VEHICLE FLEET WORK ORDER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20130069803A1
• Filed: 09/20/2012
• Published: 03/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Telogis Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Koch, Jason, Mason, Ralph, Elliot, William, McCormick, Sean, Morris, Arthur N.
• Granted Patent: US 9,230,232 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/989
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching

Abstract

Vehicle management systems and associated processes can monitor the progress of assets, such as vehicle, along predetermined routes and report the progress to user. The system can compare the actual status of the vehicle to the expected status of the vehicle and to report any difference between the actual status and expected status to a user. Further, the system can receive a predetermined threshold value of the difference from a user and report to the user if the predetermined threshold has been exceeded.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring progress of a plurality of vehicles in a vehicle fleet, the system comprising:

a routing module configured to generate at least one predetermined route for at least one of the vehicles; and

a progress monitoring module configured to determine an actual status of the at least one vehicle and to compare the actual status to an expected status of the vehicle along the predetermined route.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the progress monitoring module is configured to calculate a magnitude of a difference between the actual status and the expected status.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein progress monitoring module is configured to receive an input from a user defining a threshold related to a magnitude of a difference between the actual status in the expected status.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the progress monitoring module is configured to determine if a magnitude of difference between the actual status and the expected status is greater than the predetermined threshold.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the progress monitoring module is configured to provide an alert to a user if the magnitude of the difference is greater than the predetermined threshold.

6. A method for monitoring the progress of a plurality of vehicles in a vehicle fleet, the method comprising:

determining an actual status of at least one vehicle in a vehicle fleet;

determining and expected status of the at least one vehicle along a predetermined route;

determining a difference between the expected status and the actual status; and

reporting the difference to a user.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein reporting the difference to a user comprises reporting the difference to a vehicle fleet management professional.

8. The method according to claim 6, further comprising receiving a predetermined threshold related to the difference between the expected status and the actual status.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising determining whether the difference between the expected status in the actual status is greater than the predetermined threshold.

10. The method according to claim 9 further comprising reporting that the difference is greater than the predetermined threshold to a user.