Systems and methods for monitoring location of a vehicle or freight carried by the vehicle by correlating the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle to a communications device

• US 9,070,295 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2013
• Issued: 06/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Macropoint LLC (The Descartes Systems Group Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Macropoint LLC (The Descartes Systems Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: Adelson, Bennett H.
• Primary Examiner(s): RUSHING, MARK S
• Application Number:
  US14/069,364
• Publication Number:
  US 20140058585A1
• Time in Patent Office: 607 Days
• Field of Search: 340988-994, 701/1, 701/2, 701/32.3, 701/454, 701/467, 701/482, 701/485, 348/116
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/46 the supplementary measurement being of a radio-wave signal type
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• 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: G08G 1/13 the indicator being in the form of a map
• 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 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

A system for providing location information of a vehicle includes a communications interface and a correlation logic that correlates location information of a communications device to location of the vehicle. The communications interface communicates electronic signals including: a first signal including data representing a request for the location of the vehicle, a second signal transmitted to a location information provider corresponding to a party or device other than the communications device including data representing a request for location information of the communications device, a third signal received from the location information provider corresponding to the party or device other than the communications device including data representing the location information of the communications device, and a fourth signal including data representing the location of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for monitoring location of at least one of a vehicle or freight carried by the vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving a location request signal including data representing a request for information regarding the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle;

receiving a signal including data that indicates that a user of a communications device consented to transmission of location information of the communications device;

correlating the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle with the communications device;

transmitting a location information request signal including data representing a request for location information of the communications device to a location information provider corresponding to a party or device other than the communications device;

receiving a location information signal including data representing the location information of the communications device from the location information provider;

correlating the location information of the communications device to the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle based at least in part on the correlation of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle to the communications device; and

transmitting a location signal including data representing the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the location information provider corresponds to at least one of:

a wireless service provider providing wireless service to the communications device,

a third party that obtains the location information of the communications device from the wireless service provider providing wireless service to the communications device, and

a party that has access to the location information of the communications device but is other than the wireless service provider or the third party that obtains the location information of the communications device from the wireless service provider.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the location information of the communications device is originally obtained using a method including a technique utilizing a global position system (GPS) satellite receiver that forms part of the communications device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the location information of the communications device is originally obtained using a method including a technique other than a technique utilizing a global position system (GPS) satellite receiver that forms part of the communications device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting the location signal including data representing the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle includes exposing an application programming interface (API) from which the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle is transmitted.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting the location signal including data representing the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle includes interfacing with an exposed application programming interface (API) through which the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle is transmitted.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting the location signal including data representing the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle includes transmitting the location signal to one or more of:

a freight service provider,

a party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services, and

a party that provides location information services to the freight service provider or to the party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services.

8. A system for monitoring location of at least one of a vehicle or freight carried by the vehicle, the system comprising:

a logic configured to determine whether a user of a communications device consented to transmission of location information of the communications device;

a correlation logic configured to correlate the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle with the location information of the communications device based at least in part on a correlation between the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle and the communications device; and

a communications interface configured to communicate electronic signals including;

a location request signal received from a requesting party including data representing a request for information regarding the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle,

a location information request signal transmitted to a location information provider corresponding to a party or device other than the communications device including data representing a request for location information of the communications device,

a location information signal received from the location information provider including data representing the location information of the communications device, and

a location signal transmitted to the requesting party including data representing the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the location information provider corresponds to at least one of:

a wireless service provider providing wireless service to the communications device,

a third party that obtains the location information of the communications device from the wireless service provider providing wireless service to the communications device, and

a party that has access to the location information of the communications device but is other than the wireless service provider or the third party that obtains the location information of the communications device from the wireless service provider.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the location information of the communications device is originally obtained using a method including a technique utilizing a global position system (GPS) satellite receiver that forms part of the communications device.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the location information of the communications device is originally obtained using a method including a technique other than a technique utilizing a global position system (GPS) satellite receiver that forms part of the communications device.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the communications interface transmitting the location signal including data representing the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle includes the communications interface exposing an application programming interface (API) from which the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle is obtained by the requesting party.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the communications interface transmitting the location signal including data representing the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle includes the communications interface interfacing with an exposed application programming interface (API) through which the location of the at least one of the vehicle or the freight carried by the vehicle is transmitted.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the requesting party corresponds to one or more of:

a freight service provider,

a party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services, and

a party that provides location information services to the freight service provider or to the party to whom the freight service provider provides freight services.