Electronic Run Tickets for Claimed Oilfield Tank Runs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Oil and gas related facilities face challenges in coordinating truck dispatches due to complexity in selecting optimal tank runs, given factors like trucker-specific, load-specific, and dynamic drop-off location conditions, which are often unknown to truck drivers, leading to sub-optimal choices and increased labor intensity.
Innovation Solution
A dispatch server system that receives tank-nearly-full messages, creates tank-run records, and sends them to truckers' mobile devices, allowing them to claim and confirm tank runs, while integrating sensors to determine fluid levels and accumulation rates, and predicting congestion to recommend optimal drop-off facilities based on geolocation and historical data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If truck drivers independently select tank runs without a dispatch system, then driver autonomy and simplicity are maintained, but sub-optimal choices are made due to lack of information about facility capacity and congestion
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a dispatch server system as an intermediary between tank facilities and truck drivers. The server receives tank-nearly-full messages from facilities, creates tank-run records with optimized routing information, and sends them to drivers' mobile devices. This intermediary provides drivers with information about facility capacity, congestion, and optimal drop-off locations, enabling them to make informed decisions while maintaining operational simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback loops where the dispatch server continuously receives updates about tank fluid levels, facility capacity, and congestion conditions. This real-time feedback allows the server to dynamically adjust tank-run recommendations and guide drivers to optimal facilities, improving overall system efficiency without increasing driver workload.
2Productivity
If a comprehensive dispatch system is implemented to optimize tank runs, then productivity and efficiency improve, but device complexity and coordination requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The dispatch server system operates autonomously by automatically receiving tank-nearly-full messages from facilities, creating optimized tank-run records, and distributing them to drivers. The system self-manages the complex coordination tasks without requiring human operators, reducing the burden on both facilities and drivers while maintaining high productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual coordination mechanisms (phone calls, radio communications, paper dispatches) with an automated electronic system. Mobile devices and servers exchange digital messages and data, eliminating the need for human intermediaries and reducing system complexity from the user perspective while increasing backend automation.
3Speed
If drivers make spontaneous tank run selections without advance information, then response time is fast, but unnecessary trips occur due to poor facility selection
Solution Approach 1:
The dispatch server performs preliminary actions by proactively monitoring tank fluid levels and identifying when tanks are nearly full. Before drivers even search for tank runs, the system has already created optimized tank-run records with selected drop-off facilities, eliminating the need for drivers to make spontaneous decisions and reducing unnecessary trips.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses real-time feedback from facility sensors about fluid levels and capacity to guide drivers to appropriate facilities. This feedback mechanism ensures drivers are directed to facilities that can actually accept their loads, preventing unnecessary trips to full or congested facilities while maintaining rapid response times.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a process including: receiving a tank-nearly-full message indicating that a tank at an oil or gas related facility is or will be ready for a truck to unload and transport fluid accumulating in the tank; in response to the tank-nearly-full message, creating a tank-run record; sending a description of the tank-run to a mobile device of a driver of an oilfield truck; receiving, from the mobile device of the driver of the oilfield truck, a tank-run claimed message indicating that the driver will drive to the oil or gas related facility and transport at least some of the fluid accumulating in the tank; and after the tank-run claimed message, performing steps including: confirming that the tank-run has not yet been claimed; after the confirmation, designating the tank-run as claimed by the driver; and sending confirmation to the mobile device of the driver.