Patent ID: 7177738

Claim:
A method for managing a fleet of rental vehicles, comprising the steps of: providing a radio transmitter connected to a vehicle navigation system in each rental vehicle; providing a radio transmitter connected to a rental facility computer in a rental vehicle facility; receiving information from a user and establishing a rental term which is stored in the rental facility computer; verifying user information when the user arrives at the rental vehicle facility; exchanging data by sending the rental term and user information from the rental facility computer to the vehicle navigation system through the radio transmitters and sending current vehicle condition information including milage and gas level from the vehicle navigation system to the rental facility computer; starting a rental period of the rental vehicle after the step of exchanging the data; monitoring usage of the rental vehicle and storing data relating to the usage of the rental vehicle in a memory provided in the vehicle navigation system; sending the data relating to the usage of the rental vehicle to the rental facility computer through the radio transmitters for calculating a rental fee; and returning the rental vehicle by confirming the data relating to the usage of the rental vehicle and paying the rental fee by the user.