Fleet Trip Assignment Using Reachable Driving-Time Boundaries
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing fleet management systems fail to adequately account for remaining driving time, leading to sub-optimal job assignment and potential contravention of driving regulations, especially when responding to unplanned events.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that utilize electronic devices on vehicles to log driver activities and determine a time budget, generating boundary data indicating a reachable area for each vehicle, which is then displayed to dispatchers to facilitate accurate trip assignment, considering the remaining driving time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a dispatcher manually considers remaining driving time when assigning trips, then compliance with driving regulations is improved, but the complexity of the assignment process increases and labor intensity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary system (server and electronic devices) that automatically calculates and communicates remaining driving time between the fleet management system and dispatcher. This mediator handles the complex regulatory calculations, allowing the dispatcher to focus on assignment decisions while ensuring compliance through automated time tracking and alerting mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service by automatically monitoring and managing driving time compliance without requiring manual intervention from the dispatcher. The electronic devices on vehicles and the server work together to autonomously track driving time, calculate remaining time, and provide real-time updates, freeing the dispatcher from manual compliance checking while maintaining regulatory adherence.
2Measurement precision
If multiple sources of information are collated to determine remaining driving time, then accuracy of time tracking is improved, but the labor intensity and time required for information gathering increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple information sources (vehicle electronic devices, server data, trip information) into a single integrated system that automatically calculates remaining driving time. The server consolidates data from various sources and presents a unified, accurate time calculation to the dispatcher, eliminating the need for manual collation of information from multiple separate sources.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-calculating and continuously updating remaining driving time information before the dispatcher needs to make assignment decisions. The server proactively monitors driving time and prepares accurate time data in advance, so when assignment decisions are needed, the information is already available and verified, eliminating time-consuming manual gathering and calculation.
3Ease of operation
If reachable area boundaries are calculated and displayed for each vehicle, then ease of trip assignment is improved, but the computational complexity and data processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The server acts as an intermediary that handles the complex computational task of calculating reachable area boundaries. Instead of requiring the dispatcher's device to perform complex computations, the server performs the calculations and sends simplified boundary information to the dispatcher's display, maintaining ease of operation while managing computational complexity on the server side.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates simplified representations (copies) of the complex boundary calculations for display to the dispatcher. Rather than showing raw computational data or requiring the dispatcher to interpret complex calculations, the system generates visual boundary representations that are easy to understand and use for assignment decisions, maintaining operational simplicity while handling computational complexity behind the scenes.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method of assigning a trip to a vehicle within a fleet of vehicles that traverse a navigable network in a geographic area is disclosed, where each of the vehicles in the fleet is equipped with one or more electronic devices for logging the activities of one or more drivers associated with the vehicle and for determining the location of the vehicle in the geographic area. For each one of one or more vehicles of the fleet of vehicles, location of interest data and log data is obtained in respect of the vehicle (step 1). A time budget for the vehicle is determined (step 7) using the obtained log data, the time budget representing the amount of time that the vehicle can be legally operated by the one or more drivers associated with the vehicle within a given time period starting from a time of interest. The obtained location of interest and determined time budget for the vehicle are used to determine a boundary enclosing a portion of the geographic area representing an area that is reachable by the vehicle by traversing the navigable network from the location of interest within the determined time budget for the vehicle (step 8). Data indicative of at least the determined boundary and the location of interest upon which the boundary is based is provided to a display device of the dispatcher for display thereon (step 9).