JP4073938B2 - Vehicle monitoring system, in-vehicle terminal device and vehicle monitoring method - Google Patents

Description

    The present invention relates to a vehicle monitoring system, an in-vehicle terminal device, and a vehicle monitoring method for distributing vehicles such as taxis and hires in response to requests from customers.

   In a conventional vehicle allocation system, when there is a vehicle allocation request from a customer, the vehicle allocation operator first receives a phone call, asks the customer for information such as the customer position, and determines a vehicle to be allocated using a vehicle monitoring system or the like. Thereafter, the dispatch operator transmits customer information to the crew of the vehicle to be dispatched using a wireless line. The crew member who has received a vehicle dispatch command from the vehicle dispatch operator drives the vehicle to the customer position based on the customer information.

   At this time, the dispatch operator quickly checks and grasps the customer position from the map and address based on the information obtained from the customer. Once the customer's location is known, the vehicle monitoring system (GPS-AVS system; GPS AUTO VEHCLE MONITORING SYSTEM) that uses the GPS method is used to search for the vehicle (empty vehicle) that is closest to the customer's location. Inform the crew member of the customer location by radio voice.

   Here, if the crew member cannot understand the route to the customer position, the dispatching operator inquires the customer about the landmark, etc., asks the detailed position from the vehicle, and sends a detailed instruction by radio voice.

    The conventional vehicle allocation system has the following problems because the vehicle allocation operator mediates between the customer and the crew. Vehicle dispatch operators need a wide range of land insights. Without this intuition, it will take time to determine the customer location. In addition, there is a possibility that the dispatch operator may transmit wrong information while transmitting the customer position to the crew. Here, even if the information is accurately transmitted, if the crew member cannot accurately recognize the route to the customer position, the vehicle may get lost or the dispatching operator may need to provide guidance by radio. This delays arrival at the customer location.

   In addition, if the time required for a dispatching operator to perform one dispatching operation becomes longer, other dispatching operations and management tasks cannot be performed, and the entire dispatching operation is delayed. Furthermore, when the route is being guided using a wireless line, no other vehicle dispatch can be performed during that time. In addition, communication of all vehicles using the same frequency is restricted during transmission of information using this wireless line.

   The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle monitoring system, an in-vehicle terminal device, and a vehicle monitoring method that enable accurate and quick dispatch.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a vehicle database storing a telephone number of a telephone owned by a crew member and a vehicle equipped with the on-board terminal by inputting an identification number for identifying the crew member to the on-board terminal. Owned by a crew member identification means for identifying a crew member boarded, a vehicle identification means for identifying a vehicle on which the crew member identified by the crew identification means has boarded from an opening signal, and a crew member identified by an identification number by the crew identification means Phone number registration means for extracting the telephone number of the telephone from the vehicle database and registering it as the telephone number of the vehicle identified from the opening signal by the vehicle identification means.

  According to this vehicle allocation system, since the telephone number owned by the crew is used as the vehicle telephone number registered by the vehicle registration means, the customer's telephone is transferred to the vehicle when a vehicle allocation request is received from the customer. The customer and the crew can have a direct conversation. Therefore, since the crew can recognize the arrival route to the customer position accurately, it is possible to perform reliable and quick vehicle dispatch. Further, by shortening the time required for mediation of information by the dispatching operator, it is possible to efficiently process each dispatching.

Specific effects of the present invention include the following.
(1) Increase in sales due to vehicle allocation Conventionally, the time required for the vehicle allocation operator to guide the crew can be greatly reduced. For this reason, the number of dispatches per hour is increased, and an increase in sales due to dispatch can be expected.

(2) Increasing customer reliability Since the crew can directly ask the customer who is geographically familiar with the optimal route, the customer's location can be grasped quickly. Furthermore, the optimum route information to the customer position can be obtained. For this reason, the arrival time (the time from arrival to the customer position) is shortened, and the waiting time of the customer can be reduced.

(3) Reduction of radio line occupation time Since the dispatch operator only needs to obtain the minimum information from the customer and contact the crew in a short time, the radio line occupation time in the dispatch operation is shortened. As a result, the wireless line can be used for other purposes (other vehicle allocation, vehicle data collection), and the overall performance of the vehicle allocation system is improved.

    Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a vehicle allocation system to which the present invention is applied. The dispatch system 1 is installed at a dispatch center of a taxi company or the like, and includes a vehicle monitoring system 2, a telephone transfer device 3, and a telephone 4. The vehicle monitoring system 2 receives vehicle information such as the vehicle position, whether the vehicle is empty or full from each vehicle 5, and issues a vehicle allocation command to each vehicle 5 wirelessly. The telephone transfer device 3 switches the telephone call from the customer 6 to the telephone 4 of the vehicle allocation system 1 or the telephone 53 mounted on the vehicle 5.

   Various types of vehicle monitoring systems 2 are provided, and any system can be used in the present invention. In this example, it is assumed that a GPS-AVM system is used. The vehicle monitoring system 2 includes a CPU 21, a memory 22, a display 23, a keyboard 24, a vehicle database 25, a customer database 26, and a wireless device 27.

   The memory 22 is a medium for storing a vehicle monitoring system program, a telephone transfer program, and other data. The vehicle database 25 stores, for each vehicle, the vehicle position, whether the vehicle is empty or full, and is updated with vehicle information sent from each vehicle 5. The customer database 26 stores customer names, addresses, telephone numbers, landmarks, and the like. The wireless device 27 receives vehicle information from each vehicle 5, communicates with each vehicle 5, and issues a dispatch command.

   Each vehicle 5 includes a GPS system 51 for searching the vehicle's own position, a wireless device 52 that transmits vehicle information to the vehicle monitoring system 2 and communicates with the vehicle monitoring system 2, an in-vehicle phone 53, and an in-vehicle terminal 54. It comprises. In this example, it is assumed that the in-vehicle phone 53 is provided in each vehicle 5. In the figure, for ease of understanding, only one vehicle is shown as the vehicle 5, but there are actually a plurality of vehicles.

   Next, the operation of the vehicle allocation shown in FIG. 1 will be described. Each vehicle 5 always searches for its own position by the GPS system 51, and periodically transmits vehicle information including the self position and other information such as whether the vehicle is empty or full. The vehicle monitoring system 2 updates the vehicle database 25 with the vehicle information received from each vehicle 5 by the wireless device 27, displays a map on the display 23, the vehicle position of each vehicle on the map, empty and full Display the other of the.

In such a situation, when a vehicle dispatch request is received from the customer 6 by telephone, the operation shown in FIG. 2 is started.
(Step S11) When there is a call from the customer 6, the telephone transfer device 3 connects this call to the telephone 4 in the dispatch system 1, and the dispatch operator receives the call from the customer 6. The dispatch operator asks the customer 6 for information such as name and telephone number, and accesses the customer database 26 of the vehicle monitoring system 2. If the requested customer is not a customer registered in the customer database 26, the dispatch operator asks the customer 6 for necessary information such as an address to further specify the customer location.

Here, the information to be heard from the customer 6 is the minimum necessary, and there is no need to ask for a landmark or the like as in the prior art. Therefore, the time from receiving the call until obtaining necessary customer information is shortened.
(Step S <b> 12) When the dispatching operator hears necessary information from the customer 6, the dispatching operator inputs the customer information from the keyboard 24. The vehicle monitoring system 2 selects an empty vehicle closest to the customer position by performing an automatic search by linking the customer database and the vehicle database or by linking the input customer position and the vehicle database, and dispatches the vehicle. Determine the vehicle. This search can also be performed manually by the dispatch operator.

   (Step S13) When a vehicle to be dispatched is determined, the dispatch operator issues a dispatch command to the vehicle 5 to be dispatched by the wireless device 27. When the crew member boarding the vehicle 5 to be dispatched receives a dispatch command from the wireless device 52, the crew member interacts with the dispatch operator to hear customer information.

   (Step S14) If the customer is a regular customer or the customer location is well known, the crew can immediately grasp the customer location. If the crew member can grasp the position of the customer 6 through the exchange in step S13 (Y in step S4), the crew member informs the dispatch operator. In this case, the dispatch operator completes the dispatch at this time (step S16). If the crew member cannot grasp the position of the customer 6 (N in step S4), the crew operator is notified of this and waits for a call from the customer 6 to be transferred.

   (Step S15) Upon receiving notification from the crew member that the customer position cannot be grasped, the dispatch operator inputs a transfer command from the keyboard 24. The vehicle monitoring system 2 acquires the telephone number of the vehicle from the vehicle database 25 and issues a command to the telephone transfer device 3. The telephone transfer device 3 automatically dials the acquired telephone number of the vehicle, transfers the call from the customer 6 to the vehicle telephone 53, and completes the dispatch operation in a state where the call between the crew and the customer 6 is possible. (Step S16). Note that this telephone transfer can also be performed manually by the dispatch operator.

   Since the dispatch operator can complete the dispatch operation only by contacting the crew member with the minimum necessary information, the time required for dispatch can be reduced. As a result, the occupation time of the wireless line is also shortened, so that the wireless line can be used for other vehicle allocation or vehicle data collection. Therefore, the performance of the entire vehicle allocation system is improved.

   The crew member who has received the telephone call hears the customer position by direct communication with the customer 6 by telephone and reaches the customer position. Here, since the customer 6 and the crew members directly communicate with each other and no dispatch operator is involved, errors in information transmission are reduced. Therefore, the vehicle can reach the customer position reliably and quickly. In addition, since the telephone 6 of the customer 6 is transferred to the crew by the telephone transfer device 3, there is no need to make a call again, and the customer 6 does not have to wait and feel uncomfortable.

   Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention can be variously modified as described below, for example, within the scope of the claims. In the above embodiment, the dispatching command from the dispatching operator to the crew is performed wirelessly, but it can be performed by telephone. In this case, a telephone line via the telephone transfer device 3 can also be used.

   Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the telephone 53 of a vehicle is equipped with each vehicle 5, telephones, such as a mobile telephone which a crew member owns, can be utilized. In this case, since the correspondence between the telephone number of the crew member's telephone and the vehicle is not necessarily fixed, it is necessary to adjust the correspondence between the vehicle and the telephone number in the vehicle database 25 when the crew member gets into the vehicle.

   FIG. 3 shows a procedure for registering the telephone number of the crew member's telephone in the vehicle database 25. The telephone number of the crew is stored in the crew database together with the crew ID code. Although illustration of this crew member database is omitted, it is housed in the vehicle monitoring system 2 like other databases.

   When the crew member gets into the vehicle, the crew member inputs an ID code for identifying the crew member from the in-vehicle terminal 54 in order to transmit an opening signal to the vehicle monitoring system 2 (step S21). This ID code is notified to the vehicle monitoring system 2 together with the opening signal through the wireless devices 52 and 27 (step S22). In the vehicle monitoring system 2, a vehicle is specified from the received opening signal, and a telephone number is taken out from the crew member database by an ID code. And this telephone number is registered as a telephone number of the applicable vehicle of the vehicle database 25 (step S23).

   Thus, the crew member's telephone number is used as the vehicle telephone number in step S15 of FIG.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a vehicle allocation system to which the present invention is applied. The flowchart which shows operation | movement of the vehicle allocation system of FIG. The flowchart which shows the registration operation | movement of a crew member telephone number in the modification of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 ... Vehicle allocation system 2 ... Vehicle monitoring system 21 ... CPU
22 ... Memory 23 ... Display 24 ... Keyboard 25 ... Vehicle database 26 ... Customer database 27 ... Wireless device 3 ... Telephone transfer device 4 ... Telephone 5 ... Vehicle 51 ... GPS system 52 ... Wireless device 53 ... In-vehicle phone 54 ... In-vehicle terminal 6 ... client

Claims (3)

A vehicle database storing the telephone numbers of the telephones owned by the crew,
Crew member identifying means for identifying a crew member who has boarded a vehicle equipped with the in- vehicle terminal by inputting an identification number for identifying the crew member into the in-vehicle terminal ;
Vehicle identification means for identifying the vehicle on which the crew member identified by the crew identification means has boarded from the opening signal ;
A telephone number registration means for extracting the telephone number of the telephone owned by the crew member identified from the identification number by the crew identification means from the vehicle database and registering it as the telephone number of the vehicle identified from the opening signal by the vehicle identification means; A vehicle monitoring system characterized by that. An in-vehicle terminal device connected to the vehicle monitoring system according to claim 1 by wireless,
An acquisition means for acquiring vehicle information identifying a vehicle on which the crew member has boarded;
Identification information input means for inputting identification information for identifying the crew,
A vehicle-mounted terminal device comprising: transmission means for transmitting the identification information input by the identification information input means to the vehicle monitoring system together with the vehicle information Identifying a crew on board the vehicle equipped with the該車mounting terminal by entering the identification number for identifying the crew onboard terminal,
Identifying the vehicle on which the identified crew member has boarded from the opening signal ;
Extracting the telephone number of the telephone owned by the identified crew from the vehicle database storing the telephone number of the telephone owned by the crew and registering it as the telephone number of the vehicle identified from the opening signal by the vehicle identification means ; A vehicle monitoring method comprising: