Granted Patent B2

US 10,147,060 · App. 15/428,967 · Granted Dec 4, 2018

Inventor: Philip Rodoni (Decatur, GA)

Assignee: RUBICON GLOBAL HOLDINGS, LLC

G06Q10/0631G06Q40/10G06Q50/26

Abstract

Claims (66)

1. A system for managing waste services, comprising:

a provider portal;

a locating device configured to generate a location signal indicative of a location of a service vehicle; and

a central processing unit in communication with the provider portal and the locating device, the central processing unit being configured to:

determine a total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle;

determine, based at least in part on the location signal, a portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle when the service vehicle is not traveling on public roadways;

generate at least one recommendation for the service vehicle to increase the portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle when the service vehicle is not traveling on public roadways;

cause an indication of the portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle when the service vehicle is not traveling on public roadways to be displayed on the provider portal with the at least one recommendation; and

automatically reroute the service vehicle to lower an amount of time spent while traveling on public roadways.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the central processing unit includes maps stored in memory and is configured to reference the location signal with the maps to determine when the service vehicle is not traveling on public roadways.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the central processing unit is further configured to:

determine a fuel tax paid on the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle;

determine a portion of the fuel tax that should be credited back to a service provider based on the portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle when the service vehicle is not traveling on public roadways; and

cause an indication of the portion of the fuel tax that should be credited back to the service provider to be displayed on the provider portal.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the central processing unit is further configured to automatically apply via the provider portal for the portion of the fuel tax that should be credited back to the service provider.

5. The system of claim 1 , further including at least one fuel sensor configured to generate a fuel signal indicative of the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle, wherein the central processing unit is configured to determine the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle based at least in part on the fuel signal.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein:

the locating device and at least one fuel sensor are located onboard the service vehicle; and

the system further includes a communication device configured to transmit the location and fuel signals to the central processing unit.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the central processing unit is configured to receive input regarding fuel tax regulations via the provider portal.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the locating device is a first of a plurality of locating devices associated with a plurality of service vehicles; and

the central processing unit is in communication with each of the plurality of locating devices and configured to:

collect the portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by each of the plurality of service vehicles when the plurality of service vehicles are not traveling on public roadways;

sum all of the portions for a specified period of time; and

cause an indication of the sum of all of the portions to be displayed on the provider portal at an end of the specified period of time.

9. A method for managing waste services, the method comprising:

generating a location signal indicative of a location of a service vehicle;

determining a total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle; determining, based at least in part on the location signal, a portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle when the service vehicle is not traveling on public roadways;

generating at least one recommendation for the service vehicle to increase the portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle when the service vehicle is not traveling on public roadways;

displaying an indication of the portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle when the service vehicle is not traveling on public roadways on a provider portal with the at least one recommendation; and

automatically rerouting the service vehicle to lower an amount of time spent while traveling on public roadways.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein determining the portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle when the service vehicle is not traveling on public roadways includes referencing the location signal with maps stored in memory to determine when the service vehicle is not traveling on public roadways.

11. The method of claim 9 , further including:

determining a fuel tax paid on the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle;

determining a portion of the fuel tax that should be credited back to a service provider based on the portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle when the service vehicle is not traveling on public roadways; and

displaying an indication of the portion of the fuel tax on the provider portal.

12. The method of claim 11 , further including automatically applying via the provider portal for the portion of the fuel tax that should be credited back to the service provider.

13. The method of claim 9 , further including generating a fuel signal indicative of the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle, wherein determining the portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle includes determining the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle based at least in part on the fuel signal.

14. The method of claim 9 , further including receiving input regarding fuel tax regulations via the provider portal.

15. The method of claim 9 , further including receiving manual input indicative of observed operation of the service vehicle, wherein determining the portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle when the service vehicle is not traveling on public roadways includes determining the portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle when the service vehicle is not traveling on public roadways based further on the manual input.

16. The method of claim 9 , wherein:

generating the location signal includes generating a plurality of location signals indicative of locations of a plurality of service vehicles;

determining the total amount of fuel includes determining a total amount of fuel consumed by the plurality of service vehicles;

determining the portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the service vehicle includes determining portions of the total amount of fuel consumed by the plurality of service vehicles; and

the method further includes:

summing all of the portions for a specified period of time; and

displaying results of the summing on the provider portal at an end of the specified period of time.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing computer-executable programming instructions for performing a method of waste service management:

generating location signals indicative of locations of a plurality of service vehicles;

referencing the location signals with maps stored in memory to determine when the plurality of service vehicles are not traveling on public roadways;

generating a fuel signal indicative of a total amount of fuel consumed by the plurality of service vehicles;

determining, based at least in part on the location signals, a portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the plurality of service vehicles when the plurality of service vehicles are not traveling on public roadways;

generating at least one recommendation for a first service vehicle to increase the portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the first service vehicle when the first service vehicle is not traveling on public roadways

displaying an indication of the portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the first service vehicle when the first service vehicle is not traveling on public roadways on a provider portal with the at least one recommendation; and

automatically rerouting the first service vehicle to lower an amount of time spent while traveling on public roadways.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , further including:

determining a fuel tax paid on the total amount of fuel consumed by the plurality of service vehicles;

determining a portion of the fuel tax that should be credited back to a service provider based on the portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the plurality of service vehicles when the plurality of service vehicles are not traveling on public roadways; and

displaying an indication of the portion of the fuel tax that should be credited back to the service provider on the provider portal.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18 , further including automatically applying for the portion of the fuel tax that should be credited back to the service provider via the provider portal.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the method further comprises automatically rerouting the service vehicle so as to lower an amount of time spent traveling on public roadways.

21. The method of claim 9 , further including automatically rerouting the service vehicle so as to lower an amount of time spent traveling on public roadways.

22. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , further including:

comparing a portion of the total amount of fuel consumed by the plurality of service vehicles when the plurality of service vehicles are not traveling on public roadways and when the plurality of service vehicles are traveling on public roadways; and

recommending an alternate route for a first vehicle to reduce fuel consumption of the first vehicle while traveling on public roadways.

Assignments (10)

Continuity (1)