Fleet Trip Assignment Using Driver Time Budget Boundaries
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing fleet management systems (FMS) fail to adequately consider remaining driving time when assigning trips to vehicles, leading to sub-optimal planning, inaccurate arrival time estimates, and potential violations of driving regulations, especially in response to unplanned events.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that utilize electronic devices on vehicles to log driver activities and determine location, allowing for the calculation of a time budget based on remaining driving time, which is used to define a reachable area, displayed to dispatchers for trip assignment, thereby incorporating driving time constraints into the decision-making process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If fleet management systems assign trips to vehicles without adequately considering remaining driving time, then trip assignment speed and simplicity are improved, but assignment accuracy and regulatory compliance deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-calculates and displays reachable areas for each vehicle based on remaining driving time before the dispatcher makes assignment decisions. This preliminary computation of time-constrained geographic zones enables dispatchers to quickly assess which vehicles can reach specific destinations within regulatory limits, maintaining assignment simplicity while improving accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary visualization layer (reachable area boundaries) between the raw data (remaining driving time) and the decision-making process (trip assignment). This visual intermediary translates complex time constraints into intuitive geographic zones, allowing dispatchers to make accurate compliance-based decisions without manually calculating time limits.
2Reliability
If fleet management systems manually calculate and consider remaining driving time for each vehicle, then regulatory compliance is improved, but system complexity and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically retrieves remaining driving time data from electronic logging devices already installed in vehicles for regulatory compliance purposes. By having the system self-serve this data and perform automatic calculations of reachable areas, the patent eliminates the need for manual intervention while ensuring compliance, thus improving reliability without proportionally increasing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent leverages existing multi-functional electronic logging devices that serve both regulatory compliance monitoring and fleet optimization purposes. By making the remaining driving time data from these devices accessible to the trip assignment system, the solution achieves compliance without requiring separate dedicated hardware or systems.
3Speed
If fleet management systems respond to unplanned events without considering remaining driving time, then response speed is improved, but risk of regulatory violations increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically recalculates reachable areas and displays updated visualizations when unplanned events occur, allowing dispatchers to quickly reassess which vehicles can respond to new situations while remaining compliant. This dynamic update capability maintains fast response speeds by providing real-time information without requiring complex manual recalculations.
4Measurement precision
If detailed log data from electronic devices is processed to determine time budgets, then accuracy of time allocation is improved, but data processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the specific remaining driving time data needed for trip assignment decisions from the comprehensive log data stored in electronic logging devices. By extracting and utilizing only the relevant time budget information rather than processing entire datasets, the patent achieves accurate time allocation without proportionally increasing data processing complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A method is disclosed for assigning trips to vehicles within a fleet thereof that traverse a geographic area, each vehicle equipped with electronic devices for logging driver activities and determining vehicle location. For each vehicle, location of interest data and log data are obtained. A time budget determined using the obtained log data represents the amount of time that the vehicle can be legally operated by the associated drivers within a given time period starting from a time of interest. The obtained location of interest and determined time budget are used to determine a boundary enclosing a portion of the geographic area representing an area reachable by the vehicle from the location of interest within the determined time budget. 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.