AU2015201104A1 - A data communication and processing system for calculation and presentation of competitive vehicle transport fares and quotations - Google Patents

Abstract

Abstract A method for calculating and presenting pretravel costed journey offerings of a number of transport providers to customers comprising the steps of: establishing data communications between the transport providers and a data processing system to facilitate the remote entry by the transport providers of one or more fare schedules applicable to their vehicle; storing the entered fare schedules in association with corresponding transport provider details in an electronic data storage system accessible to the data processing system; establishing data communications between the data processing system and potential customers of the transport providers to thereby facilitate the entry by the customers of details of proposed customer journeys; processing the stored fare schedules and proposed customer journeys with the data processing system to thereby calculate and associate a journey cost for each transport provider with each of the prospective customer journeys; and via a data communications link between the data processing system and the customers remotely presenting said fixed journey costs for each transport provider for the prospective journeys to corresponding customers thereof; whereby each customer is able to view and select a transport providers particular displayed vehicle type for the customer's corresponding journey/s by reference to the presented journey fixed costs as nominated for that particular vehicle. lb 1/21 la 9 1n le TX o TAXI Co. 17 33m 3b

Description

AUSTRALIA PATENTS ACT 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION A DATA COMMUNICATION AND PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR CALCULATION AND PRESENTATION OF COMPETITIVE VEHICLE TRANSPORT FARES AND QUOTATIONS The following statement is a description of the invention: 1 A DATA COMMUNICATION AND PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR CALCULATION AND PRESENTATION OF COMPETITIVE VEHICLE TRANSPORT FARES AND QUOTATIONS TECHNICAL FIELD 5 The present invention relates to methods for presenting transportation fares and quotations of transportation providers to customers. BACKGROUND Any references to methods, apparatus or documents of the prior art are not to be 10 taken as constituting any evidence or admission that they formed, or form part of the common general knowledge. Booking a cab or as it is equivalently referred to "a taxi", including/defined as any one or more of the various forms of vehicle transport in taxis, maxi taxis, business class taxis, silver service taxis, limousine, stretch limousines, minibus or any other duly 15 licensed vehicle or driver duly authorised to provide private or public transportation is an activity that thousands of people engage in every day. When a cab is booked by telephone the process typically involves the customer making a phone call to a particular cab company, advising that company of the required journey, typically by specifying the pickup and destination locations and then awaiting the arrival of the 20 cab either immediately or at a nominated time. More recently it is also known for such a cab provider or company to provide a computer website or smartphone app so that customers can book a vehicle from or through the particular cab company by using the website or the app rather than by having to make a telephone call.It is also well known for customers to hire cabs at cab ranks or off the street. Where a cab is 25 hired from a cab rank the customer usually simply takes the first cab from the rank and the fare that is applied is a standard fare that is basically calculated on distance travelled, the duration of the journey and the time of departure and finally calculated and advised to the customer upon completion of the journey. Limousine rides are also booked in a similar fashion to that described above though 30 government regulations usually prevent a customer engaging a limousine from a taxi rank.

2 Booking a cab, either by a call to a cab company, through a provider company's smartphone app or website or by hailing a cab from the street or a cab rank is time consuming and unpredictable in availability. Furthermore, there is no ability for a customer to obtain a fixed fare for a particular journey prior to commencement of the 5 journey in the case of a taxi. Accordingly there is virtually no opportunity for a customer to "shop around" and compare the offerings of different companies, particularly between the various different types of vehicles. It would be very time consuming for a customer to make a number of pre-booking calls to different limousine companies in relation to a proposed journey, determine the fare for each 10 company and then select a company based on the price. Where the customer wishes to weigh up more factors than simply the cost of the journey then the decision making becomes more complex and more time-consuming if it is in fact possible. A particular embodiment of the invention creates a method which allows for the calculation of the amount of a fixed price quotation for any particular journey as 15 nominated by a prospective customer and for transport providers to display electronically and otherwise, the calculated amount by way of a quotation for all such travel journeys that customers have previously posted by way of request or enquiry and wish to travel over either immediately or at a time in the future. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic data processing and 20 data communications method that at least allows customers of travel providers to readily compare fares and quotations for a journey from a number of transport providers in a fashion that is more time effective and convenient than the prior art methods that have been discussed above. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 25 According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for calculating and presenting pretravel costed journey offerings of a number of transport providers to customers comprising the steps of: establishing data communications between the transport providers and a data processing system to facilitate the remote entry by the transport providers of one or 30 more fare schedules applicable to their vehicle; storing the entered fare schedules in association with corresponding transport provider details in an electronic data storage system accessible to the data processing system; 3 establishing data communications between the data processing system and potential customers of the transport providers to thereby facilitate the entry by the customers of details of proposed customer journeys; processing the stored fare schedules and proposed customer journeys with 5 the data processing system to thereby calculate and associate a journey cost for each transport provider with each of the prospective customer journeys; via a data communications link between the data processing system and the customers remotely presenting said fixed journey costs for each transport provider for the prospective journeys to corresponding customers thereof; and 10 whereby each customer is able to view and select a transport providers particular displayed vehicle type for the customer's corresponding journey/s by reference to the presented journey fixed costs as nominated for that particular vehicle. Preferably the method includes facilitating entry of multiple fare schedules by each transport provider wherein each of the multiple fare schedules varies in accordance 15 with a journey parameter. For example, the journey parameter may be a commencement time of the journey or the distance of the journey. In a preferred embodiment of the invention the method includes allowing the customers to submit a journey commencement time and date for an advanced booking and for the transport providers to submit quoted fares for that particular 20 journey. In a preferred embodiment of the invention the method includes operating the data processing system to facilitate the remote entry by the transport providers of selection information in addition to the fare costs. For example, the selection information may include a current geographical location of 25 a vehicle of the transport provider for use in conveying a customer over the corresponding costed journey so that the customer may make a selection taking into account the geographical proximity of the vehicle that will be used for a given costed journey. The current geographical location may be a GPS location that is transmitted to the 30 data processing system from the vehicle.

4 The selection information may include information identifying the type of the vehicle. For example, the type of vehicle may include a "maxi" taxi or a business class taxi or a limousine or a stretch limousine. Accordingly, the method in a preferred embodiment involves presenting the 5 customers with information as to the type of vehicle that will be used to convey them on a particular journey for which a fare has been provided. Consequently the customers are able to take into account the vehicle type when making their selection. Furthermore, in one embodiment of the invention the method facilitates the entry by the customers of particular preferences in relation to the transportation service that 10 they seek in addition to the specification of the journey. For example, the preferences may include a customer vehicle type so that only costed journeys for which a vehicle of the customer preferred type will be presented to the customer. The method may also facilitate the entry of customer feedback in relation to the transport provider subsequent to the customer concluding a journey and the storage 15 of that customer feedback in the data storage system in association with the transport provider. Subsequently, customers may be presented with customer feedback for transport providers along with corresponding journey costs of the transport providers. Such information may then be taken into account by the customers when making their transport provider selection for a particular journey. 20 The system may also facilitate the entry by customers of advance journey details including a date and time at some time in the not immediate future that is associated with the journey. For example, the associated date and time will usually be a commencement date and time, i.e. the date and time of departure, though it might alternatively be an estimate of an arrival time. 25 In a preferred embodiment of the method the data processing system makes the advance journey details available to the transport providers for the transport providers to submit journey quotations in response. The data processing system forwards the received journey quotations to the customers while storing a copy of the journey details and associated customers, transport providers and their journey 30 quotations in the data storage system. Preferably the method includes facilitating the withdrawal by the transport providers of previously submitted journey quotations prior to the acceptance by customers of the journey quotations.

5 Preferably the method includes facilitating acceptance of a journey quotation by customers and confirming same to the corresponding transport provider. In a preferred embodiment of the invention the method includes, upon acceptance of the journey quotation by the customer, the data processing system transmitting a 5 telephone and vehicle registration number for the transport provider to the customer and a telephone number of the customer to the transport provider. According to a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a data processing system in the form of a webserver that is arranged to implement the previously described method. 10 According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a smartphone application "app" to that is arranged to establish data communications with the webserver and to present pages to the transport providers and to customers thereof for respectively submitting customer journeys and fare schedules associated therewith. 15 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Preferred features, embodiments and variations of the invention may be discerned from the following Detailed Description which provides sufficient information for those skilled in the art to perform the invention. The Detailed Description is not to be regarded as limiting the scope of the preceding Summary of the Invention in any way. 20 The Detailed Description will make reference to a number of drawings as follows: Figure 1A depicts a webserver and database arranged to implement a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Figure 1 B is a further diagram of the webserver and database showing the internal components of the webserver. 25 Figures 2 to 5 are screen shots of pages that are presented to transport providers, for example drivers, for registration and during performance of a preferred embodiment of the method. Figures 7 to 13 are screen shots of pages that are presented to customers, or as they are sometimes called "fares", during performance of the preferred 30 embodiment of the method.

6 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to Figure 1A, there is depicted a block diagram illustrating the entities involved in the performance of a method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. 5 Broadly stated, a first aspect of the method involves presenting costed journey offerings of a number of transport providers la,..,ln to customers 3a,.., 3m. The transport providers 1a,..,ln may be individual drivers e.g. 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d which each have their own vehicle and a communications device such as the a smartphone with which they can connect to the Internet 7. 10 Alternatively, the transport providers 1a,...1n, may be taxi companies, e.g. TAXI Co. 1, 1 e or TAXI Co. 2, 1n, which administer a number of individual drivers. Each of the taxi companies is equipped with a computational device such as a desktop computer in communication with a data network such as the Internet 7. The customers who are clicked to it could each be equipped with a data communications device which in the 15 case of customers 3a, 3b and 3m is a smart phone. Non-limiting examples of suitable smartphones are Apple iPhones or Android phones. The method involves establishing data communications between the transport providers 1a,..., 1n and a data processing system in the form of suitably programmed webserver 5. 20 Figure 1 B includes a block diagram of the web-server 5 for carrying out a method according to an embodiment of the invention that will be described. It will be understood that the computer system 5 comprises an exemplary electronic processor based system for carrying out the method. The computer system 5 includes a main board 53 which includes circuitry for 25 powering and interfacing to at least one onboard processor 55. At least one onboard processor may comprise two or more discrete processors or processors with multiple processing cores. The main board 53 acts as an interface between microprocessor 55 and secondary memory 57. The secondary memory 57 will typically comprise one or more optical or 30 good morning year so wouldn't wake magnetic, or solid state, drives. The secondary memory 57 stores instructions for an operating system 59. The main board 53 also communicates with random access memory 61 and read only memory 63. The ROM 7 63 typically stores instructions for a Basic Input Output System BIOS which the microprocessor 55 accesses upon start up and which preps the microprocessor 55 for loading of the operating system 59. The main board 53 may also be coupled to an optical disk reader/writer 72 so that 5 tangible machine readable instructions borne on the disk can be loaded into RAM 61 and the secondary storage 57 and executed by the central processor 55. An optical disk 77 bearing tangible machine readable instructions for the webserver 5 to carry out a method according to an embodiment of the present invention may be read by the disk drive 72 and subsequently executed by processor 55. 10 The main board 53 also interfaces with a graphics processor unit 65. It will be understood that in some systems the graphics processor unit 65 is integrated into the main board 53. The main board 53 will typically include a communications adapter, for example a LAN adaptor or a modem. The communications adaptor places the computer system 15 5 in data communication with a computer network such as the internet 7 and thence to remote computational devices of transport providers la,...,ln and customers 3a,...,3m. A user of the computer system 5 is able to interface directly with it by means of keyboard 69, mouse 71 and display 67. Alternatively, as is more often the case for 20 servers an administrator may interface with the computer system across a data network by using a remote terminal application. The programming of the webserver 5 is straightforward once the preferred method is understood from the following description. As previously alluded to, the data communications between the webserver 5 and 25 each of the transport providers 1a,..,1n and customers 3a,.., 3m are established via a data network such as the Internet 7 with broadband communication via mobile phone networks 9 to the various smartphones of the transport providers and customers. The webserver 5 facilitates the remote entry by the transport providers of fare schedules for any of a predetermined range of departure times or journey distances 30 or otherwise. This is most conveniently done by the webserver 5 serving webpages to the drivers' computational devices. The drivers pre-register with the webserver 5 and so they are able to log in to a private account that has been specially created for 8 them and whose details are stored in a data storage system such as the database 11 which is accessible to the webserver 5. The fare schedules that are entered by the transport providers 1a,..,1n and for each the identity of its corresponding transport provider are stored by the webserver 5 in 5 the electronic data storage system 11. The webserver 5 also establishes data communications with the customers 3a,...,3m of the transport providers la,...,ln. For example, this is typically done by the webserver 5 serving webpages or other electronic documents that contain data entry forms. The remote customers 3a,...,3m then use their computational devices, such as smartphones, tablets, or netbooks etc., 10 to browse to the webpages that are served by the webserver 5. Consequently, by serving the webpages with suitable data entry forms the webserver 5 facilitates the entry by the customers 3a,...,3m of customer journeys. The customers will typically submit a desired journey by specifying a departure location and a destination location. The webserver 5 stores the customers' identities along with their desired 15 journeys, that have been received from the transport providers la,...,ln, in the database 11. It also processes the stored fare schedules and the customer journeys to thereby associate a journey cost for each transport provider with each of the prospective journeys. The processing of the stored fare schedules and the customer journeys to produce journey costs typically entails calculating a journey distance and 20 applying that distance to a rate per kilometre that is specified in the fare schedules that the transport providers have previously submitted. Once the web server 5 has calculated journey costs of each transport provider for each of the journeys it returns the journey costs to the corresponding customers' computational devices by serving appropriate web pages to them. Each customer is 25 then able to select a transport provider for his or her journey or journeys in light of the presented journey costs. The method may include the webserver prompting the customers to submit a journey commencement time. More preferably though, the system operates on the basis of immediate/as soon as possible request or an advanced booking - in the case of an 30 advanced booking a predetermined reasonable period of time to allow the advanced booking process to operate is taken into account. The default commencement time is simply "immediately" or "as soon as possible". Commencement time is an important parameter because fare schedules may be dependent on the time of the journey. For example journeys that take place late at night or on public holidays may 35 attract a higher cost than journeys that take place during business hours.

9 Consequently the driver may be required to manually change his/her rates at different times of the day or night/weekend. Consequently, the webserver 5 can be programmed to facilitate entry of multiple fare schedules by each transport provider la,...,ln wherein each of the multiple fare 5 schedules varies in accordance with a journey parameter. For example, as previously discussed the journey parameter might be a commencement time of the journey or the distance of the journey. However, it could also be some other parameter such that affects the fare. For example, where a customer specifies that a particular type of vehicle be used then the transport provider may provide a fare that is higher or 10 lower depending on the specified vehicle requirement. In one embodiment of the invention drivers are offered a number of separate rates that they could change between at any time by simply selecting the different rate. However, in a more preferred embodiment of the invention the drivers are offered three separate rates depending upon the length of the journey and as referred to earlier if they wish to 15 change their rates for some other reason they need to manually change the rates within one or more of the distance related rate options. It will be the case that the rates are set by each driver in each particular vehicle so different vehicle types will nominate rates reflective of their vehicle type and features. Where a customer has stipulated a particular journey parameter, such as a particular 20 vehicle type then the webserver can be programmed to only present costed journeys that take into account that customer stipulated parameter. Furthermore, even if customers do not specify a particular journey requirement, such as a special vehicle, the webserver 5 can be programmed to facilitate the remote entry by the transport providers of selection information in addition to the fare costs, 25 such as vehicle type. The selection information may include information identifying the type of the vehicle. For example, the type of vehicle may include a "maxi" taxi or a business class taxi or a limousine or a stretch limousine. Accordingly, the method in a preferred embodiment involves presenting the customers with information as to the type of 30 vehicle that will be used to convey them on a particular journey for which a fare has been provided. Consequently the customers are able to take into account the vehicle type when making their selection. For example, the selection information may include a current geographical location of a vehicle of the transport provider for use in conveying a customer over the 10 corresponding costed journey. This is so that the customer may make a selection taking into account the geographical proximity of the vehicle that will be used for a given costed journey. The current geographical location is typically a GPS location that is transmitted to the 5 webserver from a computational device, e.g. a smartphone, that is located in the vehicle. The webserver 5 can also be programmed to facilitate the entry of customer feedback in relation to the transport provider subsequent to the customer concluding a journey. The webserver 5 stores the customer feedback in the database 11. 10 Subsequently, customers may be presented with customer feedback for transport providers along with corresponding journey costs of the transport providers. Such information may then be taken into account by the customers when making their transport provider selection for a particular journey. It may be the case that customers wish to make advance bookings for journeys that 15 will take place a day or two, or even further, in the future. The webserver 5 can be programmed to facilitate the entry by customers of advance journey details including a future date and time that is associated with the journey. For example, the associated date and time will usually be a commencement date and time, i.e. the date and time of departure, though it might alternatively be an estimate of an arrival 20 time. Once the webserver 5 has received the customers advance journey details it makes them available to the transport providers for the transport providers to submit journey quotations in response. For example, the transport providers may log in to the webserver to see if there are any advance journeys for which they wish to submit 25 quotations of costs. The webserver 5 forwards the received journey quotations to the customers 3a,...3m while storing a copy of the journey details and associated customers, transport providers and their journey quotations in the database 7. It may be that subsequent to submitting a quote for an advance journey a transport provider no longer wishes to provide transportation services for the journey in 30 question. In that case the webserver 5 is programmed to facilitate the withdrawal by the transport providers of previously submitted journey quotations so long as that withdrawal is prior to the acceptance by customers of the relevant journey quotation.

11 Once a customer has reviewed all of the received journey quotations the customer can select a transport provider for the journey and confirm same to the corresponding transport provider via the webserver 5. Upon acceptance of the journey quotation by the customer, the webserver transmits 5 a telephone number for the transport provider to the customer and a telephone number of the customer to the transport provider so that they can communicate directly by telephone conversation or SMS texting if desired. An example of the use of the method will now be provided with reference to Figures 2 to 11. A transport provider, which will typically be a driver but could also be an 10 organization such as a taxi company, that wishes to register with the service that is implemented by the webserver 5 firstly navigates to a registration webpage. The registration webpage is served by the webserver and appears on the transport providers device, for example a smartphone, as shown in Figure 2. The transport provider submits his/her name, license number, drivers license photo, 15 vehicle registration, vehicle type and mobile phone number and then presses the "Done" link to transmit the entered registration details to the webserver 5. The webserver then stores the information in the database 11 and opens an account for the transport provider. Figure 3 is a screen shot of a webpage that the server 5 serves to a transport 20 provider's smartphone for the transport provider to nominate a number of different fare schedules. In the presently illustrated screen shot the transport provider has entered three different rates. Subsequently the transport provider may submit the predetermined fare schedules by pressing the "confirm" button. The webserver processes the submitted fare schedules along with journeys that 25 customers have submitted. It then presents the resulting fare for particular customer journeys to the customers and, once it has received a customer selection and booking, presents an "Accept Booking" screen to the transport provider as shown in Figure 4. If and when multiple bookings are outstanding, the transport provider is then shown an "Accept Booking" screen with multiple quotations as shown in Figure 30 4A. The transport provider checks the details illustrated on the Accept Booking screen of Figure 4. If all is correct the driver then presses the "Accept Booking" button. The webserver 5 records the acceptance of the job by the transport provider and in Figure 12 5 there can be seen the page that is then presented to the transport provider confirming that the booking has been confirmed. The driver then drives to the customer's pickup location i.e., "21 Rogers Street Spring Hill" as shown in Figure 4 in the presently illustrated example. In a further embodiment of the application, the 5 driver is presented with a job acceptance page which allows the driver to see the location of the passenger on the GPS screen as shown in Figure 5A. Figures 6 to 11 show screens that are presented to a customer during the fare selection process. At Figure 6, there is shown a splash screen that is initially presented to the customer on their smartphone. This splash screen is now followed 10 by a further screen requesting authorisation to location as shown in Figure 12 At Figure 7 the customer enters their mobile phone number and they may also be required to enter other login information. At Figure 8 the webserver presents a webpage for the customer to submit details of the journey that they wish to undertake. In the presently illustrated version of the method the customer enters a 15 pickup location and a destination location to specify the journey. The customer is also given the option to select Advanced Booking to specify a journey with greater detail. In Figure 8A the webserver presents an advanced booking webpage for the customer to include date and time details as well as their contact number. The webserver 5 processes the journey with reference to the previously submitted 20 fare schedules that transport providers have entered. In the screen illustrated in Figure 9 it presents the results of that processing to the customer. It will be observed that the fare selection screen of Figure 9 presents the customer with a list of fares for the customer's desired journey which, by default, are presented in order of the proximity of the transport provider's vehicle to the customer. For 25 example, the first entry of Figure 9 shows that there is a transport provider that has a taxi as opposed to a limousine or maxi-taxi just 0.7 kms from the customer with a customer feedback ranking of 91% and a fare for the journey of $24.70. If the customer is only interested in fares that are carried out by a vehicle that is a limousine rather than a taxi then pressing the appropriate circular button at the top of 30 the screen of Figure 9 will update the screen so that only fares associated with a vehicle of the desired type are presented. Figure 9A shows the results of the processing of an advanced booking.

13 The customer reviews the presented fares and makes a selection by pressing the corresponding "Go" button. The webserver then confirms the selection details to the customer via the screen that is shown in Figure 10. The customer, once having checked the fare details, presses 5 the "Go Now!" button to confirm. The page shown in Figure 10A is identical to the page shown in Figure 10 with the only exception being that Figure 10A is the confirmation page for advanced booking. The webserver then updates the database 11 and contacts the corresponding transport provider, e.g a driver, by presenting the screen to the driver that is shown in 10 Figure 4. Upon the driver confirming rejection of the booking the webserver then presents the customer with the booking confirmation screen that is shown in Figure 11. The booking confirmation screen confirms to the customer that the transport provider is unavailable. Figure 11A shows the booking confirmation screen for advanced booking. This booking screen is shown subsequent to the driver confirming 15 acceptance of the booking - it indicates to the customer that the transport has been booked and that the taxi is now on its way to the pick up location. A similar screen will be presented to the transport provider upon confirmation. In a further embodiment, the customer can be shown the page in Figure 11 B, which allows the user to view the location of the taxi while awaiting booking confirmation. 20 Figure 13 is a feedback page for the user to rate the quality of the booking application. Implementations of the present disclosure and all of the functional operations provided herein can be realized in digital electronic circuitry, or in computer software, firmware, or hardware, including the structures disclosed in this specification and 25 their structural equivalents, or in combinations of one or more of them. Implementations of the invention can be realized as one or more computer program products, i.e., one or more modules of computer program instructions encoded on a computer readable medium for execution by, or to control the operation of, data processing apparatus. The computer readable medium can be a machine-readable 30 storage device, a machine-readable storage substrate, a memory device, a composition of matter affecting a machine-readable propagated signal, or a combination of one or more of them. The term "data processing apparatus" or "data processing system" or the like encompasses all apparatus, devices, and machines for processing data, including by way of example a programmable processor, a 14 computer, or multiple processors or computers. The apparatus can include, in addition to hardware, code that creates an execution environment for the computer program in question, e.g., code that constitutes processor firmware, a protocol stack, a database management system, an operating system, or a combination of one or 5 more of them. A computer program also known as a program, software, software application, script, or code can be written in any form of programming language, including compiled or interpreted languages, and it can be deployed in any form, including as a stand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, or other unit suitable for use in a 10 computing environment. A computer program does not necessarily correspond to a file in a file system. A program can be stored in a portion of a file that holds other programs or data e.g., one or more scripts stored in a markup language document, in a single file dedicated to the program in question, or in multiple coordinated files e.g., files that store one or more modules, sub programs, or portions of code. A computer 15 program can be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computers that are located at one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by a communication network. The processes and logic flows described in this disclosure can be performed by one or more programmable processors executing one or more computer programs to 20 perform functions by operating on input data and generating output. The processes and logic flows can also be performed by, and apparatus can also be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA field programmable gate array or an ASIC application specific integrated circuit. Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, by way of 25 example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, and any one or more processors of any kind of digital computer. Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read only memory or a random access memory or both. The essential elements of a computer are a processor for performing instructions and one or more memory devices for storing instructions and data. Generally, a computer 30 will also include, or be operatively coupled to receive data from or transfer data to, or both, one or more mass storage devices for storing data, e.g., magnetic, magneto optical disks, or optical disks. However, a computer need not have such devices. Moreover, a computer can be embedded in another device, e.g., a mobile telephone, a personal digital assistant PDA, a mobile audio player, a Global Positioning System 35 GPS receiver, to name just a few. Computer readable media suitable for storing 15 computer program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory, media and memory devices, including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal hard disks or removable disks; magneto optical disks; and CD ROM and 5 DVD-ROM disks. The processor and the memory can be supplemented by, or incorporated in, special purpose logic circuitry. To provide for interaction with a user, implementations of the invention can be implemented on a computer having a display device, e.g., a CRT cathode ray tube or LCD liquid crystal display monitor, for displaying information to the user and a 10 keyboard and a pointing device, e.g., a mouse or a trackball, by which the user can provide input to the computer. Other kinds of devices can be used to provide for interaction with a user as well; for example, feedback provided to the user can be any form of sensory feedback, e.g., visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback; and input from the user can be received in any form, including acoustic, 15 speech, or tactile input. Implementations of the present disclosure can be realized in a computing system that includes a back end component, e.g., as a data server, or that includes a middleware component, e.g., an application server, or that includes a front end component, e.g., a client computer having a graphical user interface or a Web browser through which 20 a user can interact with an implementation of the present disclosure, or any combination of one or more such back end, middleware, or front end components. The components of the system can be interconnected by any form or medium of digital data communication, e.g., a communication network. Examples of communication networks include a local area network "LAN" and a wide area network 25 "WAN", e.g., the Internet. The computing system can include clients and servers. A client and server are generally remote from each other and typically interact through a communication network. The relationship of client and server arises by virtue of computer programs running on the respective computers and having a client-server relationship to each 30 other. While this disclosure contains many specifics, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the disclosure or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of features specific to particular implementations of the disclosure. Certain features that are described in this disclosure in the context of separate 35 implementations can also be provided in combination in a single implementation.

16 Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single implementation can also be provided in multiple implementations separately or in any suitable sub-combination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more 5 features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a sub-combination or variation of a sub-combination. Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the 10 particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Moreover, the separation of various system components in the implementations described above should not be understood as requiring such separation in all implementations, and it should be 15 understood that the described program components and systems can generally be integrated together in a single software product or packaged into multiple software products. Thus, particular implementations of the present disclosure have been described. Other implementations are within the scope of the following claims. For example, the 20 actions recited in the claims can be performed in a different order and still achieve desirable results. In compliance with the statute, the invention has been described in language more or less specific to structural or methodical features. The term "comprises" and its variations, such as "comprising" and "comprised of" is used throughout in an inclusive 25 sense and not to the exclusion of any additional features. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to specific features shown or described since the means herein described comprises preferred forms of putting the invention into effect. The invention is, therefore, claimed in any of its forms or modifications within the proper scope of the appended claims appropriately interpreted by those skilled in the 30 art. Throughout the specification and claims if present, unless the context requires otherwise, the term "substantially" or "about" will be understood to not be limited to the value for the range qualified by the terms.

17 Any embodiment of the invention is meant to be illustrative only and is not meant to be limiting to the invention. Therefore, it should be appreciated that various other changes and modifications can be made to any embodiment described without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims (20)

1. A method for calculating and presenting pre-travel costed journey offerings of a number of transport providers to customers comprising the steps of: establishing data communications between the transport providers and a data processing system to facilitate the remote entry by the transport providers of one or more fare schedules applicable to their vehicle; storing the entered fare schedules in association with corresponding transport provider details in an electronic data storage system accessible to the data processing system; establishing data communications between the data processing system and potential customers of the transport providers to thereby facilitate the entry by the customers of details of proposed customer journeys; processing the stored fare schedules and proposed customer journeys with the data processing system to thereby calculate and associate a journey cost for each transport provider with each of the prospective customer journeys; via a data communications link between the data processing system and the customers remotely presenting said fixed journey costs for each transport provider for the prospective journeys to corresponding customers thereof; and whereby each customer is able to view and select a transport providers particular displayed vehicle type for the customer's corresponding journey/s by reference to the presented journey fixed costs as nominated for that particular vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, including facilitating entry of multiple fare schedules by each transport provider wherein each of the multiple fare schedules varies in accordance with a journey parameter.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the journey parameter comprises a commencement time of the journey or the distance of the journey.

4. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, including allowing the customers to submit a journey commencement time and date for an advanced booking and for the transport providers to submit quoted fares for that particular journey. 19

5. The method of claim 1 including operating the data processing system to facilitate the remote entry by the transport providers of selection information in addition to the fare costs.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the selection information includes a current geographical location of a vehicle of the transport provider for use in conveying a customer over the corresponding costed journey so that the customer may make a selection taking into account the geographical proximity of the vehicle that will be used for a given costed journey.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the current geographical location comprises a GPS location that is transmitted to the data processing system from the vehicle across the data communications link.

8. The method of any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein the selection information includes information identifying the type of the vehicle.

9. The method of claim 8 including via the data communications link presenting the customers with information as to the type of vehicle that will be used to convey them on a particular journey for which a fare has been provided.

10. The method of any one of the preceding claims including facilitating the entry by the customers of particular preferences in relation to the transportation service that they seek in addition to the specification of the journey.

11. The method of any one of the preceding claims including facilitating the entry of customer feedback in relation to the transport provider subsequent to the customer concluding a journey and the storage of that customer feedback in the data storage system in association with the transport provider.

12. The method of claim 11 including presenting customers with customer feedback for transport providers along with corresponding journey costs of the transport providers.

13. The method of any one of the preceding claims including facilitating the entry by customers of advance journey details including a date and time at some time in the not immediate future that is associated with the journey.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the data processing system makes the advance journey details available to the transport providers for the transport providers to submit journey quotations in response. 20

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the data processing system forwards the received journey quotations to the customers while storing a copy of the journey details and associated customers, transport providers and their journey quotations in the data storage system.

16. The method of claim 14 or claim 15, including facilitating the withdrawal by the transport providers of previously submitted journey quotations prior to the acceptance by customers of the journey quotations.

17. A method according to claim 16, including facilitating acceptance of a journey quotation by customers and confirming same to the corresponding transport provider.

18. A method according to claim 17, wherein upon acceptance of the journey quotation by the customer, the data processing system transmitting a telephone and vehicle registration number for the transport provider to the customer and a telephone number of the customer to the transport provider.

19. A webserver arranged to implement a method according to anyone of the preceding claims.

20. A smartphone application that is arranged to establish data communications with the webserver of claim 19 and to present pages to the transport providers and to customers thereof for respectively submitting customer journeys and fare schedules associated therewith in accordance with the method of any one of claims 1 to . * * *