Method and system for user management of a fleet of vehicles including long term fleet planning
First Claim
1. A system for determining a quantity of vehicles to be purchased for delivery to and inclusion within a vehicle fleet during a future predetermined time period, the fleet comprising a plurality of vehicles, the system comprising:
- a database in which vehicle data is stored, at least a portion of the stored vehicle data corresponding to vehicles currently within the fleet;
a computer in communication with the database, the computer being configured to execute a fleet planning software program in response to user input, the fleet software program being configured to (1) determine a current size for the fleet on the basis of the vehicle data stored in the database, (2) define a desired fleet size for the predetermined future time period in response to user input, (3) determine, at least partially on the basis of data stored in the database, a quantity of new vehicles that are expected to be incoming to the fleet prior to the predetermined future time period, (4) perform a future cost estimate analysis for a plurality of vehicles within the fleet based on a plurality of user-specified residual values for the plurality of vehicles to which the future cost estimate analysis is applicable, (5) define a number of future vehicle deletions from the fleet in response to user input, the future vehicle deletions comprising vehicle deletions that are to occur prior to and during the predetermined future time period, and (6) compute the quantity of vehicles to be purchased for delivery to and inclusion within the fleet during the future predetermined time period based on the determined current fleet size, the defined desired fleet size, the determined quantity of incoming vehicles, and the defined number of future vehicle deletions.
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Abstract
A system for providing a user with historical sales data having relevance to a plurality of vehicles comprising a fleet for assisting users with defining residual values for fleet vehicles and performing cost going forward analyses and/or depreciation analyses of fleet vehicles. In one embodiment, such data can be useful for performing long term fleet planning wherein a computerized system is configured to determine a quantity of vehicles to be purchased during a future predetermined time period for inclusion in a vehicle fleet in response to a variety of user inputs.
74 Citations
29 Claims
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1. A system for determining a quantity of vehicles to be purchased for delivery to and inclusion within a vehicle fleet during a future predetermined time period, the fleet comprising a plurality of vehicles, the system comprising:
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a database in which vehicle data is stored, at least a portion of the stored vehicle data corresponding to vehicles currently within the fleet;
a computer in communication with the database, the computer being configured to execute a fleet planning software program in response to user input, the fleet software program being configured to (1) determine a current size for the fleet on the basis of the vehicle data stored in the database, (2) define a desired fleet size for the predetermined future time period in response to user input, (3) determine, at least partially on the basis of data stored in the database, a quantity of new vehicles that are expected to be incoming to the fleet prior to the predetermined future time period, (4) perform a future cost estimate analysis for a plurality of vehicles within the fleet based on a plurality of user-specified residual values for the plurality of vehicles to which the future cost estimate analysis is applicable, (5) define a number of future vehicle deletions from the fleet in response to user input, the future vehicle deletions comprising vehicle deletions that are to occur prior to and during the predetermined future time period, and (6) compute the quantity of vehicles to be purchased for delivery to and inclusion within the fleet during the future predetermined time period based on the determined current fleet size, the defined desired fleet size, the determined quantity of incoming vehicles, and the defined number of future vehicle deletions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computer-implemented method for determining a quantity of vehicles to be purchased for inclusion in a vehicle fleet during a future time period, the vehicle fleet comprising a plurality of vehicles, the method comprising:
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retrieving vehicle data from a computer memory, at least a portion of the vehicle data corresponding to vehicles currently within the fleet;
executing a software program to (1) determine a current size for the fleet on the basis of the retrieved vehicle data, (2) define a desired fleet size for the future time period in response to user input, (3) determine, at least partially on the basis of the retrieved data, a quantity of new vehicles that are expected to be incoming to the fleet prior to the future time period, (4) perform a future cost estimate analysis for a plurality of vehicles within the fleet based on a plurality of user-specified residual values corresponding to the vehicles for which the future cost estimate analysis is applicable, (5) define a number of future vehicle deletions from the fleet in response to user input, the future vehicle deletions comprising vehicle deletions that are to occur prior to and during the future time period, and (6) compute the quantity of vehicles to be purchased for inclusion in a vehicle fleet during the future time period based on the determined current fleet size, the user-specified desired fleet size, the determined quantity of incoming vehicles, and the user-specified number of future vehicle deletions. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A distributed computing system for allocating a workflow among a plurality of different user computers that share access to a server, the system comprising:
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a plurality of user computers;
a server in communication with the user computers via a network, wherein the server is configured to execute a long term fleet planning software program, the long term fleet planning software program being configured to execute a long term fleet planning workflow in response to input from a plurality of users through the user computers, the long term fleet planning workflow comprising a plurality of discrete but interrelated tasks whose individual completions by the plurality of users contributes to a determination of a total quantity of vehicles to purchase for inclusion in a vehicle fleet throughout a future time period, wherein the long term fleet planning software program is further configured to allocate different tasks of the workflow among a plurality of different user computers in response to requests from the different user computers to access the workflow tasks, and wherein the long term fleet planning software program is further configured to allow different user computers to simultaneously access and take action on at least two different ones of the workflow tasks. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24)
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- 25. In a computer configured to compute a quantity of additional vehicles to be purchased for delivery to a fleet during a future predetermined time period, the improvement comprising the computer being configured to (1) perform and display a future cost estimate analysis for a plurality of vehicles within the fleet, (2) define, in response to user input, a number of vehicle deletions from the fleet prior to the future predetermined time period, and (3) base its computation of the additional vehicles at least in part on the defined vehicle deletions.
Specification