SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ASSESSING OPERATIONAL DATA FOR A VEHICLE FLEET

• US 20170263059A1
• Filed: 05/23/2017
• Published: 09/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: United Parcel Service Of America Incorporated (United Parcel Service Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: United Parcel Service Of America Incorporated (United Parcel Service Incorporated)
• Inventors: Davidson, Mark J.
• Granted Patent: US 10,563,999 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3469 Fuel consumption; Energy use; Emission aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3617 using user history, behaviour, conditions or preferences, e.g. predicted or inferred from previous use or current movement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/00 Registering or indicating the working of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/02 Registering or indicating driving, working, idle, or waiting time only apparatus forming part of taximeters G07B13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/06 in graphical form
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/123 indicating the position of vehicles, e.g. scheduled vehicles; Managing passenger vehicles circulating according to a fixed timetable, e.g. buses, trains, tramstransmission of navigation instructions to vehicles G08G1/0968
• 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: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/207 with respect to certain areas, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas with possible alerting when inside or outside boundaries
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to a fleet management system configured for capturing and evaluating vehicle telematics data, such as data captured from one or more vehicle telematics devices indicative of one or more vehicle dynamics, and service data, such as data captured from one or more portable data acquisition devices indicative of one or more service dynamics. In certain embodiments, the fleet management system is configured to associate captured vehicle telematics data with captured service data based on the contextual attributes of each, such as the time, date, and location of data capture. By synching the vehicle telematics data to the service data, the operational data can be uniquely assessed for various operational efficiencies.

Claims

1. A fleet management system comprising:

one or more vehicle telematics devices configured for capturing vehicle telematics data comprising data indicative of one or more vehicle dynamics and data indicative of one or more contextual attributes of said one or more vehicle dynamics;

one or more portable data acquisition devices configured for capturing service data comprising data indicative of one or more service dynamics and data indicative of one or more contextual attributes of said one or more service dynamics, said service data generated based at least in part on user input received by the one or more portable data acquisition devices;

a fleet management computer system comprising;

one or more memory storage areas; and

one or more hardware processors in communication with said one or more memory storage areas;

wherein said one or more hardware processors are, collectively, configured to;

receive said vehicle telematics data from said one or more vehicle telematics devices;

receive said service data from said one or more portable data acquisition devices, wherein said vehicle telematics data and said service data collectively form operational data;

receive, via a graphical user interface, a user request to assess at least one of vehicle dynamics or service dynamics relating to one or more delivery activities, wherein the user request identifies one or more requested parameters;

identify, by comparing said one or more requested parameters with said contextual telematics data and said contextual service data, a subset of the received operational data comprising vehicle telematics data and service data associated with said one or more requested parameters;

identify operational data indicative of the occurrence of one or more delivery activities within the subset of the received operational data;

determine, based on said vehicle telematics data and said service data associated with said one or more requested parameters, one or more activity attributes for each of said delivery activities; and

generate, via said at least one display device, a graphical display indicating each of said identified delivery activities and said identified activity attributes.

2. The fleet management system of claim 1, wherein said one or more activity attributes comprise a delivery stop time value indicating the duration of a delivery stop identified as a delivery activity.

3. The fleet management system of claim 2, wherein said one or more activity attributes comprise a stop start time value and a stop finish time value for an identified delivery stop.

4. The fleet management system of claim 1, wherein said one or more activity attributes comprise a time value indicating the duration of time between consecutive delivery activities.

5. The fleet management system of claim 2, wherein said one or more activity attributes comprise a non-travel time to stop value indicating the duration of time between the beginning of an identified delivery stop and the end of a preceding delivery stop during which said vehicle is not traveling and said vehicle operator has not generated service data otherwise accounting for the lack of activity between said identified delivery stop and said preceding stop.

6. The fleet management system of claim 1, wherein said one or more activity attributes comprise a distance value indicating the distance traveled by said vehicle between consecutive delivery activities.

7. The fleet management system of claim 1, wherein said one or more activity attributes comprise an activity type indication, said activity type indicating the purpose of an identified delivery activity.

8. The fleet management system of claim 1, wherein said one or more activity attributes comprise a handling units value indicating the number of packages or freight units picked up or delivered during an identified delivery activity, and a weight value indicating the weight of said units picked up or delivered during said identified delivery activity.

9. The fleet management system of claim 1, wherein said graphical display indicates said identified delivery activities in chronological order.

10. The fleet management system of claim 1, wherein said graphical display comprises a graphical user interface configured for sorting said identified delivery activities based on one or more of said attributes selected by a user.

11. The fleet management system of claim 1, wherein said one or more hardware processors are configured to determine, based on said operational data, the location where each identified delivery activity occurred;

and

wherein said graphical display includes a map showing the location of one or more of said identified delivery activities.

12. The fleet management system of claim 1, wherein said graphical display comprises a graphical user interface including an interactive geographical map, and wherein said hardware processors are further configured for indicating the location of one or more user-selected delivery activities on said map.

13. The fleet management system of claim 1, wherein said hardware processors are configured to receive said operational data by:

receiving user input requesting retrieval of operational data relating to one or more user parameters;

retrieving certain operational data relating to said parameters from one or more data storage areas; and

loading said certain operational data to said one or more memory storage areas.

14. The fleet management system of claim 13, wherein said hardware processors are further configured for generating a graphical user interface comprising one or more menus configured to enable a user to select said one or more user parameters and request retrieval of operational data relating to selected parameters;

and

wherein said one or more user parameters comprise one or more parameters selected from the group consisting of;

one or more time periods;

one or more specific drivers;

one or more specific vehicles; and

one or more locations.

15. The fleet management system of claim 13, wherein said graphical display comprises a graphical user interface comprising one or more filter menus configured to enable a user to select one or more attribute filter values, said graphical user interface being configured to display only delivery activities and activity attributes corresponding to said one or more attribute filter values.

16. The fleet management system of claim 15, wherein said one or more filter menus comprise an activity duration filter menu.

17. The fleet management system of claim 1, wherein said one or more hardware processors are configured for identifying said delivery activities by:

segmenting said operational data into a plurality of activity segments, said activity segments representing periods of time classified according to vehicle dynamics or service dynamics; and

identifying one or more stop segments, said delivery segments each representing a period of time during which a driver is performing a delivery activity.

18. A method for assessing delivery performance for one or more vehicles, said method comprising the steps of:

capturing, via one or more vehicle telematics devices, vehicle telematics data comprising data indicative of one or more vehicle dynamics and data indicative of one or more contextual attributes of said one or more vehicle dynamics;

capturing, via one or more portable data acquisition devices, service data comprising data indicative of one or more service dynamics and data indicative of one or more contextual attributes of said one or more service dynamics, said service data generated based at least in part on user input received by the one or more portable data acquisition devices;

receiving, via one or more hardware processors, said vehicle telematics data from said one or more vehicle telematics devices;

receiving, via the one or more hardware processors, said service data from said one or more portable data acquisition devices, wherein said vehicle telematics data and said service data collectively form operational data;

receiving, via the one or more hardware processors, a user request to assess at least one of vehicle dynamics or service dynamics relating to one or more delivery activities, wherein the user request identifies one or more requested parameters;

identifying, via the one or more hardware processors and by comparing said one or more requested parameters with said contextual telematics data and said contextual service data, a subset of the received operational data comprising vehicle telematics data and service data associated with said one or more requested parameters;

identifying, via the one or more hardware processors, operational data indicative of the occurrence of one or more delivery activities within the subset of the received operational data;

determining, via the one or more hardware processors and based on said vehicle telematics data and said service data associated with said one or more requested parameters, one or more activity attributes for each of said delivery activities; and

generating, via the one or more hardware processors, a graphical display indicating each of said identified delivery activities and said identified activity attributes.

19. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising:

an executable portion for receiving vehicle telematics data comprising data indicative of one or more vehicle dynamics and data indicative of one or more contextual attributes of said one or more vehicle dynamics;

an executable portion for receiving service data comprising data indicative of one or more service dynamics and data indicative of one or more contextual attributes of said one or more service dynamics, said service data generated based at least in part on user input received by the one or more portable data acquisition devices;

an executable portion for receiving a user request to assess at least one of vehicle dynamics or service dynamics relating to one or more delivery activities, wherein the user request identifies one or more requested parameters;

an executable portion for identifying, by comparing said one or more requested parameters with said contextual telematics data and said contextual service data, a subset of the received operational data comprising vehicle telematics data and service data associated with said one or more requested parameters;

an executable portion for identifying, operational data indicative of the occurrence of one or more delivery activities within the subset of the received operational data;

an executable portion for determining, based on said vehicle telematics data and said service data associated with said one or more requested parameters, one or more activity attributes for each of said delivery activities; and

an executable portion for generating a graphical display indicating each of said identified delivery activities and said identified activity attributes.