Travel tracker

• US 6,741,933 B1
• Filed: 12/27/2000
• Issued: 05/25/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Advanced Tracking Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Advanced Tracking Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Glass, Paul M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cuchlinski, Jr., William A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Broadhead, Brian J
• Application Number:
  US09/748,886
• Time in Patent Office: 1,245 Days
• Field of Search: 701/213, 701/207, 701/208, 705/13, 705/19, 705/31, 705/417, 702/187, 702/188, 702/150, 340/990, 340/992, 340/995
• US Class Current: 701/213
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/02 taking into account a variable factor such as distance or time, e.g. for passenger transport, parking systems or car rental systems G07B15/06 takes precedence; taximeters G07B13/00; parking meters per se G07F17/24; car rental systems per se G07B15/00
• 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: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber

Abstract

The present invention utilizes integrated software and hardware apparatus to identify, track and report tax-deductible vehicle travel routes including actual mileage, stops and routes driven. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) equipment is used in conjunction with mapping and/or reporting software to display and/or report mileage and vehicle use for tax or reimbursement purposes. Vehicle owners can select mobile units, batch processing, wireless or hard wire mobile unit data downloading.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring a vehicle, wherein the vehicle has an electronic system used to track a location of the vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:

a.) providing a vehicle location subsystem, said vehicle location subsystem having an on-board vehicle location sensor and data communication module, wherein the module has an on-board unique identifier;

b.) providing a remote base unit having a data communication module to receive data from the vehicle data communication module, and the remote base unit having a registry of vehicles assigned to itself;

c.) monitoring and storing a route including stops of the vehicle in the vehicle location subsystem, and downloading the route including stops to said assigned remote base unit;

d.) comparing said stops to a table of pre-authorized tax-deductible stops;

e.) reporting a distance traveled between a first and a second pre-authorized stop; and

f.) presenting a graphical depiction of the route superimposed on a map.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of using a vehicle subsystem further comprises using a mobile GPS sensor.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of using a GPS sensor further comprises using a GPS data storage module to capture GPS data, and transmitting the GPS data to said assigned remote base unit.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of comparing said stops further comprises inputting user data which selects valid versus invalid stops between the first and the second pre-authorized stops for tax purposes.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of inputting user data further comprises a step of selecting valid and invalid legs of the route for tax purposes.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of selecting valid versus invalid legs of the route for tax purposes, and computing a tax-deductible total distance for the route.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of inputting and generating inventory data related to the route.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising the step of generating inventory data comparisons between a first and a second vehicle.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of reporting data showing a time of stops versus a time of transit.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of reporting stops designated as customers.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of collecting an employee identity.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of collecting a vehicle identity.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of collecting data from a plurality of vehicles.

14. A method for monitoring a vehicle, wherein the vehicle has an electronic system used to track a location of the vehicle, said method comprising the steps of:

a.) providing a vehicle location subsystem, said vehicle location subsystem having an on-board vehicle location sensor and data communication module, wherein the module has an on-board unique identifier;

b.) providing a remote base unit having a data communication module to receive data from the vehicle data communication module, and the remote base unit having a registry of vehicles assigned to itself;

c.) monitoring and storing a route of the vehicle in the vehicle location subsystem, and downloading the route of the vehicle to said assigned remote base unit;

d.) selecting a group of legs of the route for computing a total of tax- deductible miles; and

e.) presenting a graphical depiction of the route superimposed on a map, thereby facilitating the selecting a group of legs.

15. A method for monitoring a vehicle, wherein the vehicle has an electronic system used to track a location of the vehicle, said method comprising the steps of:

a.) providing a vehicle location subsystem;

b.) monitoring and storing a route of the vehicle;

c.) selecting a group of legs of the route for computing a total of tax deductible miles; and

d.) presenting a graphical depiction of the route superimposed on a map, thereby facilitating the selecting a group of legs.

16. A method for monitoring a vehicle, wherein the vehicle has an electronic system used to track a location of the vehicle, said method comprising the steps of:

a.) providing a vehicle location subsystem, said vehicle location subsystem having an on-board vehicle location sensor and data communication module, wherein the module has an on-board unique identifier;

b.) providing a remote base unit having a data communication module to receive data from the vehicle data communication module, and the remote base unit having a registry of vehicles assigned to itself;

c.) monitoring and storing a route in incremental time segments in the vehicle location subsystem, whereby said incremental time segments can be verified with times established for pre-authorized tax-deductible stops, and downloading the route in incremental time segments to said assigned remote base unit;

d.) calculating a vehicle speed for each time segment;

e.) coding a range of speeds; and

f.) displaying a graphic depiction of a speed history using the coding.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising the step of using colors as the coding and displaying a colored route history where changing colors represents changing speeds.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising the step of assigning an incremental time segment of less than fifteen seconds.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising the step of calculating and displaying a continuous line representation, not a dotted representation, of the route.

20. A method for monitoring a vehicle, wherein the vehicle has an electronic system used to track a location of the vehicle, said method comprising the steps of:

a.) providing a vehicle location subsystem, said vehicle location subsystem having an on-board vehicle location sensor and data communication module, wherein the module has an on-board unique identifier;

b.) providing a remote base unit having a data communication module to receive data from the vehicle data communication module, and the remote base unit having a registry of vehicles assigned to itself;

c.) monitoring and storing a route of the vehicle in the vehicle location subsystem, and downloading the route of the vehicle to said assigned remote base unit; and

d.) using a time originating from the vehicle location subsystem to record employee time worked data, thereby facilitating a calculation of tax-deductible mileage.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising the step of using a GPS system for the vehicle location subsystem, and using user inputted data to further record employee time worked.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising the step of using a data entry device associated with the GPS system for capturing the user inputted data.

23. A system for monitoring data for a mobile vehicle, the system comprising:

a.) means for providing an on-board mobile vehicle location sensor and data communication module functioning to transmit or receive data, wherein the module has an on-board unique identifier;

b.) means for providing a remote base unit having a data communication module functioning to receive data from the mobile vehicle data communication module, and the remote base unit having a registry of mobile vehicles assigned to itself;

c.) means for monitoring and storing a route including stops of the vehicle functioning to manage route information in the vehicle location subsystem, and downloading the route including stops to the assigned remote base unit;

d.) means for comparing said stops to a table of pre-authorized tax-deductible stops functioning to provide a user with tax-deductible mileage information;

e.) means for reporting a distance traveled between a first and a second pre-authorized stop functioning to provide a user with tax-deductible mileage records; and

f.) means for presenting a graphical depiction of the route superimposed on a map.