COMPUTERIZED SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MATCHING FREIGHT VEHICLES AND LOADS

• US 20120209787A1
• Filed: 02/14/2011
• Published: 08/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Transit Solutions, LLC
• Original Assignee: Transit Solutions, LLC
• Inventors: Foulds, Brian Scott, Short, Gary Lew, Stemple, Robert William
• Granted Patent: US 8,452,713 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/333
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping

Abstract

A system for matching freight vehicles and loads includes a database receiving location data for various freight vehicles associated with multiple organizations, as well as other vehicle data, such as destination location and times. The database also includes location data from a plurality of loads, as well as other load data, such as origin and destination locations and times. A user operating a computing device receives this data based on organizational permissions. The computing device displays a map on which the various freight vehicles, loads, and associated data may be displayed. As such, the user may quickly and efficiently match available loads to available vehicles or vice-versa.

Claims

1. A system for matching freight vehicles and loads, said system comprising:

a database for receiving location data from a plurality of global positioning system (GPS) receivers wherein each GPS receiver is coupled to one of the freight vehicles;

said database including a plurality of organization labels wherein each organization label corresponds to an organization and wherein at least one of said organization labels is associated with each of the freight vehicles and each of the loads;

said database including a vehicle visibility tag associated with each freight vehicle and denoting whether each freight truck is visible to either only the organization associated with the freight vehicle or the organization associated with the freight truck and at least one additional organization;

said database including a load visibility tag associated with each load and denoting whether each load is visible to either only the organization associated with the load or the organization associated with the load and at least one additional organization;

a plurality of computing devices in communication with said database;

each of said computing devices includes a display;

each of said computing devices transmitting an identification to said database associated with at least one of the organization labels;

said database transmitting a current location of each truck and a current location of each load to each of said computing devices in accordance with the visibility tags associated with the organization label that is associated with the identification transmitted from each of said computing devices;

said computing device displaying a map including the location of each freight truck and load transmitted to said computing device from said database.

2. A system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said database includes an origination location associated with each load, a destination location associated with each load, a ready date associated with each load, and an availability tag associated with each load denoting whether or not the load is available for transport;

3. A system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said database also transmits the origination location associated with each load, the destination location associated with each load, the ready date associated with each load, and the availability tag associated with each load in accordance with the visibility tags associated with the organization label sent from each of said computing devices.

4. A system as set forth in claim 1 wherein the vehicle visibility tag denotes whether each truck is visible to either only the organization associated with the truck or all organizations.

5. A system as set forth in claim 1 wherein the load visibility tag denotes whether each load is visible to either only the organization associated with the load or all organizations.

6. A system as set forth in claim 1 further comprising at least one server computer storing said database.

7. A system as set forth in claim 6 wherein said server computer and/or said computing device computes the distances between one of the loads and a plurality of vehicles.

8. A system as set forth in claim 7 wherein said computing device displays the distances between one of the loads and the plurality of vehicles.

9. A system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said database is further defined as a first database and a second database in communication with one another and wherein said first database receives location data from the GPS receivers and said second database is in communication with said computing devices.

10. A method for matching freight trucks and loads, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving location data from a plurality of global positioning system (GPS) receivers wherein each GPS receiver is disposed in one of the freight trucks;

storing the location data in a database;

storing a plurality of organization labels in the database wherein each organization label corresponds to an organization and wherein at least one of said organization labels is associated with each of the freight trucks and each of the loads;

storing a plurality of vehicle visibility tags in a database wherein each truck visibility tag is associated with each freight truck and denotes whether each freight truck is visible to either only the organization associated with the freight truck or the organization associated with the freight truck and at least one additional organization;

storing a plurality of load visibility tags in a database wherein each load visibility tag is associated with each load and denotes whether each load is visible to either only the organization associated with the load or the organization associated with the load and at least one additional organization;

transmitting an identification associated with at least one of the organization labels from a computing device to the database;

transmitting a current location of each truck and a current location of each load from the database to the computing device in accordance with the visibility tags associated with the at least one organization label that is associated with the identification transmitted from the computing device;

displaying a map on a display of the computing device including the location of each freight truck and load transmitted to the computing device from said database.

11. A method as set forth in claim 10 further comprising the step of storing an origination location associated with each load, a destination location associated with each load, a ready date associated with each load, and an availability tag associated with each load denoting whether or not the load is available for transport in the database.

12. A method as set forth in claim 10 further comprising the step of transmitting the origination location associated with each load, the destination location associated with each load, the ready date associated with each load, and the availability tag associated with each load in accordance with the visibility tags from the database to the computing device.

13. A method as set forth in claim 10 wherein the vehicle visibility tag denotes whether each truck is visible to either only the organization associated with the truck or all organizations.

14. A method as set forth in claim 10 wherein the load visibility tag denotes whether each load is visible to either only the organization associated with the load or all organizations.

15. A method as set forth in claim 10 further comprising the step of computing the distances between one of the loads and a plurality of vehicles.

16. A method as set forth in claim 15 further comprising the step of displaying the distances between one of the loads and the plurality of vehicles.

17. A method as set forth in claim 10 wherein the database is further defined as a first database and a second database in communication with one another and wherein said step of storing the location data in the database is further defined as storing the location data in the first database.