JPH11213290A - Vehicle allotment system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicle allotment system for attaining accurate and quick vehicle allotment. SOLUTION: A vehicle allotment system 1 is constituted of a vehicle monitor system 2 for obtaining vehicle information from each vehicle 5, and selecting a vehicle to be allotted, and outputting a vehicle allotment command when a vehicle allotment request over the telephone from a customer is made, and a telephone transferring device 3 for transferring the telephone from the customer to the vehicle to be allotted so that direct conversation between the customer and the crew of the vehicle to be allotted can be attained. Thus, when the vehicle allotment request is made from the customer, direct conversation between the customer and the crew can be attained, and the crew is allowed to accurately recognize and access path to the position of the customer. Thus, accurate and quick vehicle allotment can be attained, and the time required for the vehicle allotting task by a vehicle allotment operator can be shortened.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a dispatch system for dispatching vehicles such as taxis and hires in response to requests from customers.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional dispatching system, when a dispatch request is made by telephone from a customer, a dispatch operator first receives a telephone call, obtains information such as the customer location from the customer, and dispatches the vehicle using a vehicle monitoring system or the like. To determine. Thereafter, the dispatch operator transmits customer information to the crew of the vehicle to be dispatched by using a wireless line. The crew that has received the dispatch instruction from the dispatch operator drives the vehicle to the customer position based on the customer information.

[0003] At this time, a dispatch operator quickly checks and grasps a customer position from a map and an address based on information obtained from the customer. Once the customer position is known, G
Using a vehicle monitoring system (GPS-AVS system; GPS AUTO VEHCLE MONITORING SYSTEM) that adopts the PS method, search for the vehicle (vacant vehicle) closest to the customer's location, and provide wireless sound to the crew of the vehicle. Inform customer location.

[0004] If the crew cannot understand the route to the customer location, the dispatch operator inquires the customer for a mark or the like, hears a detailed location from the vehicle, and sends detailed instructions by radio voice.

[0005]

The above-mentioned conventional dispatching system has the following problems because the dispatching operator mediates between the customer and the crew. The dispatch operator needs to have a wide range of intuition. Without this intuition, it takes time to grasp the customer position. Further, there is a possibility that erroneous information may be transmitted while the dispatch operator is transmitting the customer position to the crew. Here, even if the information is accurately transmitted, if the crew cannot accurately recognize the route to the customer's location, the vehicle may get lost, or the dispatching operator may provide radio guidance. This delays arrival at the customer location.

If the time required for a dispatch operator to perform one dispatch task becomes longer, other dispatch tasks and management tasks cannot be performed, and the entire dispatch task will be delayed. further,
If route guidance is provided using a wireless line, other vehicles cannot be dispatched during that time. In addition, during transmission of information using the wireless line, communication of all vehicles using the same frequency is restricted.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has as its object to provide a dispatch system that enables accurate and quick dispatch.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention obtains vehicle information from each vehicle and, when a vehicle allocation request is received from a customer by telephone, the vehicle information of each vehicle is obtained based on the position of the customer. A vehicle monitoring system that selects a vehicle to be dispatched from the inside and outputs a dispatch command to the vehicle to be dispatched, and is provided between a telephone line from the customer and a vehicle from which the customer dispatches a call. A vehicle dispatching system is configured by the transfer and the telephone transfer device that enables direct conversation between the customer and the crew of the vehicle to be dispatched.

According to this dispatching system, when a dispatch request is received from the customer by telephone, the customer's telephone can be transferred to the vehicle to allow the customer and the crew to talk directly.
For this reason, the dispatch operator only obtains from the customer only information necessary for selecting a vehicle to be dispatched. Once a vehicle has been selected for dispatch, the crew of that vehicle will be redirected, if necessary, to talk directly to the customer,
Retrieve necessary location information such as landmarks. Therefore, the crew can accurately recognize the arrival route to the customer position, so that the dispatch can be performed reliably and quickly. In addition, by reducing the time required for the vehicle dispatching operator to relay information, it is possible to efficiently process vehicle dispatching each time.

The following are specific effects of the present invention. (1) Increase in sales due to vehicle allocation Conventionally, the time required for a vehicle allocation operator to guide a crew can be significantly reduced. For this reason, the number of dispatches per hour increases, and an increase in sales due to dispatch can be expected.

(2) Increasing Customer Reliability The crew can ask the customer who has the most geographical details directly for the optimal route, so that the customer position can be quickly grasped. Further, optimal route information to the customer position can be obtained. For this reason, the pick-up time (time from when the vehicle is dispatched to when it reaches the customer position) is reduced, and the waiting time of the customer can be reduced.

(3) Reduction of Radio Line Occupancy Time The dispatch operator hears minimum information from the customer,
Since only short-time communication with the crew is required, the radio line occupation time in the dispatching operation is reduced. As a result, the wireless line can be used for other purposes (other vehicle allocation, vehicle data collection), and the performance of the entire vehicle allocation system is improved.

[0013]

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 in 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 outputs the vehicle position,
It receives vehicle information such as whether the vehicle is empty or full, and issues a vehicle allocation command wirelessly to each vehicle 5. The telephone transfer device 3 transmits a telephone call from the customer 6 to the telephone 4
Or, switch to 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, a description will be given assuming that a GPS-AVM system is used. The vehicle monitoring system 2
CPU 21, memory 22, display 23, keyboard 24, vehicle database 25, customer database 2
6. The wireless device 27 is provided.

The memory 22 is a medium for storing a program for a vehicle monitoring system, a program for telephone transfer, and other data. The vehicle database 25 stores, for each vehicle, a vehicle position, whether the vehicle is empty or full, and is updated by 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 the vehicle information from each vehicle 5, communicates with each vehicle 5, and issues a dispatch command.

Each vehicle 5 has a GPS system 51 for searching for the vehicle's own position, a wireless device 52 for transmitting vehicle information to the vehicle monitoring system 2 and communicating with the vehicle monitoring system 2, a vehicle-mounted telephone 53, An in-vehicle terminal 54 is provided. In this example, it is assumed that the vehicle-mounted telephone 53 is provided in each vehicle 5. Although only one vehicle is shown as the vehicle 5 in the figure for easy understanding, 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 using the GPS system 51, and periodically transmits vehicle information including this own position and other information such as whether the vehicle is empty or full by the wireless device 52. 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, and displays the vehicle position of each vehicle, an empty vehicle, and a full vehicle on the map. To display another.

In such a situation, when a dispatch request is received from the customer 6 by telephone, the operation shown in FIG. 2 is started. (Step S11) When there is a telephone call from the customer 6, the telephone transfer device 3 connects the telephone to the telephone 4 in the dispatch system 1, and the dispatch operator receives the call from the customer 6. The dispatch operator hears information such as name and telephone number from the customer 6 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 for further specifying the customer position.

Here, the information retrieved from the customer 6 is the minimum necessary, and it is not necessary to retrieve a mark or the like as in the prior art. Therefore, the time from receiving a call until obtaining necessary customer information is reduced. (Step S12) When the dispatching operator hears necessary information from the customer 6, the dispatch operator inputs customer information from the keyboard 24. The vehicle monitoring system 2 performs an automatic search in cooperation with the customer database and the vehicle database or in cooperation with the input customer position and the vehicle database, selects an empty vehicle closest to the customer position, and dispatches the vehicle. Determine the vehicle. This search may be manually performed by the dispatch operator.

(Step S13) When the vehicles to be dispatched are determined, the dispatch operator issues a dispatch command to the vehicles 5 to be dispatched by the wireless device 27. When receiving the dispatch instruction by the wireless device 52, the crew boarding the dispatching vehicle 5 interacts with the dispatch operator to hear customer information.

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

(Step S15) When the dispatch operator receives a notification from the crew that he cannot grasp the customer position,
A transfer command is input 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 telephone number of the acquired vehicle, transfers the telephone from the customer 6 to the vehicle telephone 53, and completes the dispatching operation in a state where the crew and the customer 6 can talk. (Step S16). It should be noted that this telephone transfer can be manually performed by the dispatch operator.

The dispatching operator can complete the dispatching task only by communicating the minimum necessary information to the crew, so that the time required for dispatching can be reduced. As a result, the occupation time of the wireless line is also reduced, 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 that has received the telephone call hears the customer position by direct communication with the customer 6 by telephone and reaches the customer position. In this case, since the customer 6 and the crew directly communicate with each other and the dispatching operator does not intervene, errors in information transmission are reduced. Therefore, the vehicle can reliably and quickly reach the customer position. Further, since the telephone of the customer 6 is transferred to the crew by the telephone transfer device 3, it is not necessary to make a call again, and the customer 6 is not made to wait and feel uncomfortable.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention can be variously modified within the scope described in the claims, for example, as follows. In the above embodiment, the dispatch operator issues a dispatch command to the crew member wirelessly, but the dispatch command can be made by telephone. In this case, a telephone line via the telephone transfer device 3 can be used.

In the above embodiment, the telephone 5 of the vehicle is used.
The reference numeral 3 is provided in each vehicle 5, but a telephone such as a mobile telephone owned by a crew member can be used. In this case, the correspondence between the telephone number of the telephone of the crew member and the vehicle is not necessarily fixed, so that when the crew gets into the vehicle, the correspondence between the vehicle and the telephone number in the vehicle database 25 needs to be adjusted.

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

When the crew gets into the vehicle, an ID code for identifying the crew is input 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 used for the wireless devices 52, 2
7 and the start signal are notified to the vehicle monitoring system 2 (step S22). The vehicle monitoring system 2 identifies the vehicle from the received start signal and extracts the telephone number from the crew database using the ID code. Then, the telephone number is registered as the telephone number of the vehicle in the vehicle database 25 (step S23).

As a result, the above-mentioned step S15 in FIG.
The crew phone number is used as the phone number of the vehicle in.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a vehicle allocation system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the vehicle allocation system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a crew member telephone number registration operation according to a modification of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Distribution 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 telephone 54 ... In-vehicle terminal 6 ... Customer

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle information is acquired from each vehicle, and when a dispatch request is received from a customer by telephone, a vehicle to be dispatched is selected from the respective vehicles based on the position of the customer, and a vehicle to be dispatched is selected. A vehicle monitoring system that outputs a dispatch instruction; and a vehicle monitoring system that is provided between a telephone line from the customer and the vehicle monitoring system, and transfers a call from the customer to the vehicle to be dispatched, thereby distributing the vehicle to the customer. A vehicle dispatching system comprising: a telephone transfer device that enables a direct conversation with a vehicle crew. 2. The vehicle monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein said vehicle monitoring system is a GPS-AV.
The vehicle allocation system according to claim 1, which is an M system. 3. The vehicle allocation system according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle monitoring system wirelessly communicates with the crew. 4. The vehicle allocation system according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle monitoring system performs a telephone call with the crew by telephone. 5. The vehicle monitoring system includes a vehicle database storing telephone numbers of telephones provided to each vehicle, and when the vehicle to be dispatched is selected, a telephone number of the vehicle to be dispatched from the vehicle database. And get
2. A means for automatically transferring a call from the customer to the acquired telephone number by the telephone transfer device.
The vehicle allocation system according to any one of claims 4 to 4. 6. The vehicle monitoring system includes a vehicle database storing telephone numbers of telephones owned by crew members on each vehicle, and when the vehicle to be dispatched is selected, the vehicle to be dispatched from the vehicle database. The vehicle dispatching system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising means for acquiring a telephone number of the customer and automatically transferring a telephone call from the customer to the acquired telephone number by the telephone transfer device. 7. A medium storing a program for controlling the vehicle allocation system according to any one of claims 1 to 4 in a computer, wherein the computer has a function of a vehicle monitoring system and a telephone call from a customer. Storing a program for realizing a telephone transfer function of transferring a call to a telephone of a vehicle to be dispatched selected by the vehicle monitoring system.