Technical Field

The present invention relates to a system for executing and managing appraisal (expertise) processes of vehicles being subject to sale or rental, remotely in an automatic way.

Background of the Invention

Vehicle appraisal is a transaction of examining and reporting vehicles from all points that may cause expense in the near future such as their previous accidents, parts replaced, broken areas in their mechanical assembly. Today, appraisal transactions are realized by persons who are specialists in their field by carrying out all processes manually, such as from creating a vehicle record in the related service unit to creating an appraisal report upon the vehicle is examined. Carrying out all processes manually in an appraisal transaction leads to both loss of time and loss of labor and also causes the processes to extend due to errors made. In addition, each transaction is examined by the related personnel individually in the process that is carried out manually and this makes it difficult to manage the process remotely in its entirety. In the state of the art, there are systems whereby vehicle owners can view their appraisal transactions and access their reports. However, in these systems, it is not possible to enable the teams managing the appraisal transactions to able to intervene in the processes by monitoring the processes remotely and to take the necessary actions.

Therefore, considering the studies and the deficiencies included in the state of art, it is understood that there is need for a system for executing and managing appraisal processes of vehicles being subject to sale or rental, remotely in an automatic way. The United States patent document no. US20210090240, an application in the state of the art, discloses a system for enabling a user to perform vehicle inspection. In the system of the said invention, images of a user’ s vehicle are captured via a mobile device at predetermined angles by means of an inspection application that is run on a user’s mobile device; damage to the vehicle and condition of wear originating from use are determined by means of an inspection application; items of fee and the total fee are presented to the user by calculating the repair or replacement fee for each damage and/or wear. In the said invention, data of damage and wear on the vehicle can be input by the user manually over an interface provided by means of an inspection application and damage and wear can also be determined by processing the constant or moving images compiled. All transactions such as assessment of damage, calculation of cost, display of damage and presentation of cost can be executed on a mobile device and they can also be realized by an electronic device different than a mobile device.

Summary of the Invention

An objective of the present invention is to realize a system for executing and managing appraisal processes of vehicles being subject to sale or rental, remotely in an automatic way.

Another objective of the present invention is to realize a system for executing and managing processes remotely such as vehicle controls, appraisal, calculation and collection of damage cost, vehicle parking and delivery, and creation of report in the return of vehicles (fleet) -which are hired to an institution or company collectively- to the lessor.

Another objective of the present invention is to realize a system for making a demand forecast of appraisal by analysing the appraisal transactions carried out in a certain period of time for directors of appraisal transaction, and for appointing the necessary personnel to the appraisal branches in accordance with the forecasts made.

Detailed Description of the Invention

The “Appraisal Management System” realized to fulfil the objectives of the present invention is shown in the figure attached, in which:

Figure l is a schematic view of the inventive system.

The components illustrated in the figure are individually numbered, where the numbers refer to the following:

1. System

2. Electronic device

3. Application

4. Database

5. Server

The inventive system (1) for executing and managing appraisal processes of vehicles being subject to sale or rental, remotely in an automatic way comprises: at least one electronic device (2) which is configured to realize data exchange by using any remote communication protocol and to run at least one application itself; at least one application (3) which is run on the electronic device (2) and configured to enable at least users -who are service personnel- to view and manage appraisal processes and reports such as vehicle record, inputting payment information, transactions of vehicle parking, record of transactions carried out and to manage and update transactions fees; at least one database (4) which is configured to keep record of information about vehicle record and information about vehicle appraisal in itself; and at least one server (5) which is configured to establish communication with the electronic device (2) by using any remote communication protocol and to realize data exchange with the application (3) that is run on the electronic device (2), over this communication established; to manage the database (4); to receive information about the transactions carried out related to the process of vehicle appraisal and the demand on the application (3) and then to save it to the database (4); to receive and then process the demands created related to the vehicle appraisal on the application (3) and to take necessary actions; to receive the data of transactions carried out in the branches where the appraisal transactions are carried out, by being triggered at certain periods and then to perform an analysis on the said data and to determine the personnel adequacy of branches, by making a forecast related to the branches; and to ensure that the necessary personnel are appointed to the related branches, by detecting the branches requiring extra personnel.

The electronic device (2) included in the inventive system (1) is a device such as smartphone, tablet computer, desktop computer or portable computer configured to run at least one application (3) on itself. The said electronic device (2) has speakers for providing audio output, at least one camera capable of taking a photo, and an input unit in the form of key or touchscreen. The electronic device (2) is configured to establish connection with the server (5) by using any communication protocol included in the state of art and to ensure that data exchange is realized between the application (3) and the server (5) over this connection established. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the electronic device (2) is configured to realize data exchange with the server (5) by using a data bus such as Internet.

The application (3) included in the inventive system (1) is run on the electronic device (2) and configured to enable at least service authorities to carry out transactions of vehicle appraisal by signing in via the sign-in information defined for them. The said application (3) is configured to enable users to view and manage the appraisal processes of vehicles for which appraisal service will be provided. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the application (3) is configured to provide at least one interface adapted such that it will enable users to determine a date of appointment for the vehicle for which appraisal service will be provided, to open a record and/or update an existing record for customers by inputting the customer information, to open a vehicle record and/or update an existing record by inputting the information about the vehicle for which appraisal transaction will be carried out, and to carry out payment transactions by inputting the fees of the appraisal service. In one embodiment of the invention, the application (3) is configured to provide at least one interface adapted such that it will enable users to determine a date of appointment for vehicles for which appraisal service will be provided in appraisal processes for the fleet vehicles, to carry out transactions of returning the vehicle to the fleet, to create an additional service demand for the vehicle, to create a record for parking the vehicles, to input the damage fees to be collected from the customer in accordance with the vehicle controls performed, and to create a demand for the delivery of vehicle. The application (3) is configured to enable users -who carry out appraisal transactions related to appraisal transactions to be performed for retail or fleet vehicles- to input information such as vehicle information, test line information, vehicle pictures, damage control information, trailer control information and tire control information. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the application (3) is configured to enable authorized users to create and manage the rules of vehicle appraisal and vehicle parking pricing. The said application (3) is configured to enable users to view the reports created for the vehicles for which appraisal transaction is carried out and to edit them by means of transactions such as changing the orders of the result or adding the result of control. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the application (3) is configured to enable users to view the results of the appraisal demand and the personnel appointments on the basis of branch.

The database (4) included in the inventive system (1) is in communication with the server (5) and configured to be managed by the server (5). The said database (4) is configured to keep record of information about vehicle record and information about vehicle appraisal in itself. The database (4) is configured to keep record of data about vehicle appraisal transaction fee in itself such that it is associated with the transaction carried out and a distinctive information in itself. The database (4) is also configured to keep record of data such as the personnel, the number of transactions carried out in relation to the branches carrying out the appraisal transaction.

The server (5) included in the inventive system (1) is configured to establish communication with the electronic device (2) by using any remote communication protocol included in the state of the art and to realize data exchange with the application (3) that is run on the electronic device (2), over this communication established. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the server (5) is configured to establish communication with the electronic device (2) over a data network such as Internet. The server (5) is configured to access the data in the database (4) and to manage the data in the database (4). The server (5) is configured to receive the record and vehicle information created by user on the application (3) and the data input in relation to the vehicle appraisal, by means of the communication established with the electronic device (2) and then to save them to the database (4). The server (5) is configured to receive the information about the appraisal process of the vehicle and the data of pricing rules in accordance with the connection established with the application (3) and then to calculate the appraisal fee of the vehicle in accordance with the said pricing rules and the information about the transactions carried out and to transmit to them to the application (3).

The server (5) is configured to create at least one appraisal report comprising detailed information about the transactions carried out in accordance with the information of vehicle appraisal transaction received from the application (3) and to transmit it to the application (3). In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the server (5) is configured to prepare the created report as PDF (Portable Document Format). The server (5) is configured to transmit the created appraisal report to a pre-determined related person or institutions automatically by using a data transmission path such as electronic mail.

The server (5) is configured to receive appraisal data about branches from the database (4), by being triggered at certain periods and to analyse the said data by processing. The server (5) is configured to providing appraisal data about branches to fuzzy time-series model as input and then to analyse the said data and to obtain a score of appraisal demand forecast for branches. The server (5) is configured to test the obtained score of appraisal demand forecast by means of any optimization model and to determine which branch needs personnel over the model providing the best solution. The server (5) is configured to appoint the required personnel to the branches determined to need personnel and to inform the personnel who are appointed to the branches, over the application (3).

Industrial Application of the Invention

With the inventive system (1), users such as service personnel, fleet customers can manage all transactions related to vehicle appraisal over the application (3) by accessing the application (3) by means of the electronic devices (2) they have. In addition, demand forecasts are made for branches by analysing the data about the branches that carry out the appraisal transactions and it is ensured that duty assignment of personnel is made by detecting the branches needing extra personnel.

Within these basic concepts; it is possible to develop various embodiments of the inventive “Appraisal Management System (1)”, the invention cannot be limited to examples disclosed herein and it is essentially according to claims.