Delivery vehicle management system

Abstract

To improve the convenience of a user using service of sending a getting-on position to a destination by a delivery vehicle.SOLUTION: A delivery vehicle management system 50 includes a database 56 that manages reception destination information including information on a position of a reception destination of a package for each delivery vehicle 10, and a control device 52. The control device 52 executes: acquiring a getting-on position desired by a getting-on applicant and a destination; calculating a prediction transportation time as a prediction value for the time required until the delivery vehicle 10 arrives at the destination after starting from the getting-on position, for each delivery vehicle 10; and assigning a delivery vehicle other than a delivery vehicle having the longest prediction transportation time to the getting-on applicant among a plurality of delivery vehicles 10.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a delivery vehicle management system that manages delivery vehicles that deliver packages to recipients. [Background technology]

[0002] Patent Document 1 discloses a management device that determines a vehicle to transport a user from a boarding location desired by the user to a disembarking location desired by the user. The management device acquires information on the boarding location and disembarking location from the user's information terminal. Then, if at least one of the boarding location and disembarking location is within the business area of ​​the carrier, the management device permits the user to use the vehicle. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2020-149612 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] Consider a case where a service is provided in which a user is taken from a boarding location desired by the user to a drop-off location desired by the user, using a delivery vehicle used for delivering packages. In this case, the delivery vehicle will deliver the package to the recipient, pick up the user at the boarding location, and take the user from the boarding location to the drop-off location. Therefore, after the delivery vehicle picks up the user at the boarding location, it travels toward the drop-off location while stopping at the recipients of the package. In this case, the more recipients the delivery vehicle delivers packages to on its way from the boarding location to the drop-off location, the longer the time it takes to reach the drop-off location from the boarding location. As a result, the user may feel inconvenienced. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] A delivery vehicle management system for solving the above problem is a system that manages a plurality of delivery vehicles that deliver packages to recipients, and determines a delivery vehicle from the plurality of delivery vehicles that will take a passenger who wishes to board to the destination of the passenger. The delivery vehicle management system includes a database that manages, for each delivery vehicle, recipient information including information on the location of the recipient of the package delivered by the delivery vehicle, and a control device. The control device executes the following operations: acquiring a boarding position where the passenger wishes to board and the destination, calculating, for each delivery vehicle, a predicted transport time that is a predicted value of the time required for the delivery vehicle to depart from the boarding position and arrive at the destination based on the recipient information; and allocating, to the passenger, a delivery vehicle other than the delivery vehicle with the longest predicted transport time among the plurality of delivery vehicles. Effect of the Invention

[0006] The delivery support system described above has the effect of improving the convenience of users who use the service of having a delivery vehicle take them from their boarding location to their destination. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0007] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a delivery vehicle management system according to a first embodiment, an information terminal owned by a user, and a plurality of delivery vehicles managed by the system. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing information registered in a database provided in the delivery vehicle management system of the first embodiment. [Diagram 3] FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram showing a process flow when a service is provided to a user in the delivery vehicle management system of the first embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a delivery schedule of a target delivery vehicle. [Diagram 5] FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram showing a process flow when a service is provided to a user in the delivery vehicle management system of the second embodiment. [Figure 6]FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing the distance between the reference route and the location of the recipient in the delivery vehicle management system of the second embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0008] (First embodiment) Hereinafter, a first embodiment of a delivery vehicle management system will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 illustrates a delivery vehicle management system 50, multiple delivery vehicles 10, and an information terminal 30. The delivery vehicle management system 50 manages multiple delivery vehicles 10 that deliver packages to recipients. The delivery vehicle management system 50 also has a function of determining, from the multiple delivery vehicles 10, a delivery vehicle 10 to be assigned to a user 40 of the service described below. The above service is a service in which a delivery vehicle 10 transports a user 40 from a boarding location desired by the user 40 to the user's 40's destination while the delivery vehicle 10 is on its way to deliver a package to the recipient.

[0009] <Delivery vehicle> For example, each of the multiple delivery vehicles 10 has a loading platform 11 capable of carrying packages. The delivery vehicles 10 deliver packages to recipients according to a delivery schedule set by a delivery vehicle management system 50.

[0010] <Information terminal> The information terminal 30 is a communication terminal owned by the user 40. Examples of the information terminal 30 include a smartphone, a tablet terminal, and a personal computer.

[0011] The information terminal 30 includes a communication device 31, a user interface 32, and a processing circuit 33. The communication device 31 outputs information received from the delivery vehicle management system 50 via the communication network 100 to the processing circuit 33. The communication device 31 transmits the information output from the processing circuit 33 to the delivery vehicle management system 50 via the communication network 100.

[0012] The user interface 32 has a display screen and an operation unit. An example of the processing circuit 33 is an electronic control device. When the operation unit is operated by the user 40, the processing circuit 33 executes processing according to the operation. In addition, when the communication device 31 receives information from the delivery vehicle management system 50 via the communication network 100, the processing circuit 33 displays the information received by the communication device 31 on the display screen of the user interface 32.

[0013] For example, when a user 40 uses the above service, the user 40 inputs the desired date and time of use, the desired boarding location, and the desired destination by operating the operation section of the user interface 32. The various information input by the user is then transmitted from the communication device 31 to the delivery vehicle management system 50. In this case, the user 40 who uses the above service corresponds to a "boarding requester" who wishes to board the delivery vehicle 10.

[0014] <Delivery vehicle management system> The delivery vehicle management system 50 includes a communication device 51, a control device 52, and a database 56.

[0015] The communicator 51 is an interface of the delivery vehicle management system 50 for transmitting and receiving information to and from external communication devices via the communication network 100. For example, the communicator 51 outputs information received via the communication network 100 to the control device 52. Also, for example, the communicator 51 transmits information output by the control device 52 to the information terminal 30 via the communication network 100.

[0016] An example of the control device 52 is an electronic control device. In this case, the control device 52 has a CPU 53 and a memory 54. The memory 54 stores a control program executed by the CPU 53. When the CPU 53 executes the control program, the control device 52 executes a process of creating a delivery schedule SC for the delivery vehicle 10, a process of providing the above-mentioned service to the user 40, and the like. The contents of these processes will be described later.

[0017] The database 56 stores information required for the control device 52 to create a delivery schedule SC for multiple delivery vehicles 10. The information registered in the database 56 will be described with reference to Fig. 2. Recipient information for a plurality of recipients is registered in the database 56. The recipient information includes information regarding the location of the recipient. An example of the location of the recipient is the address of the recipient.

[0018] For example, the database 56 has registered therein information on N recipients D11, D12, ..., D1N as recipients of parcels delivered by a first delivery vehicle among the multiple delivery vehicles 10. The database 56 has registered therein information on M recipients D21, D22, ..., D1M as recipients of parcels delivered by a second delivery vehicle among the multiple delivery vehicles 10. Here, "N" and "M" are integers of 2 or greater.

[0019] <Process flow when providing the above services to users> The flow of processing when the above-mentioned service is provided to the user 40 will be described with reference to FIG. 3 and FIG.

[0020] When using the above service, the user 40 operates the operation unit of the user interface 32 of his / her information terminal 30. As a result, in step S101, the processing circuit 33 of the information terminal 30 accepts the boarding position PS and destination PE desired by the user 40, as shown in Fig. 3. In the following step S103, the communication device 31 of the information terminal 30 transmits the information accepted by the processing circuit 33 in step S101 to the delivery vehicle management system 50 via the communication network 100.

[0021] When the communication device 51 of the delivery vehicle management system 50 receives the information transmitted from the information terminal 30, the control device 52 of the delivery vehicle management system 50 executes the process of step S201. In step S201, the control device 52 acquires the boarding position PS and destination PE desired by the user. In the following step S203, the control device 52 creates a delivery schedule SC for multiple delivery vehicles 10 based on the registration information in the database 56. When creating the delivery schedule SC for the first delivery vehicle, the control device 52 creates the delivery schedule SC for the first delivery vehicle, for example, so as to minimize the time required to complete delivery of packages to all recipients.

[0022] In the next step S205, the control device 52 calculates a predicted transportation time TMe for each delivery vehicle 10 based on the recipient information registered in the database 56. The predicted transportation time TMe is a predicted value of the time required for the delivery vehicle 10 to depart from the boarding position PS and arrive at the destination PE.

[0023] An example of calculating the predicted transportation time TMe of the first delivery vehicle will be described with reference to FIG. 4. First, the control device 52 modifies the delivery schedule SC of the first delivery vehicle created in step S203 based on the boarding position PS and the destination PE. That is, the control device 52 modifies the delivery schedule SC of the first delivery vehicle so that the first delivery vehicle goes to the boarding position PS and the destination PE during the delivery. For example, the control device 52 modifies the delivery schedule SC so that after delivering a package to a recipient near the boarding position PS, the first delivery vehicle can deliver packages to other recipients while heading toward the destination PE. FIG. 4 shows an example of the delivery schedule SC modified by the control device 52 in this way. The modified delivery schedule SC is referred to as a "delivery schedule SCA."

[0024] Then, the control device 52 calculates the predicted transport time TMe of the first delivery vehicle based on the revised delivery schedule SCA. For example, the control device 52 calculates the predicted transport time TMe as a predicted value of the time required from the boarding position PS to the destination PE when the first delivery vehicle delivers the package according to the delivery schedule SCA. At this time, the control device 52 may calculate the predicted transport time TMe so that the longer the travel distance of the travel route from the boarding position PS to the destination PE, the longer the predicted transport time TMe. The travel route here is a travel route that takes into consideration the first delivery vehicle stopping at the recipient on the way from the boarding position PS to the destination PE.

[0025] Returning to Fig. 3, once the control device 52 has calculated the predicted transport time TMe of all delivery vehicles 10, the process proceeds to step S207. In step S207, the control device 52 determines a target delivery vehicle to be assigned to the user 40 from among the multiple delivery vehicles 10. That is, the control device 52 determines, as the target delivery vehicle, a delivery vehicle other than the delivery vehicle having the longest predicted transport time TMe from among the multiple delivery vehicles 10.

[0026] In this embodiment, the control device 52 determines, as the target delivery vehicle, the delivery vehicle with the fewest number of recipients to which packages are delivered on the way from the boarding position PS to the destination PE, among the multiple delivery vehicles 10 other than the reference delivery vehicle. The "reference delivery vehicle" here is the delivery vehicle 10 with the longest predicted transportation time TMe, among the multiple delivery vehicles 10. The number of recipients to which packages are delivered on the way from the boarding position PS to the destination PE is referred to as the "number of deliveries en route."

[0027] In the next step S209, the control device 52 acquires the number of recipients to which the delivery vehicle 10 determined as the target delivery vehicle will deliver packages on the way from the boarding position PS to the destination PE as the en route delivery number X. If the delivery schedule SCA of the target delivery vehicle is the schedule shown in Fig. 4, the control device 52 acquires 3 as the en route delivery number X.

[0028] In the next step S211, the control device 52 calculates the incentive Z to be given to the user 40. For example, the control device 52 calculates the incentive Z so that the value becomes larger as the number of en route deliveries X increases. In this way, the control device 52 can give the user 40 a larger incentive Z as the number of en route deliveries X increases. Examples of the incentive Z include a discount ticket that can be used the next time the service is used or thereafter, or points that can be used to purchase products.

[0029] Then, in step S213, the communication device 51 of the delivery vehicle management system 50 transmits the information on the target delivery vehicle and the information on the incentive Z to the information terminal 30 of the user 40 via the communication network 100.

[0030] When the communication device 31 of the information terminal 30 receives the information transmitted by the delivery vehicle management system 50, the information terminal 30 proceeds to the process of step S105. In step S105, the processing circuitry 33 of the information terminal 30 notifies the user 40 of the information received from the delivery vehicle management system 50. For example, the processing circuitry 33 causes the display screen of the user interface 32 to display information about the target delivery vehicle and information about the incentive Z.

[0031] <Actions and Effects of the Present Embodiment> (1-1) When the control device 52 of the delivery vehicle management system 50 acquires the boarding position PS and the destination PE transmitted from the information terminal 30 of the user 40, it calculates a predicted transportation time TMe for each delivery vehicle 10. Then, the control device 52 determines, from among the multiple delivery vehicles 10, a delivery vehicle other than the reference delivery vehicle as a target delivery vehicle.

[0032] The target delivery vehicle then heads to the boarding position PS while delivering the package to the recipient. Then, when the target delivery vehicle picks up the user 40 at the boarding position PS, the target delivery vehicle heads to the destination PE. At this time, the target delivery vehicle heads to the destination PE while delivering the package to the recipient. Then, when the target delivery vehicle arrives at the destination PE, the user 40 gets off the target delivery vehicle.

[0033] In this embodiment, a delivery vehicle other than the reference delivery vehicle is selected as the target delivery vehicle. This makes it less likely that the time required for the target delivery vehicle to arrive at the destination PE after the target delivery vehicle departs from the boarding location PS is long. Therefore, the delivery vehicle management system 50 can improve the convenience of users who use the service of having a delivery vehicle 10 take them from the boarding location PS to the destination PE.

[0034] (1-2) The greater the number of en route deliveries X, which is the number of recipients to which the target delivery vehicle delivers packages between the time the user 40 boards the target delivery vehicle and the time the target delivery vehicle arrives at the destination PE, the greater the likelihood that the user 40 riding in the target delivery vehicle will feel uncomfortable. Therefore, the control device 52 of the delivery vehicle management system 50 determines the delivery vehicle 10 with the smallest number of en route deliveries X as the target delivery vehicle among multiple delivery vehicles 10 other than the reference delivery vehicle. This reduces the number of recipients to which the target delivery vehicle delivers packages on its way from the boarding position PS to the destination PE. Therefore, the delivery vehicle management system 50 can make it less likely that the user will feel uncomfortable if the target delivery vehicle stops at a recipient between the time the target delivery vehicle boarded by the user 40 arrives at the destination PE from the boarding position PS.

[0035] (1-3) In the delivery vehicle management system 50, the greater the number of en route deliveries X, the greater the incentive Z given to the user 40. By giving the user 40 the incentive Z according to the number of en route deliveries X, the delivery vehicle management system 50 makes it less likely that the user 40 will feel uncomfortable when the target delivery vehicle in which the user 40 is riding stops at the recipient's address on the way from the boarding position PS to the destination PE.

[0036] Second embodiment A second embodiment of the delivery vehicle management system will be described with reference to Figures 5 and 6. Note that the second embodiment differs from the first embodiment in the method of calculating incentives, etc. In the following description, the differences from the first embodiment will be mainly described, and the same reference numerals will be used to designate the same components as in the first embodiment, and duplicated descriptions will be omitted.

[0037] The flow of processing when the above-mentioned service is provided to the user 40 will be described with reference to FIGS. When using the above service, the user 40 operates the operation unit of the user interface 32 of his / her information terminal 30. As a result, in step S101, the processing circuit 33 of the information terminal 30 accepts the boarding position PS and destination PE desired by the user 40, as shown in Fig. 5. In the following step S103, the communication device 31 of the information terminal 30 transmits the information accepted by the processing circuit 33 in step S101 to the delivery vehicle management system 50 via the communication network 100.

[0038] When the communication device 51 of the delivery vehicle management system 50 receives the information transmitted from the information terminal 30, the control device 52 of the delivery vehicle management system 50 executes the process of step S201. The control device 52 executes each process from a plurality of steps S201 to S207 in order. The flow of this process is the same as that in the first embodiment. When the control device 52 determines a target delivery vehicle from among a plurality of delivery vehicles 10, it executes the process of step S221.

[0039] In step S221, the control device 52 creates a reference route RTB for the target delivery vehicle based on the boarding position PS and the destination PE. The reference route RTB is a travel route of the target delivery vehicle assuming that the target delivery vehicle travels from the boarding position PS to the destination PE without stopping at a recipient on the way.

[0040] In the next step S223, the control device 52 obtains the distance Le from the reference route RTB of the location of the recipient to which the target delivery vehicle will deliver the package on its way from the boarding position PS to the destination PE, based on the recipient information of the target delivery vehicle and the reference route RTB.

[0041] FIG. 6 shows an example of the reference route RTB. In the example shown in FIG. 6, a first recipient D1 and a second recipient D2 are shown as recipients to which the target delivery vehicle delivers packages along the way. The control device 52 acquires a distance Le1 between the reference route RTB and the first recipient D1 based on the position information of the reference route RTB and the position information of the first recipient D1. Similarly, the control device 52 acquires a distance Le2 between the reference route RTB and the second recipient D2 based on the position information of the reference route RTB and the position information of the second recipient D2.

[0042] Returning to FIG. 5, when the control device 52 acquires the separation distance Le, the process proceeds to step S225. In step S225, the control device 52 calculates the incentive Z to be given to the user 40. For example, the control device 52 calculates the incentive Z so that the value is larger as the separation distance Le acquired in step S223 is longer. In this way, the control device 52 can grant the user 40 a larger incentive Z as the separation distance Le is longer. In the example shown in FIG. 6, the target delivery vehicle delivers packages to the first recipient D1 and the second recipient D2 on the way to deliver the user 40 from the boarding position PS to the destination PE. Then, in step S223, the control device 52 acquires the separation distance Le1 from the reference route RTB of the first recipient D1 and the separation distance Le2 from the reference route RTB of the second recipient D2. Therefore, the control device 52 may grant the user 40 an incentive Z according to the longer separation distance Le2 of the acquired multiple separation distances Le1 and Le2. Furthermore, the control device 52 may provide the user 40 with an incentive Z according to the sum of the acquired distances Le1, Le2.

[0043] Then, in step S213, the communication device 51 of the delivery vehicle management system 50 transmits the information on the target delivery vehicle and the information on the incentive Z to the information terminal 30 of the user 40 via the communication network 100.

[0044] When the communication device 31 of the information terminal 30 receives the information transmitted by the delivery vehicle management system 50, the information terminal 30 proceeds to the process of step S105. In step S105, the processing circuitry 33 of the information terminal 30 notifies the user 40 of the information received from the delivery vehicle management system 50. For example, the processing circuitry 33 causes the display screen of the user interface 32 to display information about the target delivery vehicle and information about the incentive Z.

[0045] <Actions and Effects of the Present Embodiment> In this embodiment, in addition to the effects (1-1) and (1-2) of the first embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.

[0046] (2-1) The control device 52 of the delivery vehicle management system 50 acquires the distance Le from the reference route RTB of the location of the recipient where the target delivery vehicle delivers the package while the target delivery vehicle is traveling from the boarding position PS to the destination PE. Then, the control device 52 grants the user 40 a larger incentive Z the longer the distance Le. By granting the user 40 the incentive Z according to the distance Le, the delivery vehicle management system 50 can make it less likely that the user 40 will feel uncomfortable when the target delivery vehicle stops at the recipient on the way from the boarding position PS to the destination PE in which the user 40 is riding.

[0047] (Example of change) The above-described embodiments may be modified as follows: The above-described embodiments and the following modifications may be combined with each other to the extent that they are not technically inconsistent.

[0048] When granting incentive Z to a user 40, the delivery vehicle management system 50 may calculate incentive Z taking into consideration both the number of en route deliveries X and the separation distance Le. For example, the control device 52 may calculate incentive Z so that the value increases as the number of en route deliveries X increases and the separation distance Le increases.

[0049] The delivery vehicle management system 50 does not have to grant the incentive Z to the user 40. The control device 52 of the delivery vehicle management system 50 may be configured to assign to the user 40 the delivery vehicle that has the shortest predicted transportation time TMe among the multiple delivery vehicles 10.

[0050] The control device 52 is not limited to a device having a CPU and ROM and executing software processing. In other words, the control device 52 may have any one of the following configurations (a), (b), and (c).

[0051] (a) The control device 52 includes one or more processors that execute various processes according to a computer program. The processor includes a CPU and memory such as RAM and ROM. The memory stores program codes or instructions configured to cause the CPU to execute processes. Memory, i.e., computer-readable media, includes any available media that can be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer.

[0052] (b) The control device 52 includes one or more dedicated hardware circuits for executing various processes. Examples of the dedicated hardware circuits include application specific integrated circuits, i.e., ASIC and FPGA. ASIC is an abbreviation for "Application Specific Integrated Circuit" and FPGA is an abbreviation for "Field Programmable Gate Array."

[0053] (c) The control device 52 includes a processor that executes some of the various processes in accordance with a computer program, and a dedicated hardware circuit that executes the remaining processes among the various processes. [Explanation of symbols]

[0054] 10...delivery vehicle, 30...information terminal, 40...user, 50...delivery vehicle management system, 51...communication device, 52...control device, 53...CPU, 54...memory, 56...database.

Claims

1. A delivery vehicle management system that manages a plurality of delivery vehicles that deliver packages to recipients and determines a delivery vehicle that will deliver a passenger who wishes to board a vehicle to a destination of the passenger from among the plurality of delivery vehicles, A database for managing, for each delivery vehicle, destination information including information regarding the location of the destination of the package delivered by the delivery vehicle, and a control device; The control device includes: Obtaining a boarding location where the boarding applicant desires to board and the destination; Calculating a predicted transportation time for each delivery vehicle, the predicted transportation time being a predicted value of the time required for the delivery vehicle to depart from the boarding position and arrive at the destination based on the recipient information; Allocating a delivery vehicle other than the delivery vehicle with the longest predicted transportation time among the plurality of delivery vehicles to the passenger who wishes to ride. Delivery vehicle management system.

2. When the delivery vehicle having the longest predicted transportation time among the plurality of delivery vehicles is set as a reference delivery vehicle, The control device includes: When deciding which delivery vehicle to assign to the passenger, Among a plurality of delivery vehicles other than the reference delivery vehicle, a delivery vehicle that delivers packages to the least number of recipients on the way from the boarding position to the destination is assigned to the boarding requester. The delivery vehicle management system according to claim 1 .

3. The control device includes: Creating a delivery schedule for a target delivery vehicle, which is a delivery vehicle assigned to the passenger, based on the boarding location and the destination, and the recipient information of the target delivery vehicle; Obtaining a number of en route deliveries, which is the number of recipients to which the target delivery vehicle will deliver packages on the way from the boarding position to the destination, based on the delivery schedule of the target delivery vehicle; The greater the number of deliveries on the way, the greater the incentive given to the passenger who wishes to ride. The delivery vehicle management system according to claim 1 or 2.

4. The control device includes: creating a reference route which is a travel route of the delivery vehicle assuming that the delivery vehicle travels from the boarding position to the destination without stopping at the recipient on the way; Based on the destination information of the destination where the target delivery vehicle, which is a delivery vehicle assigned to the passenger, delivers the package and the reference route, a distance from the reference route of the destination where the target delivery vehicle delivers the package while the target delivery vehicle is traveling from the boarding position to the destination is acquired; The longer the distance is, the greater the incentive is given to the passenger who wishes to board the vehicle. The delivery vehicle management system according to claim 1 or 2.

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