes to carry out vehicle travel plans in a manner that benefits the environment. | 06-16-2011 |
20110137691 | Method and System for Reducing Carbon Emissions Arising from Vehicle Travel - Methods and systems for facilitating efficient travel management in a manner such that the carbon emissions produced by vehicle travel are reduced are disclosed. Different vehicle travel modes under consideration for use to satisfy a travel plan are evaluated and selected based at least in part on their relative environmental impacts such that an aggregate reduction in carbon emissions can be achieved via a judicious selection of vehicle travel modes used to carry out a vehicle travel plan. | 06-09-2011 |
20100023352 | System and Method for Improved Information Sharing by Repair Facilities for Managing Rental Vehicle Reservations - A method and system are disclosed for managing a rental vehicle reservation wherein the need for reservation managers to follow-up with repair facilities to gain additional information about repair work to disabled vehicles can be greatly reduced if not eliminated. Upon receipt of an update from a repair facility as to repair work for a disabled vehicle that pertains to a replacement rental vehicle reservation, an appropriate set of follow-up questions is directed to the repair facility by automated processes without the need for human intervention by the reservation manager. Furthermore, to support flexibility with respect to different informational needs by different purchasers of replacement rental vehicle services, the set of follow-ups questions that is selected and directed to repair facilities can vary based on a number of parameters. | 01-28-2010 |
20090030747 | System and Method for Allocating Replacement Vehicle Rental Costs Using a Virtual Bank of Repair Facility Credits - Systems and methods for managing a virtual bank of repair facility credits are disclosed. Various operations for adding and subtracting credits from a repair facility virtual bank account are disclosed. Adjustments to credit totals can be based on repair facility performance with regard to an individual vehicle repair or a plurality of vehicle repairs. | 01-29-2009 |
20080249814 | Web Enabled Business to Business Computer System for Rental Car Services - 3 - An Internet enabled, business-to-business computerized transaction system is disclosed in its preferred embodiment for use in providing rental car services for high volume users and comprises an Internet web portal through which the high volume user may access an integrated business computer network for the rental vehicle service provider. The rental vehicle services provider computer network is configured to interconnect a geographically diverse plurality of branch offices, cataloguing their available rental vehicles and schedules for same as well as handling all transactional data relating to its business. The Internet web portal provides ubiquitous connectivity and portability for a multi-level business organization who regularly places high volumes of rental purchases with its business partner. Utilizing the method and apparatus of the present invention large volumes of rental transactions may be placed, monitored, altered during performance, and closed out with financial accounting and payment being made virtually without human intervention. | 10-09-2008 |
20080243563 | Web Enabled Business to Business Computer System for Rental Car Services Including Data Display Functionality - 4 - An Internet enabled, business-to-business computerized transaction system is disclosed in its preferred embodiment for use in providing rental car services for high volume users and comprises an Internet web portal through which the high volume user may access an integrated business computer network for the rental vehicle service provider. The rental vehicle services provider computer network is configured to interconnect a geographically diverse plurality of branch offices, cataloguing their available rental vehicles and schedules for same as well as handling all transactional data relating to its business. The Internet web portal provides ubiquitous connectivity and portability for a multi-level business organization who regularly places high volumes of rental purchases with its business partner. Utilizing the method and apparatus of the present invention large volumes of rental transactions may be placed, monitored, altered during performance, and closed out with financial accounting and payment being made virtually without human intervention. | 10-02-2008 |
20080243562 | Web Enabled Business to Business Computer System for Rental Car Services Having a Bidirectional Communication Link with a Repair Facility - 3 - An Internet enabled, business-to-business computerized transaction system is disclosed in its preferred embodiment for use in providing rental car services for high volume users and comprises an Internet web portal through which the high volume user may access an integrated business computer network for the rental vehicle service provider. The rental vehicle services provider computer network is configured to interconnect a geographically diverse plurality of branch offices, cataloguing their available rental vehicles and schedules for same as well as handling all transactional data relating to its business. The Internet web portal provides ubiquitous connectivity and portability for a multi-level business organization who regularly places high volumes of rental purchases with its business partner. Utilizing the method and apparatus of the present invention large volumes of rental transactions may be placed, monitored, altered during performance, and closed out with financial accounting and payment being made virtually without human intervention. | 10-02-2008 |