Vehicle managing method, vehicle managing apparatus and vehicle managing program

• US 8,050,961 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2008
• Issued: 11/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pure Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Pure Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Matsubara, Takamitsu
• Primary Examiner(s): Thein; M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Racic; Milena
• Application Number:
  US12/007,930
• Publication Number:
  US 20080208656A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,384 Days
• Field of Search: 705/29
• US Class Current: 705/7.38
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management

Abstract

A method is disclosed for performing comprehensive management for vehicles owned by clients, and according to this method, a vehicle managing apparatus, a client terminal, a workshop terminal and a store terminal are connected via a communication network, and the vehicle managing apparatus includes information acceptance unit, maintenance period calculation unit, business efficiency analyzation unit and information providing unit. First, maintenance history information for vehicles, automotive accessories purchase history information, vehicle operating record information and business performance information for a client, entered by the workshop terminal or the store terminal are received. Sequentially, a maintenance period for a vehicle is calculated based on the above information, and business efficiency is obtained based on the above information. Then, maintenance period calculation results and the business efficiency analysis results are transmitted to the client terminal.

Claims

1. A vehicle managing method, which is to be performed by a vehicle managing apparatus that is connected to a client terminal of a client via a communication network, for managing one or more business use vehicles owned by the client, comprising:

an information acceptance step for receiving maintenance history information for said vehicles and purchase history information for automotive accessories, operating record information for said vehicles associated with a predetermined period and business performance information for the client associated with the predetermined period, and for storing the information;

a maintenance period calculation step for calculating a maintenance period for each of said vehicles by employing at least one piece of stored information, the stored information including any of the maintenance history information, the purchase history information and the operating record information, and for storing the obtained maintenance period calculation results;

a business efficiency analyzation step for analyzing business efficiency by employing a combination of plural pieces of the stored information, and for storing the obtained results as business efficiency analysis results; and

an information providing step for reading the maintenance period calculation results and the stored business efficiency analysis results, and for transmitting these results to the client terminal;

wherein said maintenance history information includes maintenance costs of said vehicles in a predetermined period of time, said purchase history information includes prices of automotive accessories purchased in a predetermined period of time, a sum of said maintenance costs and said prices being a maintenance cost, said operating record information includes distance traveled by said vehicles in a predetermined period of time and operating time of said vehicles, said business performance information includes business performance which corresponds to sales figures obtained by the use of said vehicles in a predetermined period of time, operating revenue which corresponds to a revenue obtained at individual business destination by the use of said vehicles, a distance to an individual business destination, number of visits made to an individual business destination, and actual working hours for which said client has made business operation at an individual business destination;

wherein in said business efficiency analyzation step, maintenance cost per unit distance, business performance per unit distance, business effectiveness, number of operated vehicles and cost effectiveness are obtained by utilizing the following equations, respectively;

Maintenance cost per unit distance=maintenance cost/distance traveled,

Business performance per unit distance=(business performance−

maintenance cost)/distance traveled,

Business effectiveness=operating revenue/(maintenance cost per unit distance×

distance×

the number of visits),

Number of operated vehicles=total operating time/total working hours, and

Cost effectiveness=maintenance costs/(operating time+actual working hours).

2. The vehicle managing method according to claim 1, further comprising:

a charge information acceptance step for receiving information concerning a bank account used for automatic deduction and information concerning a date for settlement of accounts, and for storing the information;

a money claimed calculation step for calculating an amount of money that the client should pay on the basis of at least one piece of stored information which is either the maintenance history information or the purchase history information, and for storing the results as money claimed calculation results;

an itemized account issuing step for reading the stored money claimed calculation results, and for transmitting the money claimed calculation results, as an itemized account, to the client terminal; and

an automatic deduction step for reading the stored money claimed calculation results, and for preparing direct debit information in order to automatically deduct the money claimed from the bank account of the client.

3. A vehicle managing apparatus, which is connected to a client terminal of a client via a communication network to manage one or more business use vehicles owned by the client, comprising:

information acceptance unit for receiving maintenance history information for said vehicles and purchase history information for automotive accessories, operating record information for said vehicles associated with a predetermined period and business performance information for the client associated with the predetermined period, and for storing the information in a storage device;

maintenance period calculation unit for calculating a maintenance period for each of said vehicles by employing at least one piece of information stored in the storage device, the stored information including the maintenance history information, the purchase history information or the operating record information, and for storing the obtained maintenance period calculation results in the storage device;

business efficiency analyzation unit for analyzing business efficiency on the basis of, a combination of plural pieces of information from among the maintenance history information, the purchase history information, the operating record information and business performance information stored in the storage device, and for storing the obtained results as business efficiency analysis results in the storage device; and

information providing unit for reading the maintenance period calculation results and the business efficiency analysis results, which are stored in the storage device, and for transmitting these results to the client terminal;

wherein said maintenance history information includes maintenance costs of said vehicles in a predetermined period of time, said purchase history information includes prices of automotive accessories purchased in a predetermined period of time, a sum of said maintenance costs and said prices being a maintenance cost, said operating record information includes distance traveled by said vehicles in a predetermined period of time and operating time of said vehicles, said business performance information includes business performance which corresponds to sales figures obtained by the use of said vehicles in a predetermined period of time, operating revenue which corresponds to a revenue obtained at individual business destination by the use of said vehicles, a distance to an individual business destination, number of visits made to an individual business destination, and actual working hours for which said client has made business operation at an individual business destination;

wherein said business efficiency analyzation unit obtains maintenance cost per unit distance, business performance per unit distance, business effectiveness, number of operated vehicles and cost effectiveness per the following equations, respectively, whereby;

Maintenance cost per unit distance=maintenance cost/distance traveled,

Business performance per unit distance=(business performance−

maintenance cost)/distance traveled,

Business effectiveness=operating revenue/(maintenance cost per unit distance×

distance×

the number of visits),

Number of operated vehicles=total operating time/total working hours, and

Cost effectiveness=maintenance costs/(operating time+actual working hours).

4. The vehicle managing apparatus according to claim 3, comprising:

charge information acceptance unit for receiving information concerning a bank account used for automatic deduction and information concerning a date for settlement of accounts, and for storing the information in the storage device;

money claimed calculation unit for calculating an amount of money that the client should pay on the basis of at least one piece of information which is either the maintenance history information or the purchase history information both stored in the storage device, and for storing the results as money claimed calculation results in the storage device;

itemized account issuing unit for reading the money claimed calculation results stored in the storage device, and for transmitting the money claimed calculation results, as an itemized account, to the client terminal; and

automatic deduction unit for reading the money claimed calculation results stored in the storage device, and for preparing direct debit information in order to automatically deduct the money claimed from the bank account of the client.

5. A computer system including a vehicle managing program to be operated by said computer system, which manages one or more business use vehicles owned by a client and which permits said computer system to function as a vehicle managing apparatus, connected to a client terminal of the client via a communication network, to perform:

an information acceptance step (S1) for receiving maintenance history information for said vehicles and purchase history information for automotive accessories, operating record information for said vehicles associated with a predetermined period and business performance information for the client associated with the predetermined period, and for storing the information;

a maintenance period calculation step (S2) for calculating a maintenance period for each of said vehicles by employing at least one piece of information stored, the stored information including any of the maintenance history information, the purchase history information and the operating record information, and for storing the obtained maintenance period calculation results;

a business efficiency analyzation step (S3) for analyzing business efficiency on the basis of a combination of plural pieces of information from among the maintenance history information, the purchase history information, the operating record information and business performance information, and for storing the obtained results as business efficiency analysis results; and

an information providing step (S4) for reading the maintenance period calculation results and the business efficiency analysis results, which are stored, and for transmitting these results to the client terminal;

wherein said maintenance history information includes maintenance costs of said vehicles in a predetermined period of time, said purchase history information includes prices of automotive accessories purchased in a predetermined period of time, a sum of said maintenance costs and said prices being a maintenance cost, said operating record information includes distance traveled by said vehicles in a predetermined period of time and operating time of said vehicles, said business performance information includes business performance which corresponds to sales figures obtained by the use of said vehicles in a predetermined period of time, operating revenue which corresponds to a revenue obtained at individual business destination by the use of said vehicles, a distance to an individual business destination, number of visits made to an individual business destination, and actual working hours for which said client has made business operation at an individual business destination;

and, wherein said business efficiency analyzation step obtains maintenance cost per unit distance, business performance per unit distance, business effectiveness, number of operated vehicles and cost effectiveness by utilizing the following equations, respectively, whereby;

Maintenance cost per unit distance=maintenance cost/distance traveled,

Business performance per unit distance=(business performance−

maintenance cost)/distance traveled,

Business effectiveness=operating revenue/(maintenance cost per unit distance×

distance×

the number of visits),

Number of operated vehicles=total operating time/total working hours, and

Cost effectiveness=maintenance costs/(operating time+actual working hours).

6. The computer system according to claim 5, which permits said computer system to function as the vehicle managing apparatus to further perform:

a charge information acceptance step (S5) for receiving information concerning a bank account used for automatic deduction and information concerning a date for settlement of accounts, and for storing the information;

a money claimed calculation step (S6) for calculating an amount of money that the client should pay on the basis of at least one piece of stored information which is either the maintenance history information or the purchase history information, and for storing the results as money claimed calculation results;

an itemized account issuing step (S7) for reading the stored money claimed calculation results, and for transmitting the money claimed calculation results, as an itemized account, to the client terminal; and

an automatic deduction step (S8) for reading the stored money claimed calculation results, and for preparing direct debit information in order to automatically deduct the money claimed from the bank account of the client.