Transportation management techniques

• US 9,014,943 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2012
• Issued: 04/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: XRS Corporation (Solera Holdings Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: XRS Corporation (Solera Holdings Incorporated)
• Inventors: Mohn, Charles, Sekula, Christopher A., Kakumanu, Sarat, Tuttle, Odell R., Fuglewicz, Daniel P., Anderson, Peter S., Martin, Thomas J. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheung, Mary
• Assistant Examiner(s): WONG, YUEN H
• Application Number:
  US13/729,951
• Publication Number:
  US 20140046569A1
• Time in Patent Office: 844 Days
• Field of Search: 701/99, 340/439
• US Class Current: 701/99
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/00 Registering or indicating the working of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0858 wherein the data carrier is removable
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 7/00 Details or accessories common to the registering or indicating apparatus of groups G07C3/00 and G07C5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/00 Traffic control systems for road vehicles arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00 ; automatic vehicle control B62D
• 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: G09B 19/167 Control of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/00 Electrically-operated educational appliances working with questions and answers G09B7/00; simulators G09B9/00; advertising or displaying in general G09F
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A system for communicating fleet vehicle information may include a data acquisition device configured to mount inside a vehicle and provide a wired connection to the vehicle for gathering vehicle data during operation of the vehicle. The system may also include a portable wireless data transfer and display device having a short-range wireless communication device to wirelessly communicate with the data acquisition device when the data acquisition device and the portable wireless data transfer and display device are in close proximity to each other. The portable wireless data transfer and display device may also include a long-range communication module configured to provide a cellular or satellite communication link with a remote network device and provide real-time or approximately real-time vehicle information and driver information associated with the vehicle information to the remote network device.

Claims

1. A system for managing a vehicle fleet of a plurality of vehicles comprising:

a data acquisition device configured to mount inside a vehicle and provide a wired connection to the vehicle for gathering vehicle data from the vehicle during operation of the vehicle, the data acquisition device being free of a user interface display,

wherein the data acquisition device is further configured to output, upon demand by an enforcement official, a driver summary electronic report including hours of service records for a driver of the vehicle, to a device accessed by the enforcement official;

a portable wireless data transfer and display device; and

a remote network device for managing the vehicle fleet of the plurality of vehicles,

wherein the data acquisition device includes a first short-range wireless communication module configured to wirelessly transmit, in real-time or at intervals that approximate real-time, the vehicle data to the portable wireless data transfer and display device,

wherein the portable wireless data transfer and display device includes a second short-range wireless communication module configured to wirelessly receive the vehicle data from the data acquisition device, in the real-time or at the intervals that approximate real-time, when the data acquisition device is mounted in the vehicle and the portable wireless data transfer and display device is in close proximity to the vehicle, a communication module configured to provide a communication link with the remote network device via a long-range wireless network, a user interface configured to receive driver information from a first user and to present at least one of;

the vehicle data, the driver information, communication information, and the driver summary electronic report to the first user via a first display,

wherein the remote network device is configured to receive the vehicle data, the driver information, the communication information, and the driver summary electronic report at predetermined times from the portable wireless data transfer and display device, and present an electronic driver scorecard to a second user via a second display,

wherein the electronic driver scorecard includes a composite driver score based on a plurality of a group consisting of;

fuel efficiency;

occurrences of stop idle;

occurrences of speeding;

occurrences of hard braking;

occurrences of high speed braking; and

occurrences of safety violations.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the remote network device is configured to send electronic updates of the portable wireless data transfer and display device to at least one other portable wireless data transfer and display device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the driver summary electronic report includes identification information for the driver and hours of service information for the driver.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the portable wireless data transfer and display device is configured to wirelessly communicate the vehicle data, the driver information, and the driver summary electronic report with at least one of:

the remote network device, other portable wireless data transfer and display devices, at predetermined intervals.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the portable wireless data transfer and display device is configured to receive electronic updates from at least one remote network device and self-install them.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the portable wireless data transfer and display device comprises a cellular phone device having a user interface that displays hours of service information, the hours of service information being updated in response to wirelessly receiving vehicle usage information from the data acquisition device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first short-range wireless communication module and the second short-range wireless communication modules are Bluetooth wireless communication modules.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the data acquisition device and the portable wireless data transfer and display device provide two-way wireless communication such that the portable wireless data transfer and display device wirelessly receives at least the vehicle usage information from the data acquisition device and the data acquisition device wirelessly receives at least the driver information from the portable wireless data transfer and display device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the portable wireless data transfer and display device wirelessly communicates, at predetermined intervals, with the data acquisition device when the data acquisition device is mounted in the vehicle and the portable wireless data transfer and display device is in close proximity to the vehicle.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the data acquisition device comprises a connector to mate with an engine control module of the vehicle and a memory module that stores vehicle data in response to signals from the engine control module.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the data acquisition device is configured to simultaneously communicate via multiple protocols of at least one engine control module.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the data acquisition device houses at least one accelerometer configured to detect movements of the vehicle.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the data acquisition device houses a GPS receiver device to receive location signals from GPS satellites.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the data acquisition device comprises a data connection port configured to removably receive a data cable of the device accessed by the enforcement official.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the data connection port of the data acquisition device comprises a USB connection port arranged along a housing of the data acquisition device.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined times are selected from the group consisting of:

consistent periodic intervals;

near real-time;

times corresponding to particular driver events;

times corresponding to particular communication events;

times corresponding to particular vehicle events;

times corresponding to particular safety events;

times corresponding to particular remote network device events;

times when the portable wireless data transfer and display device is connected to the long-range wireless network;

periodical intervals when the portable wireless data transfer and display device is connected to the long-range wireless network;

data acquisition device events; and

portable wireless display and transfer unit events.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the intervals that approximate real-time are selected from the group consisting of:

intervals less than 5 minutes;

intervals less than 3 minutes;

intervals less than 2 minutes;

intervals less than 1 minute; and

intervals less than 30 seconds.

18. The system of claim 1,

wherein the data acquisition device is further configured to compute international fuel tax association (IFTA) data based on locations and distances traveled of the vehicle, and

wherein the portable wireless data transfer and display device is configured to present informational notices related to the IFTA data to the first user via the first display.