GPS AND WIRELESS INTEGRATED FLEET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20090326991A1
• Filed: 06/26/2009
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: E-Lantis Corporation
• Original Assignee: E-Lantis Corporation
• Inventors: Wei, Hongfeng, Forougi, Sid
• Granted Patent: US 9,519,921 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/047 Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08355 Routing methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083

Abstract

A fleet management system has a chauffeur or driver module and a communication and positioning module associated with each fleet vehicle, and a backend monitoring and control system located at a fleet data center in communication with each vehicle. The system monitors each trip automatically and generates time stamps at the start of a trip, a pick up location, a drop off location, and return of the vehicle to a garage at the end of a trip. Vehicle status information is collected and stored along with timestamps. The information is used to generate billing and payroll accounts, and also in monitoring conditions of fleet vehicles and generating alerts as needed. Turn-by-turn route instructions are provided to drivers by voice output on request.

Claims

1. A computerized fleet management system, comprising:

a chauffeur and vehicle back end control (BOS) server which comprises an operator console which is adapted to display a map showing the current locations of a plurality of fleet vehicles, a reservation module which receives client reservations for rides from a pick up location to a drop off location and displays the reservation information on the operator console, a vehicle routing module which receives a vehicle dispatch order on the operator console and determines a route from the vehicle location to the pick up location and a status monitoring module which monitors vehicle status and traffic status along the determined route, and a vehicle communication module which communicates with the vehicle to send the route information to the vehicle and to send a detour around any detected traffic holdup along the route;

at least one chauffeur peer station (CPS) module associated with each fleet vehicle, the CPS module having a driver input device adapted to receive input from a driver of the vehicle and a communication module adapted to provide communication between the vehicle driver and the BOS module; and

a vehicle position and data collection module associated with each fleet vehicle which is adapted to monitor and collect current vehicle position data and vehicle mechanical status data and to transmit collected vehicle position and status data to the BOS module.

2. A computer-based method for controlling a fleet of vehicles, comprising:

monitoring real time locations and availability status of a plurality of vehicles in a fleet at a control system of at least one transportation affiliate;

receiving a client request for pick up at a first location and transportation to a second location;

determining the closest available vehicle in the fleet to the first location;

dispatching the closest available vehicle to the first location;

providing a route to the dispatched vehicle for driving from the current location to the first location and from the first location to the second location;

receiving vehicle data at predetermined times as the vehicle travels along the route, and storing the vehicle data in a data base;

monitoring traffic data for traffic delay alerts and vehicle data for vehicle delay alerts;

in the case of a traffic delay alert, generating an alternative route avoiding the traffic delay and providing the alternative route to the driver

in the case of a vehicle delay alert, determining if the delay is in a predetermined category of serious vehicle delays;

when a serious vehicle delay is detected, searching for a second available vehicle within a predetermined distance of the first location;

if a second available vehicle is found, dispatching the second vehicle to the first location; and

changing the vehicle status from unavailable to available on completion of the route.