Railcar transport telematics system

• US 8,751,290 B2
• Filed: 09/21/2011
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Schullian, John M., St. Leger-Andrews, David, Weseloh, Christopher J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jung, Allen J
• Application Number:
  US13/238,738
• Publication Number:
  US 20120072266A1
• Time in Patent Office: 993 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.35, 705/400
• US Class Current: 705/7.35
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 27/40 Handling position reports or trackside vehicle data
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/00 Investigating or analysing materials by specific methods not covered by groups G01N1/00 - G01N31/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0206 Price or cost determination based on market factors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing

Abstract

A railcar asset management system proactively issues an alert or task when a pre-determined event occurs. The system may receive information regarding the location and status of a railcar from sensors on the railcar that may include a telematics sensing unit. A database in the railway telematics system stores the data regarding the railcar location and status information. The system determines whether an event has occurred and issues the proactive alerts and/or task. The system may communicate the proactive alert via e-mail, paging, PDAs or by cell phone and may provide interactive preconfigured web pages.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring transport of materials in railcars, the method comprising:

receiving a data transmission from a telematics sensor unit comprising data representative of a location, load, status and identity of a railcar;

storing the data representative of a location, load, status and identity of a railcar and a time stamp associated with reception of the data transmission from the telematics sensor unit;

based on the data representative of a location, load, status and identity of a railcar that is received from the telematics sensor unit, determining, by at least one computer processor, that the railcar is located at a property of a customer;

when the railcar is determined to be located at the property of the customer, detecting, using a sensor, a time at which the customer taps the railcar to unload material from the railcar;

accessing, by at least one computer processor, market pricing data;

determining, using the accessed market pricing data, a market price for the material at the detected time at which the customer taps the railcar to unload material from the railcar;

determining an amount of material unloaded from the railcar at the property of the customer and at the detected time; and

defining a bill, by at least one computer processor, for the customer tapping the railcar to unload material at the detected time based on the determined market price for the material at the detected time at which the customer taps the railcar to unload material from the railcar and the determined amount of material unloaded from the railcar at the property of the customer and at the detected time.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a customer identity associated with the property;

reviewing a business rule for a sale condition for the customer; and

generating a bill to the customer in accordance with the business rule and the defined bill.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating the identity of each railcar with one of a customer, a customer service representative, a bill of lading, a product and a facility, a business instruction and a proactive alert;

retrieving historical data of the location, load and time for a plurality of railcars; and

displaying the retrieved data for at least two of a plurality of aggregations consisting of;

an individual railcar, a historical location and time report or a historical load and time report;

a plurality of railcars associated with a plant, an indication of the real-time location of each railcar inbound to the plant, at the plant and outbound from the plant;

a plurality of railcars associated with a customer, an indication of the load of material in transit and categorized by the location and the estimated delivery time to the customer, the railcars at the customer, the railcars outbound from the customer, and the railcars scheduled to load and loading;

a plurality of railcars associated with a sales representative, an indication of the load of materials in transit, railcars at customer locations, railcars waiting for loading categorized by an estimated shipment time, loading time and estimated delivery time;

a plurality of railcars associated with a bill of lading, an indication of the location, load, destination and an estimated time of arrival at the destination; and

a plurality of railcars associated with a product, an indication of the location, load, destination and estimated time of arrival at the destination.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

comparing received data transmissions with a set of stored business rules containing metric conditions for comparison with the data;

determining whether a metric condition is met by the data for a railcar, and if so

automatically displaying select data associated with the railcar in accordance with the business rule and an indication that the condition is met.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising issuing a proactive alert when the metric condition is met.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising

evaluating the data to determine a heel amount of product remaining in the railcar;

determining that the heel amount of product remaining in the railcar violates a threshold condition; and

issuing a proactive alert based on determining that the heel amount of product remaining in the railcar violates the threshold condition.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising evaluating the data to determine whether the railcar has been contaminated by the customer, wherein evaluating the data to determine whether the railcar has been contaminated by the customer comprises determining that a weight of the railcar has increased while the customer taps the railcar to unload material from the railcar.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein generating a bill to the customer comprises issuing an alert to prepare and send a bill to the customer based on the market price for the material at the detected time at which the customer taps the railcar to unload material from the railcar.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein generating a bill to the customer comprises implementing a control to automatically prepare and send a bill to the customer based on the market price for the material at the detected time at which the customer taps the railcar to unload material from the railcar.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a previously issued alert was not resolved or acknowledged;

determining another responsible party to be notified; and

issuing an alert to the another responsible party.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a repetitive pattern or a trend in the data; and

issuing a proactive alert related to the repetitive pattern or the trend.

12. A system comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one computer-readable storage medium encoded with executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving a data transmission from a telematics sensor unit comprising data representative of a location, load, status and identity of a railcar;

storing the data and a time stamp associated with reception of the data transmission;

based on the data, determining that the railcar is located at a property of a customer;

when the railcar is determined to be located at the property of the customer, detecting, using a sensor, a time at which the customer taps the railcar to unload material from the railcar;

accessing market pricing data;

determining, using the accessed market pricing data, a market price for the material at the detected time at which the customer taps the railcar to unload material from the railcar;

determining an amount of material unloaded from the railcar at the property of the customer and at the detected time; and

defining a bill for the customer tapping the railcar to unload material at the detected time based on the determined market price for the material at the detected time at which the customer taps the railcar to unload material from the railcar and the determined amount of material unloaded from the railcar at the property of the customer and at the detected time.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a customer identity associated with the property;

reviewing a business rule for a sale condition for the customer; and

generating a bill to the customer in accordance with the business rule and the defined bill.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

associating the identity of each railcar with one of a customer, a customer service representative, a bill of lading, a product and a facility, a business instruction and a proactive alert;

retrieving historical data of the location, load and time for a plurality of railcars; and

displaying the retrieved data for at least two of a plurality of aggregations consisting of;

an individual railcar, a historical location and time report or a historical load and time report;

a plurality of railcars associated with a plant, an indication of the real-time location of each railcar inbound to the plant, at the plant, and outbound from the plant;

a plurality of railcars associated with a customer, an indication of the load of material in transit and categorized by the location and the estimated delivery time to the customer, the railcars at the customer, the railcars outbound from the customer, and the railcars scheduled to load and loading;

a plurality of railcars associated with a sales representative, an indication of the load of materials in transit, railcars at customer locations, railcars waiting for loading categorized by an estimated shipment time, loading time and estimated delivery time;

a plurality of railcars associated with a bill of lading, an indication of the location, load, destination and an estimated time of arrival at the destination; and

a plurality of railcars associated with a product an indication of the location, load, destination and estimated time of arrival at the destination.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

comparing received data transmissions with a set of stored business rules containing metric conditions for comparison with the data;

determining whether a metric condition is met by the data for a railcar, and if so

automatically displaying select data associated with the railcar in accordance with the business rule and an indication that the condition is met.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise issuing a proactive alert when the metric condition is met.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise evaluating the data to determine a heel amount of product remaining in the railcar;

determining that the heel amount of product remaining in the railcar violates a threshold condition; and

issuing a proactive alert based on determining that the heel amount of product remaining in the railcar violates the threshold condition.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise evaluating the data to determine whether the railcar has been contaminated by the customer, wherein evaluating the data to determine whether the railcar has been contaminated by the customer comprises determining that a weight of the railcar has increased while the customer taps the railcar to unload material from the railcar.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise monitoring historical data that includes a round trip time of the railcar, a time for loading, a transit time to the customer site, a time for unloading the railcar, and a time to return to a product manufacturer.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise monitoring historical data that includes status information.