JP2016068974A - Method and system for settlement of charge of vehicle fuel - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and a system for settlement of a charge of vehicle fuel (gasoline/light oil) which is supplied to a vehicle at a service station using a smartphone.SOLUTION: A user of a service station first starts up specific application software which has been installed to a smartphone 103 in advance, then registers user information such as an individual information user ID, and a password of a user who uses oil supply of vehicle fuel from user registration provided on the application to a management device, and sets an account. When settling a gasoline charge, the user starts up the application, then inputs the user ID and the password, for referring to the charge of the vehicle fuel. By the reference, the management device 102 sends a use specification to the smartphone 103. The user confirms the use specification displayed on a screen of the smartphone 103, then sends payment confirmation from the smartphone to the management device 102, thereby completing settlement of the vehicle fuel through the account.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a method and system for paying a fee for automobile fuel refueled at a gas station (gas station), and more particularly, a method and system for paying a fee for automobile fuel from a portable information terminal held by a user. About.

  Generally, when fuel for automobiles is refueled at a gas station, a user hands over cash or a credit card to a staff member at the gas station to settle the price of fuel for the automobile.

  As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-56558, the present applicant uses a smartphone to sell products, place orders at a service providing facility, and pay a usage fee at such a facility. We propose a method and system that can be executed on a smartphone.

JP 2014-56558 A

  The invention disclosed in the above publication does not disclose the payment of the fuel corresponding to the fuel for automobiles supplied with the fuel for automobiles, particularly at the gas station. The present invention specifies a fueling station using a smartphone equipped with a satellite positioning system (GPS), further specifies a fueling device (pump) of the specified fueling station, and is used for an automobile refueled by the fueling device. Provided is a method and a system for paying for fuel with a smartphone.

  The present invention is operated in a fueling station that supplies fuel for automobiles, and the amount of fuel for automobile fueled from a fueling apparatus installed in the fueling station, together with a number that identifies the filling station and a number that identifies the fueling apparatus, The stage of transmitting for storage in the storage area of the management device coupled to the telecommunications network, and after the refueling from the refueling device is completed, it is managed via the telecommunications network from the terminal device of the user who receives the refueling A step of reading the amount of fuel stored in the storage area of the management device by a number identifying the fueling station and the fueling device sent to the device, and displaying the read amount of fuel and the amount of fuel charged on the display unit of the terminal device; , A payment confirmation signal is transmitted from the terminal device to the management device, and the fee is settled according to a predetermined payment condition, and the vehicle fuel fee is settled.

  Further, the present invention is a fueling device that is operated in a system for paying a fee for automobile fuel sold at a gas station and is coupled to a telecommunications network, fueling a specified fuel to the automobile, and refueling A refueling device comprising a sensor for measuring the amount of fuel supplied, and a management device coupled to the telecommunication network, wherein the refueling amount transmitted from the refueling device via the telecommunication network Management via a telecommunication network from the management device having a storage area for storing the number to identify and the number to identify the refueling device, and after the refueling from the refueling device is completed It is composed of a terminal device that reads out the amount of fuel stored in the storage area of the management device by the number identifying the refueling station and the fueling device sent to the device, and displays the read amount of fuel and the amount of fuel charged. Send a payment confirmation signal to the management apparatus from the terminal apparatus, in accordance with payment terms stipulated in advance, a system for settling the price of motor fuel.

  According to the present invention configured as described above, the filling station and the refueling device are identified from the smartphone, the usage details of the refueling of the automobile fuel displayed on the screen of the smartphone are confirmed, and the payment confirmation is confirmed from the smartphone. By simply transmitting, it becomes possible to adjust the price of fuel for automobiles very easily.

  In addition, since payment confirmation is transmitted from a specific smartphone, the person who refueled the car fuel can be identified, the accounting process for refueling the car fuel can be executed smoothly, and it can be useful for preventing unintended use it can.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a system for adjusting a gasoline fee according to an embodiment of the present invention. The functional block diagram which shows the basic composition of the terminal device used for one Example of this invention is shown. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the user registration which concerns on one Example of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the payment procedure of the charge of the fuel for motor vehicles based on one Example of this invention. It is a screen displayed on a user's smart phone based on one Example of this invention. It is a screen displayed on the site management apparatus installed in the gas station according to one embodiment of the present invention.

  Recent developments in information and communication technology have enabled the purchase and settlement of various products and services using terminal devices such as mobile phones and personal portable information terminal devices (including smartphones and tablet terminals). ing. In particular, the progress of broadband wireless communication technology is significant, and it has become possible for individuals to handle various processes beyond the limitations of time and place. The embodiment of the present invention to be described below exemplifies a case where a so-called smartphone is used as a terminal device, but is not necessarily limited to a smartphone. Can also be implemented. Hereinafter, the Example at the time of using a smart phone is described.

  The present invention relates to a method that is executed using a smartphone when paying a fee for fuel for an automobile supplied at a gas station (gas station). Hereinafter, although the fuel for automobiles will be described as gasoline, the present invention can be implemented even if the fuel for automobiles is another fuel, for example, light oil. The user first activates specific application software (hereinafter referred to as “app”) installed in advance on the smartphone, and personal information of the user who uses gasoline refueling from the user registration provided in the application. The credit card number, user ID, password, etc. are registered in the management apparatus. When the gasoline fee is settled, the application is started and the user ID and password are entered to inquire about the gasoline fee. By the inquiry, the management device transmits the usage details to the smartphone. When the user confirms the usage details displayed on the screen of the smartphone, the payment is completed by transmitting a payment confirmation from the smartphone to the management device.

  FIG. 1 shows a gasoline fee including a gas station 100, an on-site management device 101 installed in the gas station 100, a central management device 102, and a smartphone 103 which is a user terminal device. The whole block diagram of the system which settles the payment of is shown. The smartphone 103 is a mobile phone network, for example, coupled to the network 104 via a 3G line 105, and the central management apparatus 102 is coupled to the network 104 via the Internet network 106. These lines are used as communication lines. It is not limited to. The network 104 is generally an Internet network, but the present invention is not limited to this. The on-site management apparatus 101 is coupled to the central management apparatus 102 via the Internet network 107, but may be any communication line, and may be a wired line or a wireless line. A plurality of oil supply devices (oil supply pumps) 100 a and 100 b are installed in the gas station 100, and these oil supply devices 100 a and 100 b are connected to the site management apparatus 101 through a communication line 108. The communication line 108 may be a wired line or a wireless line such as WiFi. The fueling devices 100a and 100b have a built-in sensor for measuring the amount of gasoline to be refueled, and the gasoline fueling amount measured by the sensor is sent to the central management device 102 via the communication line 112 and the site management device 101. It is done. The site management apparatus 101 constitutes a management apparatus that controls the operation of this system together with the central management apparatus 102.

  Referring to FIG. 1, a user who desires to supply gasoline parks automobile 109 beside refueling apparatus 100a. The user selects an oil type such as regular or high-octane from the display panel of the fueling device 100a, designates the amount of fueling if necessary, inserts the fueling nozzle 110 of the fueling device 100a into the fueling port of the automobile 109, and performs fueling. Start. When the required amount of oil is reached, the fuel supply device 100a stops the fuel supply. By stopping the refueling, the refueling device 100a transmits information such as the number of the refueling station and the refueling device, the oil type, and the amount of refueling to the site management device 101 via the communication line 108. Is transferred to the central management apparatus 102. The transferred information is stored in a predetermined storage area provided in the central management apparatus 102.

  In FIG. 1, the smartphone 103 held by the user has a built-in GPS function for detecting the position of the smartphone 103 by the global positioning system (GPS), receives GPS signals 115 from a plurality of GPS satellites 114, Measure the location where the user is located. The position information is transmitted to the central management apparatus 102 via the network 104. The central management apparatus 102 can know the position where the user is located from the position information.

  FIG. 2 shows a functional block diagram 200 showing the basic configuration of the smartphone 103 used in one embodiment of the present invention. The processor 201 includes a read only memory (ROM) 202 including a nonvolatile memory such as a flash memory, a random access memory (RAM) 203, a communication unit 204, a GPS processing unit 205, an input / output unit 206, and a touch panel. Coupled to the expression display 207. The communication unit 204 includes an antenna 208 and can handle data communication such as a normal telephone line (3G) and a wireless LAN. An application that executes the present invention is stored in the ROM 202, and a calculation result in the middle is stored in the RAM 202. The communication unit 204 performs data communication with the central management apparatus 102, and data transmitted from the central management apparatus 102 is stored in the RAM 202. The GPS 205 receives a GPS signal from a GPS satellite, calculates the position of the smartphone 103, and the result is stored in the RAM 202. The display unit 207 is, for example, a liquid crystal display. In the present invention, the display unit 207 is used to display an instruction to a user and a nearby gas station name as will be described later.

  In the gasoline fee settlement system shown in FIG. 1, a gasoline fee settlement method according to the present invention will be described below. In order to settle a parking fee using a smartphone, a user who supplies gasoline needs to perform user registration in the settlement system. This user registration may be performed first.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart 300 showing a user registration procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention. The flowchart 300 divides the process performed by the central management apparatus 102 on the left side and the process performed by the smartphone 103 on the right side. A user using a gas station needs to install an application for paying a gasoline fee in the smartphone 103 in advance according to a predetermined procedure in order to perform user registration.

  User registration is performed according to the following procedure. In step 301, the gasoline price adjustment application of the smartphone 103 is activated. The settlement application is activated to display a startup screen, and in step 302, the process proceeds from the startup screen to the new registration screen. When the new registration screen is displayed, the payment application asks for user information such as the user's address, name, credit card number, user ID, and password to be used when paying the parking fee. These are input to a predetermined area of the display unit of the smartphone 103. The user ID is a user name and is used for specifying a user. The password is set to prevent others from using the gas station without permission. When the above information is input, the smartphone 103 transmits them to the central management apparatus 102 in step 304.

  When the central management apparatus 102 receives the information for user registration transmitted from the smartphone 103, first, in step 305, it is determined whether or not the received user ID is unique to the already registered user ID. Is done. That is, since the user ID is used to identify the user, it is checked that there is no same user ID. If the same user ID has already been registered, the process proceeds to step 306, and the central management apparatus 102 informs the user that the same user ID has already been registered on the settlement application display screen, and inputs another user ID. Ask to do. Then, user information is transmitted again from step 304.

  If it is confirmed in step 305 that there is no identical user ID, the central management apparatus 102 proceeds to step 307 and registers the transmitted user information in the database of the central management apparatus 102. When the user information is registered in the database, an account for the user is set, and the central management apparatus 102 sends a registration completion notification to the smartphone 103 in step 308. The smartphone 103 displays that the user registration has been completed in response to the reception.

  When the user registration is completed, the user of this application can use the smartphone to settle the gasoline fee at any gas station that operates this system. Next, the procedure for adjusting the gasoline charge using this application will be described.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart 400 showing a gasoline checkout procedure according to one embodiment of the present invention. The respective processes of the local management apparatus 101, the central management apparatus 102, and the smartphone 103 will be described separately. However, the processing contents in the local management apparatus 101 and the central management apparatus 102 need not necessarily be divided as shown in FIG. Instead, part or all of the processing of the local management apparatus 101 may be executed by the central management apparatus 102. When all processing is executed by the central management device, the local management device for use by the user is not required at the gas station, and the fueling devices 100a and 100b are under the control of the central management device 102 via the communication line. Will be placed.

  When the settlement application of the smartphone 103 is activated in step 401 of FIG. 4 and proceeds to the settlement procedure, in step 402, the settlement application requests the user to input a user ID and password. When the user ID and password are input, the settlement application transmits the GPS position information acquired by the smartphone 103, the user ID, and the password to the central management apparatus 102. The smartphone 103 may store the user ID and password as a cache and automatically transmit the user ID and password without requesting the user to input the user ID and password.

  When the information from the smartphone 103 is received, the central management apparatus 102 determines in step 403 whether or not the user ID and password match those registered, and if there is no match, the process proceeds to step 404. It is informed that it is not registered in 103, and the settlement application is terminated.

  If it is determined in step 403 that the received user ID and password match those registered, the process proceeds to step 405. If it is determined in step 405 that the checkout procedure is not desired, the process proceeds to step 406, and other processing included in the application is executed. If it is determined in step 405 that the checkout procedure is to proceed, the process proceeds to step 407, where a display as shown in FIG. 5A appears on the display unit of the smartphone 103, and the designation of the gas station where the user is currently located is displayed. The user is asked to select whether to do this based on GPS position information or based on history information that lists gas stations that have been used in the past. When the user selects either “location information” or “history” in step 407, the selection is transmitted to the central processing unit 102, and the process proceeds to step 408. If the selection is history, the process proceeds to step 409, and the history of the recently used gas station stored in the central processing unit 102 is extracted. On the other hand, if the selection is position information, the process proceeds to step 410, and a gas station near the position indicated by the GPS position information (for example, a predetermined range from the position of the terminal device) is searched and extracted. The list of gas stations extracted in steps 409 and 410 is transmitted to the smartphone 103 in step 411. In step 412, when the smartphone 103 receives a list of gas stations, a list of gas stations as shown in FIG. 5B is displayed on the display unit. The user selects a corresponding gas station from the list.

  In step 410, a process of extracting the gas station name from the GPS position information of the smartphone 103 is executed. If the gas station used is the same as the gas station used in the past, the GPS function is used to supply gas. There is no need to search for a place, and the name of a gas station may be extracted from a list of gas station usage histories of the settlement application. The specification of the gas station name from the usage history can be completed in a shorter time than the process of specifying the gas station name from the GPS position information.

  In step 412, when the gas station used is designated, the process proceeds to step 413, and the settlement application prompts the user to input the number of the fueling apparatus that has performed the fueling to the smartphone 103. Furthermore, when the user is requested to input the fueling device number in Step 414 and 15 is input as the fueling device number, the display unit of the smartphone 103 is displayed as shown in FIG. 5C, for example. When the user taps the confirmation button in the center on the right side of the display unit shown in FIG. 5C, the name of the used gas station and the oil supply device number are transmitted to the central management device 102 in step 415. If the entered number is incorrect, tap the cancel button and enter it again.

  When the central management device 102 receives the name of the used gas station and the number of the fueling device, the central management device 102 proceeds to step 416, receives sales data such as the oil type and the amount of oil supply, and determines whether it is registered in the database. . If not received, in step 417, a message indicating that the message has not been received is transmitted to the smartphone 103, and in step 418, a message “Please wait for a while” is displayed on the display unit of the smartphone 103. Inform the current situation. When the receipt of sales data is confirmed in step 416 or 419, the process proceeds to step 420, and the central management apparatus 102 calculates a billing amount from the sales data and transmits it to the smartphone 103. When the smartphone 103 receives the billing amount, the billing amount to the user is displayed on the display unit of the smartphone 103 in step 421 as shown in FIG. In this example, the billing amount is 7,769 yen.

  When the user confirms the charge displayed on the display unit of the smartphone 103 in step 421 and taps the payment button in the display example shown in FIG. 5D in step 422, the process proceeds to step 423, A payment confirmation is transmitted to the central management apparatus 102. When the central management apparatus 102 receives the payment confirmation from the smartphone 103, the central management apparatus 102 executes settlement with the registered credit card number in step 424. When the settlement is completed, the central management apparatus 102 transmits to the local management apparatus 101 and the smartphone 103 in step 425. When the local management apparatus 101 and the smartphone 103 receive the payment completion from the central management apparatus 102, the local management apparatus 101 and the smartphone 103 display the payment completion in steps 426 and 427, and indicate that the checkout procedure is completed. Inform employees and users.

  In addition, when the refueling apparatuses 100a and 100b automatically transmit the sales data such as the oil type and the refueling amount to the central management apparatus 102 in step 428, the sales data is automatically stored in the database of the central management apparatus 102 in step 429. It is registered, and processing for a payment request from a user can be executed. However, if the refueling apparatuses 100a and 100b do not have a function of automatically transmitting sales data to the central management apparatus 102, a staff member at the filling station inputs predetermined sales data to the local management apparatus 101 to perform central management. There is a need to transmit to the device 102. FIG. 6 shows the display unit 111 (FIG. 1) of the local management apparatus 101 when the attendant inputs the sales data. In step 430, when a staff member at the filling station inputs the number of the fueling device, the amount of fueling, and the oil type and presses the transmission button, the sales data is transmitted to the central management device 102.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Gas station 100a, 100b Oil supply apparatus 101 Local management apparatus 102 Central management apparatus 103 Smart phone 104 Network 105 3G line 106, 107 Internet network 108 Communication line 109 Car 110 Oil supply nozzle 111 Display part 112 Communication line

Claims (6)

In the method of reimbursing the price of automobile fuel sold at a gas station,
The storage area of the management device coupled to the telecommunications network with the fuel supply amount of the automobile fuel supplied from the fuel supply device installed at the gas supply station, together with the number specifying the fuel supply station and the number specifying the fuel supply device Sending to memorize,
After the refueling from the refueling device is completed, the management device is identified by a number identifying the refueling station and the refueling device sent from the terminal device of the user receiving the refueling to the management device via the telecommunication network. Reading the amount of oil stored in the storage area, and displaying the read amount of oil and the charge of the amount of oil on the display unit of the terminal device;
Sending a payment confirmation signal from the terminal device to the management device and paying the fee according to a predetermined payment condition;
A method for paying a fee for fuel for automobiles, characterized by comprising:   The method of claim 1, wherein the automobile fuel is one of gasoline and light oil.   The terminal device transmits position information indicating the position of the terminal device acquired using the GPS function of the terminal device to the management device, and the position of the terminal device searched based on the position information The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving, from the management device, the name of a gas station located within a predetermined range from the management device. In a system that settles the price of automobile fuel sold at a gas station,
A refueling device coupled to a telecommunications network, comprising a sensor for refueling a specified fuel to an automobile and measuring a refueling amount of the refueled fuel; and
A management device coupled to the telecommunications network, the amount of fuel transmitted from the refueling device via the telecommunications network, a number identifying the refueling station, and a number identifying the refueling device A management device having a storage area for storing
After the refueling from the refueling device is completed, the management device is identified by a number identifying the refueling station and the refueling device sent from the terminal device of the user receiving the refueling to the management device via the telecommunication network. A terminal device that reads out the amount of fuel stored in the storage area, and displays the read amount of fuel and the charge of the amount of fuel,
Consisting of
A payment confirmation signal is transmitted from the terminal device to the management device, and the fee is settled according to a predetermined payment condition;
The system which settles the charge of the fuel for automobiles characterized by this.   5. The system for recognizing a charge for automobile fuel according to claim 4, wherein the automobile fuel is one of gasoline and light oil.   The terminal device transmits position information indicating the position of the terminal device acquired using the GPS function of the terminal device to the management device, and the position of the terminal device searched based on the position information The system for reimbursing a vehicle fuel charge according to claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving from the management device a name of a gas station located within a predetermined range from the management device.

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