WO1984001458A1

WO1984001458A1 - Apparatus and system for transportation dispatching manual and computerized

Info

Publication number: WO1984001458A1
Application number: PCT/US1983/001545
Authority: WO
Inventors: Benjamin U Phillips
Original assignee: Benjamin U Phillips
Priority date: 1982-09-29
Filing date: 1983-09-29
Publication date: 1984-04-12
Also published as: EP0120090A1

Abstract

Apparatus and system for dispatching, routing, monitoring and scheduling of transportation vehicles in general, and particularily for dial-a-ride buses or shared taxi-buses etc. of demand response nature, of which a primary objective is to create an efficient and dependable way to coordinate buses to a rendez-vous point, therefore affording passengers or freight to an instant transfer.

Description

APPARATUS AND SYSTEM FOR TRANSPORTATION DISPATCHING - MANUAL AND COMPUTERIZED

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The manual apparatus is comprised largely of moveable dispatch panels mounted on a floor or table stand, a storage-file-viewing cabinet for said panels, driver assignment books, said panels have means for holding maps, order cards or other indicia that will be in view of the dispatcher. The panels also have sheets of transparent material for in tergrated viewing of temporary and more permanent information. The panels can be manually carried to the storage cabinet or manually pushed along a track, or a powered conveyor can be fitted to perform this movement.

Computerized panels can replace the said manual panels. Buses are equipped with means for measuring the distance traveled and automatically radio said data to the base computer to constantly monitor vehicles. Means are provided to more accurately keep track of advance requests for service in regard to their segregation into proper zones at the time said requests are received.

Special features include a duplicating time differential indicia card, a holder for said card, a holder for marker pens, radio operated buzzer to notify customers of approaching vechicle, and radio operated flag to notify driver of a customer stop.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Fig #1 is a perspective view of dispatch panels held by floor stand and held within a storage-file-viewing cabinet. Fig #2 is a perspective view of table or desk size dispatch panels mounted on table stand including marker pen holders. Fig #3 is a perspective view of table size storage-file-viewing cabinet with access to the panels from either side. Fig #4 is a perspective close up view of a dispatch panel showing a detachable supplemental panel and multiple sheets of transparent material and indicia cards within their holder.

Fig #5 is a perspective view of a driver assignment book. Fig #6A and #6B are close up perspective views of the indicia card holder.

Fig #7 is a perspective view of marker pen holder. Fig #8 is a perspective view of a duplicating time differential indicia card.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In figs 1 and 2, number 10 is a dispatch panel either the larger floor size or table size. The panels 10 may contain a map, chart, puotograph or the like, depending on the application of the invention. Around the outer edge or other suitable place on the panel, there is space for indicia cards 18, such as orders for passenger or freight transportation service. The panels 10 can also hold, over the map area, one or more sheets of plastic or other transparent material 20 for the purpose of adding temporary written information or other indicia on the first or top sheet 20 without changing the more permanent indicia on the material 20 underneath and will allow an intergrated view of the indicia on both or all surfaces.

The panel 10 can also provide hinged like fastening means 26A and 26B, to hold a supplemental panel 25 that can be swung from one position to another. The pin 26A may be permantly fixed to the said supplemental panel 25, and a section of tubular material may be permanently fixed to said panel 10 to permit the said supplemental panel 2.3 to be simply dropped into position on panel 10. The supplemental 25 can be made in any size to suit the circumstances. Said panel 25 has for it's purpose to provide more area for indicia for the same time period as said panel 10 to which it is attached, as more area may be needed during more active months of the year or peak hours of the day etc.

Number 12 in fig 2 shows an end portion of the stand supporting means to which the table size panels 10 are mounted, the main body of said stand 12 can be of a different configuration to better position the panels 10 for use by one or more people. The trough or glide or runner area 29 or the like has a slot type opening in the tip into which one edge of said panel 10 can be placed in a way that will support most of the weight of said panel 10 and also allow said panel 10 to be moved or pushed freely inside of said trough 29 manually or by power assisted means to a different position on said stand.

Figs 1 and 3 show perspective views of the storage-file-viewing cabinets 13 which have means 15 for separating, supporting and guiding the panels 10 inside of the cabinet 13 and for guiding the panels 10 in and out of cabinet area 32 to the viewing area 33 the viewing area will also be known as a work area, for the placing of indicia cards 18 and to place indicia markings on the transparent or other material 20, a sufficient number of panels 10 are kept in the said file cabinet 13 to cover a 2if hour period, for example, so said panels 10 may be pulled or slid to the viewing-work area 33, at any given time when the panel for a given period needs to be referred to for the availability of service for said given time in a given zone. The above stated capability will allow the transportation or other system to arrange every tour or run back to back in advance for a 24 hour periods for example, based on the location of steady customers for the basic structure of said tour, and call-in or spontaneous type orders will be added to help build the complete tour or the like, to within a predetermined time or distance limit to enable a predetermined number of vehicles to arrive at a predetermined rendezvous point at the same predetermined time to transfer passengers or freight. The above said guiding means 15 may be slots in the material that make up the floor and ceiling of the file cabinet 32 and the viewing area 33 structure that are cut, press-formed or molded or the like, to proper size for panels 10 to slide into or pieces of long narrow material such as steel rods may be attached to said floor and ceiling to provide said support and guiding means 15 with adequate space in between to allow said panels to be moved freely to another area of said cabinet 32 or 33.

Fig 8 shows an order or indicia card 18, in duplicate, the first or original copy 43 is shown with a hard material on the left such as thin gauge cardboard or plastic or the like and on the right a carbonized paper or other material capable of transmitting the information written on the original copy 43 to one or more other copies such as the duplicate 44. The two materials, or sections of the order card 18, can be bonded 40 at any point depending on the amount of soft or carbonized area needed for its intended application or the amount of hard area needed to place the card in any devise that has means to hold the card 18, especially in such manner that will maintain its indicia in full view, such as the holding devise 11 shown in fig 6A and 6B. The two or more copies 43 and 44 of said card 18 can be held together with a light amount of glue or other adhesive or other fastening means 41 , that will yield without great resistance when the copies are separated. Also in fig 8, 46A and 46B are two individual times of the day, and are placed in the same position on their respective copies of the card 18, when a circle is drawn around the 2:15 46A on the first or original copy, the carbon will produce the circle around the 2:45 46B time on the duplicate(s). All the times marked on said cards are transmitted in said manner, therefore permitting the original to be placed on one given dispatch panel 10 and a copy 44 of said card 18 on a different dispatch panel 10 and the times on each copy will correspond to the two different times on the dispatch panels because one dispatch panel labeled 2:15 for example, will show the passenger or freight going to a transfer point and the next panel in sequence labeled 2:45, for example, will show the same passenger or freight coming from the same transfer point.

Fig 7 is a perspective view of a marker holding de vise 16 in which the cap 22 of each marker 52 has been placed into the main body of the holder 16 and said caps 22 secured therein to stay in that position when markers are taken out for use therefore, allowing the markers 52 to be replaced back in the holder and held in an upright position and therefore keeping the marker from drying out and enabling the user to close the end of marker quickly after short intervals of use without the use of both hands. A funnel shaped material 23 is placed above the cap to align the marker end and guide it into the cap 22, or the funnel material 23 may extend down and eliminate the need for the cap by fitting air tight around the end of the marker 52.

Fig 6A and 6B are close up perspective views of fastening means 11 for the order or indicia cards 18 that maintain the indicia in view of the dispatcher and phone operator, as shown from a distance on the panels 10 in figs 1 and 2. A special feature of said fastening means 11, by employing the use of spring metal, is its ability to apply a small amount of pressure to each card 18 individually, so when a second and third card 18, for example, is placed on both sides adjacent to a first card 18, for example, al_¬ ready in place in said fastening means 11, the second and third cards 18 will not relieve the tension that is already being applied to the first card and cause one or more cards to fall out which would occur if the spring metal would have teen shaped into one continuous spring. But, with separations in the material and spaced so each section of the fastening means 11 will cover the approximate width of one indicia card 18, each section will bend to the thickness of a card, independently of the other sections. 50 in fig 6B shows how each section of the material that make up the fastening means 11 has a curvature on 3 sides, may be curved from any number of sides so one or more indicia cards 18 can be moved or slid easily from one section of the fastening means 11 to another section without being removed from the grasp of the said fastening means 11. The said card fastening means 11 will be secured to the panels 10 or pages of driver assignment books 17 by conventional means. Other appropiate means to adhere the indicia card 18 to the dispatch panels 10 or the pages of the assignment books 17 fig 5, might be magnetically, with velcro or other known means.

17 shown in fig 5 is a driver assignment book to be used in the mobile vehicle, which may contain a page for one or more time periods for indicia such as the traveling time and the outline of a flexiable or fixed route of a run or tour, or the like, whether said run or tour be tentative or definate or for the preplanning of said tours, in vehicle or office. The transparent material 20 and the indicia card holder 11 and the indicia cards 18, all have the same purpose in regard to their application to the assignment book 17 as they have to the panels 10 and panels 25, and the indicia written and placed in said assignzrrent book 17 normally, will, but not necessarily have to correspond exactly with the indicia placed on the panels 10 and 25 for matching time periods in the dispatch or control room. Pages may be added or removed as needed to said assignment book 17. 19 on the assignment book is a traveling time card which may contain an address of a steady customer that rides or sends freight, for example, at the same time every day, 5 days a week and said address is written on this card because said customer is located, for example, at a more distant place in the zone being served by a given vehicle than any other steady customer being served during that given time period and the approximate traveling time from that said address to the transfer point, plus the time it takes to get to the other regular or steady customer stops is hand written in a blank space provided for on the card 19 for that purpose so the driver will have the said approximate time on each page of the assignment book or for each individual time period that represents a run or tour. Said traveling time may be for a tentative or basic run or tour from which more calls for transportation service may be added and the added traveling time for said calls, that are more spontaneous in nature, may be estimated and added to the established time already in place on said time card 19 so the driver may determine his approximate departure time from the said address of the said steady customer of the said most distant point of the zone, therefore allowing the travel time of each vehicle to be preplanned so said vehicles that represent separate or individual zones, can be coordinated to a transfer point and arrive there at the same time.

Provided with the foregoing capability, a further objective is to provide passengers or freight with an instant transfer from, for example, a relatively smaller vehicle that might be used on a flexible route, for example, to larger vehicles and to other modes of transit.

A further objective is to provide means to notify customers of an approaching vehicle so a person wanting said service may walk out to the street and arrive there approximately the same time in which the vehicle arrives to board the vehicle or to ship or receive a parcel. Said notification means may be of known technology such as now being used for beepers, garage door openers or like means of transmitting a radio signal by which said means will sound a buzzer at the customers address, said transmission may be manually activated by a driver or said signal may be activated automatically by the vehicles running gear as will be explained in the computer section.

Another objective is to provide the customer with an alternative to telephoning or writting a request for transit service by providing means to notify a driver of a customer stop on a street, for example, on which the customer has previous knowledge of the transit vehicles' intention to pass by at a predetermined approximate time, said means comprising of a radio operated flag which can be activated by the customer inside of house or other building while the flag is permanently mounted on a mailbox post or other like means that will put said flag in a conspicuous position from a distance. Said radio operated flag may have transmission means of the same technology as described in the preceeding paragraph. When said customer leaves the building to meet the transit vehicle the said customer will reposition the flag to a inconspicuous position and in doing so will automatically put tension on a spring which is attached to said flag and to the casing of the radio receiver to which the flag is attached. The said spring will thereby be put into readiness and have the capability through it's tension to reposition the flag back to a conspicuous position again the next time said flag is remotely activated from said buildingo The remote transmission signal will clpse the circuit to an electromagnet which will move a small lever and said lever will in turn release the flag to the said conspicuous postion.

COMPUTERIZED APPLICATION DESCRIPTION

A father objective is to use the disclosures of the foregoing specification which is the manual apparatus and system and adapt said disclosures to create a fully computerized system of the same said disclosed specification substituting every appropriate manual aspect of said manual dispatching apparatus and system that is adaptable for the said computerization, for example, said panels can be computerized by known technology to allow telephone operator or dispatcher to key the address or like information into computer which is programmed to display indicia at exact location on the panel where said address is located on a map, chart, picture or the like. Also, by known data processing technology and mobile radio transmission of signals derived from a switch activated by a gear or set of gears engaged to the mileage-o-meter or the mileage-o-meter cable or the vehicles transmission or any place on the vehicle that will give information as to the distance the vehicle is traveling, a circuit for said switch will close intermittently at predetermined intervals calculated by the number of teeth on said gear or set of gears. This intermittent closing of the circuit each time will key a radio transmission from the mobile unit that will close a circuit on the proper panel in the dispatch office therefore turning on a light on said panel.

Also, by known technology each light can be turned on in its proper sequence to follow the same already programmed fixed or flexible routes of the vehicles. The most likely route, considering that they can also be changed at the last minute, already will be illuminated by, for example white lights, from the routes beginning to its end, and of all the lights and circuitry in the makeup of the computerized panels, only these lights of the route currently being traveled will be electrically connected at this time and able to receive the radio frequency being transmitted by the proper corresponding vehicle, and when the vehicle actually start on said routes, fixed or flexible, the said gear or gears will activate the said transmitting switch which has been metered to turn on intermittently at predetermined distances traveled by each vehicle. These said distances will correspond with a distance on the programmed routes on said panels in proper scale, and each transmission will therefore turn off a white light and turn on, for example, a blue light in the same place in which the white light was illuminated. Again this would be done in the proper sequence as the vehicles progress along the route giving the dispatcher a constant visual picture of where the vehicles are at the present time, which would be more specifically, for example, at the point where the blue illumination has reached or progressed to a given time in its eventual take over of all the white illuminations throughout the course of said tour or run. The information in said example will also inform where the vehicle has been and where it is going. Different colors for different said tours may toe used. By programming the foregoing data into the memory, further information can be obtained concerning the amount of time it will take a given vehicle to arrive at an address or location of a prospective customer near the route of said vehicle. Also said information can inform dispatcher if the vehicle will complete it's route at or near the preplanned time by programming in a predetermined limit on the maximum amount of time or distance that can be allowed a given tour or the like to complete said tour at a given predetermined time or approximate time and can also therefore inform the dispatcher of the availability of unused time that could be used for additional customer stops during a current route or an upcoming route, as each upcoming set of routes will be in a separate part of said memory and will contain the addresses of steady customers that want a vehicle to service them during a given time period of, for example, every work day of a week or month etc. The memory can also contain advance calls or orders that are not necesarily steady orders but are taken at random and the computer, by knowing the number of stops and the distance that is already slated to be covered thus far up to the time of each inquiry for service by a caller, for each zone, as before explained in the manual description, can search out and automatically record them on an upcoming panel or in said memory for the proper time period, and as each succeeding panel or memory receiving device after the current one is for a later time period respectively.

The computer memory will eliminate the need for the panels that were stored in the file cabinet of the manual system for later time periods. Electronic panels will include panels that are sufficient in number to monitor the vehicles currently operating to provide the simulated movement of the said vehicles which will be referred to as panel type A. Plus separate electronic panels that maintain a constant readout on their screen in regard to the amount of business that is being accumulated in each zone, for given time periods, which will be referred to as panel type B. The said panels may, for example, cover a given upcoming one or two hour period in the case of demand-responsive bus service, for example, and said succeeding time periods of information contained in said memory may be brought out of memory and displayed on the said screen of said panels type B as each time period approaches, and when the time arrives to actually run the tour, for example that have been completely or partially built from said accumulation of calls on a given panel type B which is next in time sequence, all the addresses or other indicia is transferred to the type A panel or panels which are equipped for said radio monitoring of said vehicles to produce said simulated movement.

Still another separate panel which may be the same technically as panel type B but will be referred to as panel C which may be used to, for example, when an inquiry is made by a customer pertaining to the avialablity of service at a given time and place which is in advance of the time periods encompassed by the said panel type B and A the dispatcher requires a place to display the indicia stored in the memory for said time period for which the inquiry is made and said place to display said indicia may be on a panel that is not currently being used for another purpose which would be panel C.

Said electronic panels have graphic outlines permantly displayed thereon, as painted on or etched in or the like or said graphic outlines or the like may be a electronically displayed image of the area to which a given transportation or other system is serving, said outlines or image have the purpose of pinpointing the location of any illumination of indicia made by the computer through it's activation by a dispatcher or other person or by the radio signal of a remote vehicle or by other known manual or automatic direct or indirect. devices.

The system will include screen display units for remote mobile vehicles that may or may not display the indicia simultaneously as it is received by telphone; through presently known technology the said dispatch system may also include the pick up by said computer of audio sounds, specifically, spoken words, and translate said sounds into written matter and also enter said written matter and spoken sound information into the programming of said computer said spoken sounds may or may not be received directly by the computer from a telephone. Other variations of the foregoing description are means to elevate and lower the said dispatch panels in the manual or computerized system whereby said panels would have the area of the map or the like, which is being referred to, at eye or hand and arm level of the dispatcher, and said means may include openings in the floor and ceiling, of appropriate size for said panels to pass through.

The order or indicia cards 18 may be placed side by side or end to end and attached to a relatively large sheet of carbonized paper that may be made to fit, for example, in between the lower and upper copies of said indicia cards, therefore providing an ongoing record of many orders or indicia on the same sheet(s) of paper.

For alternative storage of said dispatch panels 10 said panels may be bound together on any side and referred to and used as like pages of a book.

Said apparatus and system may be used for any kind of ground transit including rail, moreover said system can be used for marine and air navigation.

Said marker holder 16 may be adapted for use in vehicles.

Claims

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is; Dispatching apparatus and system comprising of in combination; a. Dispatch panels b. Stands on which said dispatch panels are mounted c. A storage-file cabinet for said panels with viewing- work areas d. A duplicating time differential indicia card e. A holder for said indicia card f. A detachable supplemental panel for said dispatch panels g. A driver assignment book h. A marker pen holder i. A radio operated buzzer to notify customers of approaching vehicle, j. A radio operated flag to notify driver of a customer stop Dispatching apparatus as recited in claim 1 , wherein said dispatch panels are used to hold maps, charts, photographs or the like for the dispatching or the like of transport vehicles, said panels are provided for in a given quantity that adequately represents the number of time periods for the amount of transportation service to which said panels are applied, said panels contain sheets of transparent material for intergrated viewing of indicia Dispatching apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein said holder for said indicia cards is structured of spring steel or other material that will bend and maintain counter pressure and said material of said holder has separations at intervals equal to the width of indicia cards and said holder has curvatures at the edge of each said separation in the portion of the said material that will come in contact with said indicia card, alternative means for holding said indicia card are the fastening of to the dispatch panels, elastic, rubber bands, firm or flexible strips of rubber or other material, magnetically, with velcro or other known fastening means, and said holding device and said indicia cards are provided a specific area on said panels that is next to the same zone on a map or the like for which the indicia on the said indicia.card pertains. Dispatching apparatus as recited in claim 1 , wherein said detachable supplemental panel is attached to said dispatch panel by means of solid pins afixed to said supplemental panel and the placing of said pins into sections of tubular material that are attached to the dispatch panel to faciliate the holding of said supplemental panel in a position in which the indicia will be convenient for viewing, said supplemental panel may be swung into a position next to the dispatch panel for storage in said filing cabinet, other supplemental areas may be added to the dispatch panel in any known manner that will provide additional space for extra indicia. Dispatching apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein said stands for holding said dispatch panels are placed either on a table, desk or the like or on the floor comprises a trough like area in which the bottom edge of the panel is placed and a back rest like support for the upper portion of said panel to lean against, said back rest is supported by braces that extend downward to a base member on the table or floor and said base member extends from that point back to the trough like area, the said trough area is sufficient in width to allow the panels to be slid freely to another position on said stand, the said stand configuration may be changed to position differently to best fit a given application. Dispatching apparatus as recited in claim 1 , wherein said storage-file cabinets have means for separating the said panels inside of the said cabinet and for guiding the panels in and out of the cabinet area to the viewing-work area, the said guiding and separating means are slots in the material that make up the floor and ceiling of said file cabinet structure cut to size for panels to slide into or the said slots are press-formed or molded into said cabinet ceiling and floor or said separating and guiding means are pieces or strips of long narrow material such as steel rods fixed to floor and ceiling of said cabinet, the space in between the members of said guiding means is left open at both ends to permit complete removal of the said panels manually from the cabinet area for placement on said stands. A conventional conveyor, manual or power assisted, may be adapted to perform this movement.

Dispatching apparatus as recited in claim 1 , wherein said duplicating time differential indicia card has a first or original copy which has a hard card like material on one side and carbonized paper on the other, the last copy may be made completely of the card like material, the copies are printed and aligned so different times are placed in exactly the same place on different copies of the said indicia card.

Dispatching apparatus as recited in claim 1 , wherein said marker pen holder has the cap of a marker built into the main body of said holder and has a funnel shaped material also built into the main body of said holder which is fixed therein to remain in contact with the cap of marker, the funnel and cap may be formed as one unit.

Dispatching apparatus as recited in claim 1 , wherein said driver assignment book has indexed pages for given time periods pertaining to transportation business, on said pages are sheets of plastic for indicia, on said pages are said indicia card holding devices as are used on said dispatch panels, on said pages are specific spaces for said indicia cards, also held in said hold_¬ ing device on each page or for each time period is a traveling time card to record the approximate established traveling times for reference and use in like subsequent tours or runs.

Dispatching apparatus as recited in claim 1, whereby said radio operated buzzer to notify customers of approaching vehicle, has means to be transmitted by driver or automatically by vehicle at a predetermined time or distance by the running gear of said vehicle calculated at the proper ratio for said distance.

Dispatching apparatus as recited in claim 1, whereby said radio operated flag to notify driver of a customer stopis provided with a receiver to which said flag is attached and said flags' position may be changed by a remote transmitting signal and said flag may be repositioned manually by customer thereby putting tension on a spring which will restore energy for the following position change of said flag, by said remote activation.

A computerized transportation system comprising of in combination;

A. a prodecure to adapt apparatus of a manual dispatching system to a computerized dispatching system whereby manual dispatch panels are replaced by electronic computerized panels and storage of a given quantity of said manual panels is replaced by the computer memory system;

B. means to monitor the location of vehicles comprising of gears engaged to the running gear of said vehicle for to activate the closing of a circuit

intermittent radio transmissions at predetermined distances traveled by said vehicles, which are calculated in proper scale to correspond with a distance on the remote dispatch panel, and said transmission will illuminate and pin point the corresponding location of said distance on said dispatch panel, different color illuminations are provided on said panels for the purpose of having specific data as to where said vehicle has been and where said vέhicle is going;

C. a sufficient amount of data provided by said monitoring means which is routed into the proper memory of said computer whereby said data can be used to provide such pertinent information which is necessary to determine the time and distance of a tour or the like, of which said information is further necessary for use by dispatcher for estimating the time a customer may have to wait for transit service or the availability of said transit service;

D. means and method for constant readout on said panel display screen of current and advance orders or other indicia, comprising of said panels with monitoring capibilty, known as panel type A, which contains current indicia and other panels that contain advance indicia in constant readout known as type B, said computer programming will route said indicia to the first available panel of either type that has time or distance remaining for additional transit stops and a panel type C, which will not maintain a readout except to display recalled indicia pertaining to information in advance of either panels types A or B, and said indicia or data is transferred from said memory and from one type panel to another as said advance indicia approaches a given time and therefore becomes current indicia;

E. means to display data on the screens of remote vehicles may or may not be simultaneous as it is received by telephone;

F. means to pick up audio or spoken sound and program said sounds into computer, said spoken sounds may or may not be received directly by the computer from a telephone.