WO2011067741A1

WO2011067741A1 - Method for ordering taxi services using a mobile communication device

Info

Publication number: WO2011067741A1
Application number: PCT/IB2010/055583
Authority: WO
Inventors: Raoul JÄRVIS
Original assignee: Taxipal Oue
Current assignee: Taxipal Oue
Priority date: 2009-12-03
Filing date: 2010-12-03
Publication date: 2011-06-09
Anticipated expiration: 2012-06-03
Also published as: EE01148U1

Abstract

A method for ordering taxi service enables ordering of taxi services through mobile communication device. Service providers servicing the area are determined by the central server based on user request which includes pickup location. The central server converts and translates the user request according to preferences of service providers and makes it available to at least one service provider. The service providers may make specific offer for providing services. The central server also converts and translates the offers according to user preferences and makes the offers available to the user. The offers may include the travel starting time, price of the offer, the service providers rating or other parameters specified by the user or the system with option to accept the offer most suitable for the user. The method may be used for ordering other types of occasional transport services.

Description

METHOD FOR ORDERING TAXI SERVICES USING A MOBILE COMMUNICATION DEVICE

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention belongs to systems that enable ordering taxi services and other occasional transportation services as well as other similar location based goods and services using a mobile phone or other portable communication device.

BACKGROUND ART

Computer networks, including the Internet, are being increasingly used for selling and intermediating services. Additionally, more and more software applications are available via mobile and smart phones. Various services include selling tickets to miscellaneous events, selling bus and plane tickets, selling prepaid calling time, making doctor's and other appointments, making reservations at restaurants, etc.

Taxi transport plays an essential role in municipal transport systems. In big cities, using a taxi may be cheaper and more comfortable than driving a private car. Using taxis (or rental cars with a driver) is also often needed when travelling. The simplest way to get a taxi is to hail one on the street or to go to a taxi stand, e.g., at airports or near hotels. Ordering a taxi by phone is also common practice, for example by calling the customer service of a taxi company. Some cities have a central dispatch centre for ordering taxi services, enabling services to be ordered from different taxi service providers. Ordering a taxi in advance for a specific time is also possible, e.g. through Web page.

The existing solutions have several shortcomings. The customer needs a phone number of the customer service to place a call, and may not know it in a foreign city or not have it readily available. The service provider found by the customer may be unavailable or not able to provide services at the time the customer needs the services. Also the price or service quality of the service provider found by the customer may be unacceptable. Also the travel cost and the duration of the trip are often not even approximately known when ordering a taxi. Patent application US20080183828 discloses a real-time message brokering system where based on a user's free text query the system matches appropriate queries from the other users' free text queries. The system enables, e.g., finding a driving companion to share a taxi from the airport to a common destination. This system, however, is not adapted for ordering taxi services.

In a European patent application with publication number EP 1770651 a taxi-ordering and tracking system is described where the central computer system has been adapted to save and track locations of taxis, receive customers' phone calls and create a voice communication connection directly between the customer and taxi driver. The system is not adapted for receiving multiple offers from competing service providers, and for ordering taxi service by other means than through voice communication. This is a particularly limiting when ordering a taxi in a region where the customer does not speak the local language, and the foreign language skills of taxi drivers are insufficient, as well as when the taxi driver could not answer the call or cannot use the phone (e.g., while driving). Also the cost of voice communication may be prohibitively high when travelling abroad (e.g., mobile phone roaming).

Patent application US2009030885 discloses a system that provides a user with an ability to manage an on-demand or scheduled service, such as taxi services, the system comprises: a mobile communicator configured to receive instructions from the user and to send user data; and a facilitator configured to receive the user data and retrieve options data based on the user data, filter the options data based on an identification data, provide associated costs and relevant information for the filtered options data, and send the filtered options data and the associated costs to the mobile communicator. The system is not adapted for asking and forwarding to the user multiple offers from several competing service providers in real time. What is needed, therefore, is a simple and straightforward system where the user can request and receive offers simultaneously and in real time from several service providers servicing the area. What is also needed is a system where the user can ask and receive their offers based on their specific preferences, particularly, in their language of choice, and in their currency of choice. DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

The aim of the invention is achieved by a method for ordering taxi services using a mobile communication device running a software application, comprises the steps of: determining a location of interest when the software application is started, and wherein the location of interest is either a last known location, a location entered or chosen by the user, or a user location, determined by one or several positioning methods; determining taxi services available in the location of interest; presenting the user with options to choose available taxi services; receiving a user request for taxi services, said user request specifying at least a pickup location, wherein the pickup location is either the location of interest or the last known location, or is entered or chosen by the user, or is the user location as determined by one or several positioning methods; determining the service area from the user request; determining taxi service providers servicing the service area; converting and translating the user request according to preferences of the service providers making said converted and translated user request available to at least one taxi service provider servicing the area; receiving at least one offer from said at least one service provider servicing the area; converting and translating said at least one offer according to the user preferences and making said converted and translated offer available for the user; and receiving a user accept to at least one offer and making the user accept available to the service provider. In a preferred embodiment, the request, the offers and the accepts are posted on the central server. The user mobile communication device and the taxi service provider system periodically poll the central server for new information and download (pull) the information when new information becomes available. In an alternative embodiment, the request, the offers or the accepts are sent (pushed) to the taxi service provider system and to the user mobile communication device.

The invention does not require that the user has an account with any of the taxi service providers nor with the central system.

The location of interest and the pickup location can be determined according to the user preferences stored in the user mobile communication device or in the central server; as last known location; as an address or point of interest (POI) entered by the user; or as coordinates entered by the user, or using global positioning systems, including GPS or A-GPS positioning; using mobile positioning function of the user mobile communication device; or based on data communication network address of the user mobile communication device or the location of the data communication network or networks itself, e.g., using Wi-Fi positioning method.

The method can be modified for ordering other similar services, in particular occasional transport services, as well as other location based goods and services, using handheld computer, mobile phone or smart phone. The method may include additional steps, e.g., the step of receiving from the service provider and forwarding to the user a confirmation to the accept. Furthermore, in addition to converting and translating requests, offers, accepts and confirmations from one currency to another and from one language to another, additional processing may be desired, e.g., converting the time from one time zone to another, changing the format of the message from the one suitable for the user mobile communication device to the format suitable for the service provider system and vice versa, adding additional information to the message, etc.

One aspect of the invention is a taxi service ordering system, comprising at least one user mobile communication device, a central server and an information system (such as a database) for storing service provider data, and at least one taxi service provider system, wherein said at least one user mobile communication device and said at least one service provider system are connected to said central system over a data network. The user mobile communication device is running a software application adapted to receive the user request, to process and to supplement it, and to transfer it to the central server via available data network, and present the information arriving from the central server, including the location information, service provider data, offers and confirmations, to the user, as well as to perform other steps desired. The central system is adapted to store service providers data, to receive user requests, comprising at least the pickup location, to determine the service area based on user request, to determine at least one service provider servicing the area, to convert and translate the user requests according to the service provider preferences, forward the converted and translated user request to at least one service provider system, to receive offers from said at least one service provider, to convert and translate the offers according to the user preferences, to forward the converted and translated offers to the user, to receive the accepts from the user and to forward the accepts to the service provider as well as to perform other steps desired. The service provider system is adapted to receive user requests for offers from the central system, to send offers to the central system, to receive accepts from central system and to send confirmations to the central system as well as to perform other steps necessary to make offers in response to request for offers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Modes for carrying out the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which Fig 1 depicts a method known from the background art

Fig 2 depicts a method according to one embodiment of the invention.

Fig 3 depicts a block diagram of a system where the method is implemented Fig 4 depicts a detailed block diagram of a system combined with message transfer diagram

Fig 5 to Fig 7 depict three embodiments of the taxi service provider system.

MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The method of ordering taxi services is now described in reference to enclosed drawings. Fig 1 describes a method known from the background art, the method comprising the steps of receiving travel data from the user, querying databases, filtering goods/services, providing results to the user, receiving user selection, determining if the itinerary is complete, and booking the trip. The method of ordering taxi services according to one embodiment is shown on Fig 2. The method comprises the following steps: starting the software application; determining a location of interest (using one or several methods discussed below); determining taxi services available in the location of interest; presenting the user with selection of available services; receiving a user request for taxi services by the user mobile communication device, said request for offers comprising at least a pickup location (i.e., the location where the user wants the taxi to pick her up) wherein the pickup location is either the location of interest or the last known location, or is entered or chosen by the user, or is the user location as determined by one or several positioning methods; determining the service area from said user request; determining service providers servicing the service area from the database of service providers; determining taxi service providers servicing the service area; converting and translating the user request according to preferences of the service providers; making the converted and translated user request available to at least one taxi service provider servicing the service area; receiving at least one offer from said at least one service provider servicing the service area; converting and translating said at least one offer according to the user preferences; making said converted and translated offer available for the user; receiving a user accept to at least one offer and making the user accept available to the service provider; and receiving a confirmation from the service provider in response to user accept, and making the confirmation available to the user.

The preferred mode is the brokering or multi-offer mode, i.e., where the user request is made available to several service providers. Other modes of ordering may include direct order mode, where the user is provided with one or more service providers with order button, or a call order mode where the user is provided with an option to make a voice call to the service provider.

According to another embodiment the method comprises the following steps: receiving the user request for offers by the user mobile communication device, said user request comprising a pickup location; determining the pickup location for the user request using one or more methods from the following selection: determining the pickup location based on user preferences stored in the user mobile communication device (alternatively, in the central server), determining the pickup location using global positioning systems such as GPS and A-GPS; determining the pickup location using mobile positioning of the user mobile communication device, determining the pickup location based on the location of the data communications network address (e.g., IP address) of the user mobile communication device, determining the pickup location based on an address entered by the user, or point of interest (POI) or other information that can be selected from the map, entered by the user; determining the service area based on the user request, including the pickup location; determining in the central server the general pool of taxi service providers who have indicated that they service this particular service area; determining the taxi service providers willing to service this particular user request from the general pool of taxi service providers servicing the area; transmitting from the central server to the user mobile communication device the data of the taxi service providers willing to service the user request; and displaying the data of the taxi service providers willing to service the user request on the screen of the user mobile communication device together with means to choose and order the service from one of the service providers (such means include, e.g., a click or tap button, voice command, or other user interface actions).

One implementation example of the system of the invention is shown on Fig 3. The system 1 comprises a central server 2, and a user mobile communication device 4 with an appropriate user application software and a taxi service provider system 5 an appropriate service provider application software installed in it. The central server is connected with the mobile communicator and the taxi service provider system connected with it via a computer network, for example the Internet 3. A geographic information system (GIS) server and a map server 6 and a server 7 providing location- based information may also be connected with the system.

Taxi service provider in this application means a company providing taxi services, a company providing taxi dispatching services, and also individual taxi units, including independent service providers. The software application in the user mobile communication device is adapted to receive and process information entered by the user, transmit it to the central server via a communications channel using suitable data format, receive information sent by the central server using suitable data format, process the received information, and present it to the user in a suitable form and format. The user application has also been set up to register the user mobile communication device and to identify it, register the end user, and ensure the security of the information transmitted to the central server. More specifically, the software application is adapted to:

1. register itself in the central system on first usage, wherein a device specific authentication account is automatically created on the central server and used on the next usage occasions and to determine a location of interest;

2. receive the user request, to process and to supplement it, and to transfer it to the central server via available data network, and present the information arriving from the central server, including the location information, service provider data, offers and confirmations, to the user, as well as to perform other steps desired.

3. combine the information arriving from the central server with the information received from other sources, and process it, for example the cost is presented to the user in a foreign country in the currency of his/her preference, considering the exchange rates of the central bank or an agreed upon commercial bank; 4. receive preferences specified by the user, e.g. service provider preferences, etc., in addition to the ones already mentioned;

5. display the location of the taxi sent to service him/her on a map, and display the estimated arrival time of the taxi.

Using the user mobile communication device, the user can specify both the places of departure (the pickup location) and destination using coordinates, an address, point of interest or previously saved preselections; in addition to that the pickup location can be determined by the location of the user mobile communication device using a suitable positioning method; the time of the trip can be set based on preselections or determined as the time of submitting the order, the user may also submit other relevant conditions, e.g. the number of persons travelling, availability of a child- restraint seat, wheelchair access, card payment possibility, maximum price, service class of the provider or customer rating. The central system comprises a server connected to a data communications network, e.g. the Internet) via a suitable communications channel (voice communications channel, GPRS, 3G, WiFi, WiMax, etc.), the server having an appropriate software installed in it, and the database of service providers and other databases required for the system to work stored on the storage device installed in it, for example on the hard disk drive or drives. The central server is set up to receive and process requests sent by the user application, process the orders, perform queries corresponding to the order in relevant databases, including the service provider database, and forward the orders to the service providers. The server is also set up to receive and process offers arriving from the service providers, and forward them to the user application. Such processing includes converting the offer (e.g., the offer is presented in a currency specified by the user) and translating the offer (the offer is presented in the language specified by the user). The server could be additionally set up to find additional information pertaining to the service (e.g. the service provider's rating) or in addition to it (e.g. location-based advertisements), and forward it to the user application or the service provider application. The server could also be set up to forward messages to the service provider about the services accepted by the user, and keep account of the offers sent and won by the service provider and log other service related data.

More specifically, the central server is adapted to

1. store service providers data, to receive user requests, comprising at least the pickup location, to determine the service area based on user request, to determine at least one service provider servicing the area, to convert and translate the user requests according to the service provider preferences, forward the converted and translated user request to at least one service provider system, to receive offers from said at least one service provider, to convert and translate the offers according to the user preferences, to forward the converted and translated offers to the user, to receive the accepts from the user and to forward the accepts to the service provider.

2. find additional information pertaining to the service (e.g., the service provider ratings) or in addition to it (e.g., location-based advertisements), and to forward it to the user mobile application or the service provider's application;

3. keep account of the offers made by a service provider and offers accepted by users and log other relevant events.

The taxi service provider application installed in the taxi service provider system is set up to receive and process requests and orders sent by the server, including to forward the orders to the service provider customer management system and fleet management system, including the vehicle device located in the vehicle (which could be a mobile phone or a smart phone of the driver). The service provider application is also set up to receive and process information arriving from the customer management system or fleet management system, and forward it to the central server using a predetermined format. More specifically, the application installed in the taxi service provider system is adapted to:

1. receive user requests for offers from the central system, to compose and send offers to the central system, to receive accepts from central system and to send confirmations to the central system as well as to forward the requests for offers to the service provider's customer management system, fleet management system, and other systems, including to the vehicle device located in the vehicle;

2. receive and to process information arriving from the customer management system or fleet management system, and to forward it to the central server in a suitable format; 3. find the most suitable vehicle for servicing the user (e.g. the closest available car), and make an offer for providing the service using this vehicle;

4. track the locations of the taxi vehicles, and display their information to the dispatcher. The taxi service provider application could include a vehicle application located in the vehicle, for example taxi, that enables receiving requests for offers in the vehicle via a suitable data communications network either directly from the central server or through the service provider's customer management system or the fleet management system. The vehicle application has been installed in a suitable vehicle device that could be on-board computer, handheld computer, mobile phone or smart phone. The vehicle application could also be implemented as a Web-based application. The system according to the invention significantly improves the user options to order goods and services, in particular transport services such as taxi services, especially when the user is travelling outside his/her place of residence.

Within this patent application the application installed in the user mobile communication device and the application installed in the taxi service provider system also mean a Web-based application used and operated via an Internet browser.

According to the one embodiment of the invention, a suitable user application has been installed in the user mobile communication device of the system depicted in Fig 3 that could be a suitable personal computer, laptop computer, handheld computer, mobile or smart phone, for example iPhone, Android based phone, etc. The user application has been written in a suitable programming language, for example C++. A server application has been installed in the server, and a taxi service provider application has been installed in the taxi service provider system, or hosted remotely.

A suitable protocol is used for data exchange between the user application and the central server, according to the first implementation example the HTTP 1.1 protocol is used. Communication between the central server and the device is optimized by compression and other encoding means to be of minimum size. Both connection level and query-based security is used to ensure security. For each query the client is authenticated and the integrity of the query is determined using signing of the client's query. The pull method is preferably used.

According to another implementation example the user application is Web-based, i.e. a suitable Web browser is used to create and forward queries, and present replies, whereas it is also capable of functioning both in a personal computer and mobile device (tablet computer, smart phone, netbook computer, etc.).

The detailed block diagram of a system of the invention and message transfer diagram in the system of the invention according to the method making up the invention have been depicted on Fig 4. The system comprises a user mobile communication device, a central server and several service provider systems. First, a location is determined by positioning methods 1 to N. A location query 101 is sent to the location processor and a query is sent to the map data server, if necessary (for example, an address, a point of interest or other feature that can be associated with a map). Location information 102 is sent from the central server to the user mobile communication device. Available services according to location information 103 are displayed to the user. The user enters his/her request for offers, e.g., a travel request. The travel request typically comprises the pickup location (or pickup place) and the travel destination, travel starting time, and extra conditions essential for the user. The request for offers 104 is transferred from the user mobile communication device to the central server via a data network that could be either a suitable wireless network (WiFi, GSM, GPRS, etc.) or wired network. A request id 105 is returned. The location information (including the pickup location and/or the travel destination) is extracted from the request for offers by a broker query processor, and request information 106 is forwarded to the service provider selector. Based on location information 107, a service provider info 108 of the service providers servicing the service area is determined from the database of service providers. Request for service 109 is then forwarded to the query sender. The information converter then converts and the query sender sends the request for offers 110 to the taxi service provider system. A service provider interested in providing the service sends an offer 111 to the central server, where it is is converted and translated by the information converter. The user mobile device periodically polls the central server, using request ID, for new offers and the converted and translated offer information 1 12 is pulled to the user mobile communication device. The offer processor may add other relevant information to the offer, e.g. location-based information such as advertisements. The offers are displayed by the user mobile communication device. User may choose to accept any offer she likes. The accept 114 is received by the accept-confirmation processor and processed accept 115 is forwarded to the taxi service provider system. A confirmation 116 is received by the accept confirmation processor and processed confirmation 117 is forwarded to the user mobile communication device. Fig. 5 depicts one embodiment of the taxi service provider system. An order processing engine receives an order request 10 and forwards order info 11 through an interface to a third party dispatch system. An offer info 12 is then received from the third party dispatch system through the interface and forwarded to the offer generation engine. Offer generation engine prepares an offer 13 that is sent to the central server. The offer accept 14 is received and accepted offer info 15 is forwarded to the third party dispatch system. A confirmation info 16 from the third party dispatch system is similarly received and order confirmation 17 is forwarded to the central server.

Fig. 6 depicts another embodiment of the taxi service provider system. Here, similarly to previous embodiment, an order request 20 is received from the central server. An order processing engine receives an order, extracts the order info 21 and sends it to an automated dispatch engine. Automated dispatch engine sends a closest car request 22 (or request for a car chosen by any other business rule) to the car location tracking engine and receives back a closest car info 23. Pre-booking request 24 is sent to the driver device and confirmation 25 is received. The offer info 26 is then sent to the offer generation engine and the offer 27 is sent to the central system. When the offer 27 is accepted by the user, an accept 28 is received by the accepted offers processor, the accepted offer 29 info is sent to the automated dispatch engine and job request 30 is sent to the driver device. A confirmation 31 is received from the driver device and forwarded through the automated dispatch engine (order confirmation info 32) and accepted offer processor to the central system (order confirmation 33).

Fig 7 depicts yet another embodiment of the service provider system. Here, an order 40 is received from the central server. An order processing engine receives an order 40, extracts the order info 41 and displays it on the dispatcher dashboard application. A human operator has several possible options here, however, generally a closest car inquiry 42 is sent to the car location tracking engine and closest car info 43 is received. Pre-booking request 44 is sent to the driver device and confirmation 45 is received. The offer info 46 is then sent to the offer generation engine and the offer 47 is sent to the central system. When the offer is accepted by the user, an offer accept 48 is received by the accepted offers processor, the accepted offer info 49 is sent to the dispatcher dashboard application and job request 50 is sent to the driver device. A confirmation 51 is received from the driver device and forwarded through the dispatcher dashboard application (order confirmation info 52) and accepted offer processor (order confirmation 53) to the central system.

It is obvious to an expert in the field that the protection scope of the invention disclosed in the claims is not limited with the implementation examples of the invention described but also covers the solutions corresponding to the enclosed claim.

Claims

1. A method for ordering taxi services using a mobile communication device in a system comprising a central server and an information system for storing taxi service provider data, at least one user mobile communication device running a software application, and at least one taxi service provider system connected to the central server over a data network, wherein the method comprises: determining a location of interest when the software application is started, and wherein the location of interest is either a last known location, a location entered or chosen by the user, or a user location as determined by positioning the user mobile communication device using one or several positioning methods; determining taxi services available in the location of interest; presenting the user with options to choose available taxi services; receiving a user request for taxi services, said user request specifying at least a pickup location, wherein the pickup location is either the location of interest or the last known location, or is entered or chosen by the user, or is the user location as determined by positioning the user mobile communication device using one or several positioning methods; determining the service area from the user request; determining taxi service providers servicing the service area; converting and translating the user request according to preferences of the service providers making said converted and translated user request available to at least one taxi service provider servicing the area; receiving at least one offer from said at least one service provider servicing the area; converting and translating said at least one offer according to the user preferences and making said converted and translated offer available for the user; and receiving a user accept to at least one offer and making the user accept available to the service provider.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the user request comprises a travel destination, desired travel starting time, or special travel requirements.

3. A method according to claims 1 to 2, comprising posting the user requests, the offers and the accepts on the central server and the user mobile communication device and the taxi service provider system periodically polling the central server for new information and download it when it becomes available.

4. A method according to claims 1 to 2, comprising sending the user requests and accepts to the taxi service provider systems, and sending the offers to the user mobile communication device.

5. A method according to claims 1 to 4, wherein additional location-based information is added to the offers in the central server.

6. A method according to claims 1 to 4, comprising submitting a list of service providers servicing the area in response to user request.

7. A method according to claims 1 to 6, wherein the offer includes the specified travel starting time, specified pickup location, estimated travel duration, and estimated travel cost.

8. A method according to claims 1 to 7, wherein the offer is made available in a language and currency specified by the user.

9. A method according to claims 1 to 7, wherein the user request is made available in a language and currency specified by the service provider.

10. A method according to claim 7, comprising adding details of the recommended route of the travel corresponding to the user request to the offer in the central server.

11. A method according to claims 1 to 10, comprising automatically selecting the best offer among the offers from different service providers according to the requirements specified by the user, and forwarding said offer to the user mobile communication device.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein the requirement specified by the user is either the most favorable price or the earliest travel starting time.

13. A method according to claims 1 to 12, wherein the user mobile communication device comprises a touch screen with the means for choosing and ordering the service from one of the service providers.

14. A method according a claims 1 to 13, wherein the software application is a web- based application.

15. A method according to claims 1 to 14, wherein the user mobile communication device is a laptop computer, handheld computer, mobile phone or smart phone.

16. A method according to claims 1 to 15, comprising determining a suitable car in the service provider system for servicing the user request and forwarding the user request to a driver device in a service provider system.

17. A method according to claims 1 to 16, comprising registering the software application running on the user mobile communication device by creating an authentication account on the central server and using the authentication account for securing the data transfer between the user mobile communication device and the central server.