WO2018232424A1

WO2018232424A1 - A system and method for verifying status of an equipment

Info

Publication number: WO2018232424A1
Application number: PCT/ZA2018/050033
Authority: WO
Inventors: Darius Buti KOMANE
Original assignee: Komane Darius Buti
Priority date: 2017-06-13
Filing date: 2018-06-08
Publication date: 2018-12-20
Also published as: ZA201707539B

Abstract

The invention relates to a system (200) for verifying a status of an equipment (102). An equipment database (112) includes at least one equipment information and status indicator. Status indicators can be "STOLEN", "WRITEN OFF", "BROKEN" or "CLEAR". A status enquiry receiver module (206) receives a status enquiry message, in particular a scanning device which communicates with equipment database (112) through e.g. Wi-Fi. An interrogation module (208) interrogates the equipment database (112) to check whether or not the received equipment information matches any of the equipment information stored on the equipment database (112). If there's a match, the status indicator of the equipment is received. The status indicator is communicated to the mobile device of a user. A new equipment stakeholder has to pre-register in order to use the system (200).

Description

A SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VERIFYING STATUS OF AN EQUIPMENT

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

THIS INVENTION relates generally to a system to safeguard hirers of construction equipment from being supplied with stolen construction equipment and machinery for rental purposes by third parties. In particular, the invention relation to a system of verifying status of an equipment and a method thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Generally, in a construction industry, various heavy duty equipment such loaders, cranes, bulldozers, tractors, scrapers, graders, excavators, and the like are used by contractors. The Inventor is of the view that not many contractors own these construction equipment and machinery. Therefore, the usual practice within the construction industry is for the contractors to rent out equipment from various third parties. In renting the equipment, there is a risk that the contractor may rent stolen construction equipment, without his or her knowledge. This may result in a particular contractor having or supporting illegal activities without his or her knowledge.

Usually, construction companies do not bother to check the status or integrity of the equipment they hire from third parties. A conventional method of determining whether or not a particular rented construction equipment is stolen, includes, for example, the use of a law enforcement agent to inspect the construction equipment by examining registration number of the construction equipment and checking against their records if it is not reported as been stolen. The difficulty in conducting this inspection is that most of the construction equipment do not have visible registration numbers. Furthermore, the construction equipment are usually not driven on public roads, therefore, it may not be possible for the law enforcement agent to conduct such inspection, unless the agent visits the various construction sites. An alternative method is for the construction company to take registration papers to law enforcement agencies in order to check the status of the particular equipment. However, this is cumbersome and time consuming and may result in construction companies deciding not to conduction the verification. It is the Inventor opinion that the invention will reduce this hurdle.

Currently, on construction sites, whenever an equipment is delivered on site, a Health and Safety Officer have to conduct an inspection of the equipment with regard to the roadworthiness and general condition of the equipment. The inspection includes checking whether or not the tyres are worn out, whether or not the hooter is working, whether or not there are visible oil leaks, whether or not there is structural damages to the equipment etc. The Officer does this by going through a checklist which forms part of the officer's health and safety file. The equipment registration information is kept on the health and safety file, for compliance purposes. The disadvantage with this inspection is that it does not have allow the officer to check the status, in particular, whether or not the equipment is a stolen equipment. Therefore, it is usually only after a disastrous situation or incident on site involving the particular construction equipment that the contractor may realize that the company has been using a stolen construction equipment.

Another alternative is the use of tracking devices installed within the construction equipment to track the movement of the equipment. It is the Inventor's opinion that the tracking devices can be disconnected / disabled and removed from the equipment, relatively easy. This will still allow criminals to steal the equipment and rent out the equipment to unsuspecting contractors, thereby resulting in the possibility of contractors renting stolen equipment. For that, it is Inventor's opinion that there is a need for improved methods and systems with the sole purpose of preventing stolen construction equipment from been used on construction sites and therefore closing up the market for them.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a system for verifying status of an equipment and a method thereof, and to address at least some of the abovementioned drawbacks. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a system for verifying a status of an equipment, the system including: an equipment database which includes at least one equipment information and an associated status indicator;

a status enquiry receiver module operable to receive a status enquiry message which includes at least an equipment information;

an interrogation module operable to interrogate the equipment database in order determine whether or not the received equipment information matches with any equipment information stored on the equipment database, if the answer is positive, the interrogation module retrieves a status indicator associated with the received equipment information; and a communication module being operable to communicate the status indicator associated with the received equipment information to a communication device of a user.

The status indicator of the equipment may be "STOLEN" status. In other example embodiment, the status indicator may be "BROKEN" status or "WRITTEN-OFF" status or "CLEAR" status.

The communication network may be a wireless network. In other instances, the wireless communication network may be in a form of WI-FI, blue-tooth, Radio Frequency (RF). The system may be communicatively coupled to a law enforcement database such that, in use, when equipment status indicator is "STOLEN", the equipment information associated with the retrieved stolen status indicator is transmitted to the law enforcement database.

In addition, and in other embodiments, the system may be communicatively coupled to insurance companies with whom the equipment may have been insured. Therefore, the equipment information associated with STOLEN status indicator will also be transmitted to the relevant insurance company. Furthermore, the system may be communicatively coupled to an organisation of manufacturers of equipment, original equipment manufacturers, and the like. The status enquiry module may be in a form of a scanning device communicatively coupled to the equipment database. The scanning device may be operable to receive the status enquiry message which include equipment information.

The system may include a equipment listing unit which includes: a listing receiver module being operable to receive listing request message, the listing request message may include a stakeholder identifier and an equipment information including at least a unique identifier of the equipment;

authentication module operable to determine whether or not the stakeholder identifier matches with at least one of the stakeholder identifiers stored on a stakeholder database;

if the answer is affirmative, a status record module records the equipment information along with an associated status indicator onto the equipment database. The equipment information may include an indication of the status indicator. Simply put, when listing the equipment, the equipment stakeholder can indicate the status that should be recorded against a particular equipment.

Equipment information may include at least an identifier of the equipment such as equipment registration number, for example, a PIN number, VIN number, Serial number, and the like. In addition, the equipment information may include a date of which the equipment obtained an adverse status indicator, for example, if the status indicator is "STOLEN", then the equipment information will indicate the date on which the equipment was stolen and technical information of the equipment.

If the status indicator is "WRITTEN-OFF", the equipment information will indicate the date on which the equipment was written of.

In an example embodiment, the equipment owner may be an owner of the equipment. In a preferred embodiment, the stakeholder information includes proof of ownership status of the equipment to confirm that the stakeholder legally owns the equipment.

In addition, and in other embodiments, the system may be communicatively coupled to insurance companies with whom the equipment may have been insured. Therefore, the equipment information associated with STOLEN status indicator will also be transmitted to the relevant insurance company. In a preferred embodiment, the system may be communicatively coupled to an equipment recovery service provider such that when the retrieved status indicator is "STOLEN", the equipment recovery service provider can attempt to recover the stolen equipment. In other embodiments, the database populating unit may include an imaging device. The imaging device may be an optical instrument, e.g., a camera for capturing images of the equipment during listing. The images may be still images, however, in a preferred embodiment, the images are moving, such as video images and thus form part of an imaging data associated with the equipment identifier as stored on the equipment database.

The system may include a pre-registration unit which enables equipment stakeholders to pre-register prior to listing an equipment on the equipment database.

In another alternative embodiment, the pre-registration unit may enable equipment stakeholders to pre-register prior to verifying status of an equipment as stored on the equipment database.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of verifying status of an equipment, the method including:

receiving an equipment status enquiry message including equipment information; interrogating an equipment database in order to determine whether or not the received equipment information matches any of the equipment information stored on the equipment database;

in response to there being a match, retrieving a status indicator indicative of a status associated with the received equipment information; and

communicating the status indicator to a communication device of a user.

The method may include retrieving ownership information associated with equipment information.

The status indicator of the equipment may be "STOLEN" status. In other example embodiment, the status indicator may be "BROKEN" status or "WRITTEN-OFF" status or "CLEAR" status. The method may include a pre-registration method to enable the equipment stakeholder to pre-register prior to listing an equipment.

The pre-registration method may includes:

receiving a registration request message from a communication device of an equipment stakeholder, the registration request message including a stakeholder information;

sending a prompt message to the communication device of the equipment stakeholder to request at least one equipment information for which the equipment stakeholder wishes to register; and

populating a stakeholder database with the equipment information against the equipment stakeholder.

The pre-registration method may include generating a stakeholder unique identifiers and communicating the stakeholder unique identifier to the stakeholder.

In addition, the pre-registration method may include sending a request message to the communication device of the equipment stakeholder to request status of the equipment associated with at least one equipment information.

The method may be partially or entirely computer-implemented.

Accordingly, the method may be implemented by a suitably configured computer system, the method including:

receiving, via status inquiry a receiver module, an equipment status request message including equipment information;

interrogating, via an interrogation module, an equipment database in order to determine whether or not the received equipment information matches any of the equipment information stored on the equipment database;

in response to there being a match, retrieving, via the interrogation module, a status indicator indicative of a status associated with the received equipment information; and

communicating, via a communication module, the status indicator to communication device of a user. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The objects and features of the present invention will become fully apparent from following the description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Undertaking that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are therefore, not to be considered limiting its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specific and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows a simplified network topology illustrating a system, in accordance with the invention;

Figure 2 shows an equipment verification server which forms part of the system of Figure 1 ;

Figure 3 shows a high level flow diagram of a method of verifying status of an equipment, in accordance with the invention; and

Figure 4 shows a high level flow diagram of a method of listing an equipment, in accordance with the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

While various inventive aspects, concepts and features of the inventions may be described and illustrated herein as embodied in combination in the exemplary embodiments, these various aspects, concepts and features may be used in many alternatives embodiments, either individually or in various combinations and sub-combinations thereof. Unless expressly exclude herein all such combinations and sub-combinations are intended to be within the scope of the present invention. Still further, while various alternative embodiments as to the various aspects, concepts and features of the invention - such alternative structures, configurations, methods, circuits, devices and components, software, hardware, control logic, alternatives as to form, fit and function, and so on may be described herein, such descriptions are not intended to be a complete or exhaustive list of available alternative embodiments, whether presently known or later developed.

Those skilled in the art may readily adopt one or more of the inventive aspects, concepts of features into additional embodiments and uses within the scope of the present invention even if such embodiments are not expressly disclosed herein. Still further, exemplary or representative values and ranges may be included to assist in understanding the present disclosure; however, such values and ranges are not to be construed in a limiting sense and are intended to be critical values or ranges only if so expressly stated. Moreover, while various aspects, features and concepts may be expressly identified herein as being inventive or forming part of an invention, such identification is not intended to be exclusive but rather there may be inventive aspects, concepts and features that are fully described herein without being expressly identified as such or as part of a specific invention. Referring to Figure 1 , reference numeral 100 generally indicates a network topology, including an equipment status verification system 200 in accordance with the invention. The equipment verification system 200 enables users to be able to verify status of an equipment, as and when required. Verifying the status of equipment is crucial in that if the status indicator is "STOLEN" the user will know such status and will then elect not to use or rent out the equipment. Equipment includes, but not limited to: heavy duty equipment such caterpillars, cranes, bulldozers, tractors, scrapers, graders, excavator, loaders, and the like. In the example embodiment, the equipment 102 is indicated as reference numeral 102. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the equipment need not be only construction equipment, however, can be any other suitable equipment. Equipment information and associated status are stored in an equipment database 1 12 and verification of the status is conducted against such equipment database 112.

The equipment status verification system 200 is communicatively coupled to a law enforcement agency 1 10 such as police and an insurance companies 108 via a communication network 106. The insurance companies 108 can include relevant companies with which the equipment 102 is insured. Therefore, upon an adverse listing/report of the equipment 102, the insurance company 108 will be notified, in real-time. The equipment verification system 200 is further communicatively coupled to an auto manufacturers association and original equipment manufacturers 104 which are organisations of members who manufactures and import various equipment and motor vehicles 102. The equipment verification system 200 is advantageous in that it enables equipment preferred stakeholders (police, banks, insurance companies) to be able to verify status of an equipment 102 and thus limiting its usage by hirers of construction equipment 102 without their knowledge. Referring now to Figure 2 also, the equipment verification system 200 includes equipment verification server 202. The equipment verification server 202 includes an equipment status verification unit 204 which includes a processor (not shown) defining a plurality of conceptual modules 206, 208 and 210 which corresponds to functional tasks performed by the processor. The equipment status verification unit 204 includes a status enquiry receiver module 206, an interrogation module 208 and a communication module 210.

The equipment verification server 202 further includes an equipment listing unit 300 which includes a processor (not shown) defining a plurality of conceptual modules 302, 304 and 306 which corresponds to functional tasks performed by the processor. The equipment listing unit 300 includes a listing receiver module 302, an authentication 304 and a status record module 306

Referring also to Figure 3 which relates to a method of verifying status of an equipment, the method is indicated with reference numeral 400. The equipment status verification unit 204 is communicatively coupled to the equipment listing database 112 which includes a plurality of equipment information and an associated listing status indicators. In particular, the equipment listing database 112 includes plurality of equipment identifiers for various equipment 102, respective equipment information and associated listing status indicators. The status enquiry receiver module 206 receives (at block 402) an equipment status request message in order to determine the status of the equipment 102. This can be done by a company that just hired or rented the equipment 102 from a third party. Therefore, prior to using the equipment 102, the company can verify its status so as to be certain that the company will not be using a stolen, written off or broken equipment wherein the use thereof may pose a huge risk to the company.

In a preferred embodiment, the status enquiry receiver module 206 is in a form of a scanning device (not shown) which scans through the unique identifier of the equipment 102. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the scanning device can be any suitable scanning device. In use, there can be a service provider which assists in verifying statuses of the equipment 102. The company that requires verification of the status of the equipment 102 can log onto the service provider's website to log a call or a request for the verification. Simply put, the company will input PIN/VIN/Serial Number of the equipment 102 to request status verification of the equipment 102. In other embodiments, a request for the verification can be done through downloading a mobile software application (an app) to company's mobile telephone. While requesting the verification, the company will include information relating to the equipment 102 such a name and unique identifier of the equipment and location at which the equipment is. Once the request is received, the service provider can send through one of its representatives with the scanning device. The representative will then scan the unique identifier of the equipment 102.

The interrogation module 208 interrogates (at block 404) the equipment listing database 1 12 in order determine whether or not the received equipment information including the equipment identifier matches with any equipment information including identifiers stored on the equipment database 1 12. If the determination is negative, the method 400 sends (at block 406) a message, for example, "The Equipment is not Located on the Database". If the answer is positive, the interrogation module 208 retrieves (at block 408) a status indicator of the equipment. The status indicator of the equipment can be any of the following: "STOLEN", "WRITTEN OFF" or "CLEAR". The message can, preferably, be displayed on the scanning device which the representative of the service provider can then show to a representative of the company. In other instances, a message can be sent through to a mobile telephone of the representative of the service provider which is communicatively coupled to the scanning device. In a preferred embodiment, a page is printed out which displays the VIN/ Serial number of the equipment 102 and the status of the equipment 102. In an example embodiment, the printed page will include a portion where signatures should be attested in order for the other party, e.g., the party renting out the equipment 102, to confirm that they accept the equipment 102 with that particular status indicator. Prior to attesting signature, the party, e.g., a health and safety office will check whether or not the VIN/Serial Number matches with the VIN/Serial Number supplied on registration papers / documentation supplied to him / her. Once satisfied, he / she will sign the document and file the printed paper accordingly. In addition, a report about status of the equipment 102 will be emailed to a searching party (e.g. the searching party could be an employee of a company owning / providing service to third parties using the system 200 to verify status of equipment 102, on behalf of its clients. In a preferred embodiment, a company renting out / supplying the equipment 102 to a third party is the one required to attest its signature on the printed page. This is so that the rentor / supplier confirms the status of the equipment 102 is about to rent out.

The representative of the company will be informed in real time about the equipment 102 status. If the status indicator is "CLEAR" it could mean that the company is free to use the equipment 102. The communication module 210 communicates (at block 410) the status indicator to the service provider representative. The communication can be done through displaying the listing status indicator on a display screen of the scanning device. Alternatively, an SMS can be sent through to a mobile telephone of the representative of the service provider.

Simply put, when an equipment or machinery is being rented, proper verification is performed to obtain all the significant details on the equipment 102 before the equipment 102 is used. In addition to communicating the status indicator, the communication module 210 can communicate other information pertaining to the equipment 102 such as the equipment's usage and last company to use the equipment 102, working conditions of equipment.

In other alternative embodiments, the equipment verification status unit 204 includes a reporting module which generates a report of verified data/information relating to the equipment 102. The verified information can include information of the manufacturer of the equipment 102.

In a preferred embodiment, the equipment information includes a unique identifier capable of distinguishing the equipment from other equipment. The unique identifier may be a VIN number, a Serial number, and the like. The equipment verification system 200, in particular, the equipment status verification unit 300 is further communicatively coupled to a database of a national administration traffic information system (eNaTis). This enables the interrogation module 208 to further interrogate the database of eNaTis to determine whether or not the equipment unique identifier, e.g., the VIN number, is a valid VIN number.

The risk of construction companies using stolen equipment or using equipment that is not in good condition will be reduced and mitigated upon the use of the system 200 as the system 200 provides equipment verification before rental. Since the system 200 provides all the information pertaining the equipment 102 such as the equipment owners, last company to use the equipment, exact location of the equipment 102, it will be easy for insurance companies to recover lost equipment thereby reducing the cost that they would otherwise incur if the equipment were not found. The system 200 upon its providence of the owner of equipment, location and the contractor that is currently using the equipment 102 will also allow easy access to information about a particular equipment, especially those that are in high demand to construction companies. Referring also to Figure 4 which relates to a method of listing an equipment on the equipment database 112. The method is indicated as reference numeral 500. At block 502, the method 500 receives, via the receiver module 302, the listing request message which includes the stakeholder unique identifier and equipment information. The receiver module 302 receives from a communication device of a user (not shown). The communication device is typically a mobile or cellular telephone, a smart phone or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or a handheld computer, personal computer, a notebook or laptop computer, a netbook, or other hand-held device, a tablet computer, a minicomputer, or the like. The communication device must be internet-enabled in order for the user to be able to use the system 200. The listing request message includes a unique identifier associated with an equipment stakeholder. Therefore, during pre-registration process (explained in detail below), the equipment stakeholder will be provided with a unique identifier. This is advantageous in that it will ensure that not any unauthorized person is able to list or change a status of an equipment, but this service will be available to signed up members only, the equipment will be blacklisted only after the information has been confirmed with the relevant law enforcement agencies and all the supporting documents have been submitted by stakeholders such as insurance companies, Police Services etc. Registered stakeholders and construction companies will not be able to edit or update any information on equipment listing database 112 on their own, the updates can only be processed by an authorised administrator. The stakeholders can only be able to place a request for listing the equipment or verifying status of the equipment. The listing request information further includes equipment information which includes a unique identifier capable of distinguishing the equipment from other equipment. The unique identifier can be a VIN number, a Serial number, and the like. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the unique identifier can take any suitable form which enables the differentiation of the equipment.

The equipment information can include but not limited to: name of the equipment 102, unique identifier of the equipment which can be VIN number and/or Serial number, and any other relevant information. The authentication module 304 determines (at block 504) whether or not the received stakeholder identifier matches any of the stakeholder identifiers stored on the stakeholder database. If there is no match, the method 500 sends (at block 506) a message informing the stakeholder that the stakeholder is required to register prior to putting a request for blacklisting the equipment 102. The message can be, for example, "You must register before you can put a request for blacklisting a machinery". If the answer is affirmative, the method 500, via the status record module 306 list the status indicator of the equipment 102 against the associated equipment information, in particular, records the equipment information along with an associated listing status indicator. The listed equipment 102 is recorded onto the equipment database 112. For example, the recordal will be in the following manner: Crane - VIN No: 45789132549 - Blacklisted - "STOLEN" status

The equipment listing unit 200 is communicatively coupled to a law enforcement database of a law enforcement agency. Therefore, in cases where the status indicator is "STOLEN" status, and before the listed equipment information is made available to other parties it needs to be first captured on the law enforcement agencies database, before it is made available on the equipment database 1 12. In addition, and simply put, whenever stolen equipment is picked up on the system 200, the law enforcement agent can be alerted of the stolen equipment location and a recovery team can be dispatched to recover the equipment. In addition and in other embodiments, the system 200 is communicatively coupled an equipment recovery service provider such that when an equipment 102 is listed with a blacklisting status indicator of "STOLEN", the equipment recovery service provider attempts to recover the blacklisted equipment 102. The equipment listing unit 300 is wirelessly communicatively coupled to the equipment database 112 via the communication network 106 in order to store therein blacklisted equipment information. In other embodiments, the equipment blacklist database 1 12 is an integral part of the equipment listing unit 204. The equipment listing unit 300 is further communicatively coupled to a stakeholder database (not shown). In particular, the stakeholder database can form part of the auto manufactures organization 104 and include most of the members of the auto manufactures organisation 104. Alternatively, the stakeholder database can be part of a server located and managed by an independent third party. However, in other embodiments, the stakeholder database can form an integral part of the equipment listing unit 300.

Prior to using the system 200, in particular, in order for any equipment stakeholder to be able to blacklist an equipment 102, the particular the equipment stakeholder should have pre- registered on the equipment listing system 200. The stakeholder can download a user interface module such as a mobile software application (an app) to his/her mobile telephone. Alternatively, the mobile telephone, if it is, for example, a smart phone, may, at the time of purchase, have the software application pre-installed thereon. In other embodiment, the stakeholder can visit a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) in order to access a webpage so as to go through the registration process. The stakeholder is registered through a pre-registration module (not shown) using a pre-registration process. During the preregistration process, a pre- registration module (not shown) receives a registration request message from the communication device of the equipment stakeholder. The registration request message includes a stakeholder information. For example, the registration request message can be in this form "Pre-register Tseke Construction". In addition, the stakeholder can include mobile telephone number associated with the mobile telephone of the stakeholder, e-mail address, physical / business address, identification number / company registration number, project name / number under which the equipment 102 is used etc. The process includes sending a prompt message to the mobile telephone of the equipment stakeholder to request at least one equipment information for which the equipment stakeholder wishes to register. Subsequently, the stakeholder database is populated with the stakeholder information. In addition, a confirmation message is sent through to the stakeholder's mobile telephone. The confirmation message can include a unique identifier which can be a PIN/Password or the like. Simply put, the stakeholder will be able to use the unique identifier such as PIN/Password. In a preferred embodiment, the stakeholder information includes proof of ownership status of the equipment to confirm that the stakeholder legally owns the equipment 102. Proof of ownership can be a documentary proof indicating ownership of the equipment 102. The equipment stakeholder can be the owner of the equipment 102. Preferably, the equipment stakeholder is someone / company which has rented out the equipment 102.

The Inventor believes that the invention as exemplified is advantageous in that it provides an efficient and effective system 200 and a method 400 for verifying status of an equipment and addresses at least some of the abovementioned drawbacks.

Claims

1. A system for verifying a status of an equipment, the system including:

an equipment database which includes at least one equipment information and an associated status indicator;

2. The system as claimed in 1 , wherein the status indicator of the equipment is "STOLEN" status.

3. The system as claimed in 1 , wherein the status indicator is "BROKEN" status.

4. The system as claimed in 1 , wherein the status indicator is "WRITTEN-OFF" status.

5. The system as claimed in 1 , wherein the status indicator is "CLEAR" status.

6. The system as claimed in claim 2, which is communicatively coupled to a law enforcement database such that, in use, when equipment status indicator is "STOLEN" status, the equipment information associated with the retrieved "STOLEN" status indicator is transmitted to the law enforcement database.

7. The system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, which is communicatively coupled to insurance companies with whom the equipment may have been insured.

8. The system as claimed in 7, wherein the equipment information associated with "STOLEN STATUS" indicator is transmitted to relevant insurance company.

9. The system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the system is communicatively coupled to an organisation of manufacturers of equipment, original equipment manufacturers, and the like.

10. The system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the status enquiry module is in a form of a scanning device communicatively coupled to the equipment database.

1 1. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the scanning device is operable to receive the status enquiry message which include equipment information.

12. The system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, which includes an equipment listing unit, wherein the equipment listing unit includes:

a listing receiver module being operable to receive listing request message, the listing request message may include a stakeholder identifier and an equipment information including at least a unique identifier of the equipment;

if the answer is affirmative, a status record module records the equipment information along with an associated status indicator onto the equipment database.

13. The system as claimed in claim 12, wherein the equipment information includes an indication of the status indicator.

14. The system as claimed in anyone of the preceding claims, wherein the equipment information includes at least an identifier of the equipment such as equipment registration number.

15. The system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the equipment registration number is a VIN number.

16. The system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the equipment registration number is a serial number.

17. The system as claimed in anyone of the preceding claims, wherein the equipment information includes a date of which the equipment obtained an adverse status indicator.

18. The system as claimed in claim 12, the stakeholder information includes proof of ownership status of the equipment to confirm that the stakeholder legally owns the equipment.

19. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the system is communicatively coupled to an equipment recovery service provider such that when the retrieved status indicator is "STOLEN" status, the equipment recovery service provider attempts to recover the stolen equipment.

20. The system as claimed in anyone of the preceding claims, which includes a database populating unit operable to populate the equipment database.

21. The system as claimed in claim 20, wherein the database populating unit includes an imaging device.

22. The system as claimed in claim 21 , wherein the imaging device is an optical instrument.

23. The system as claimed in claim 22, wherein the optical instrument is a camera suitable for capturing images of the equipment during a listing process.

24. The system as claimed in claim 23, wherein the images are still images.

25. The system as claimed in claim 23, wherein the images are moving.

26. The system as claimed in claim 25, wherein the images are video images and thus form part of an imaging data associated with the equipment identifier as stored on the equipment database.

27. The system as claimed in claim 12, which includes a pre-registration unit which enables equipment stakeholders to pre-register prior to listing an equipment as stored on the equipment database.

28. The system as claimed in claim 27, wherein the pre-registration unit enables equipment stakeholders to pre-register prior to verifying status on an equipment as stored on the equipment database.

29. The system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the communication network is a wireless network.

30. A method of verifying status of an equipment, the method including:

communicating the status indicator to a communication device of a user.

31. The method as claimed in claim 30, which includes retrieving ownership information associated with equipment information.

32. The method as claimed in any one of the claims 30 to 31 , wherein the status indicator of the equipment is "STOLEN" status.

33. The method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims 30 to 31 wherein the status indicator is "BROKEN" status.

34. The method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims 30 to 31 , wherein the status indicator is "WRITTEN-OFF" status.

35. The method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims 30 to 31 , wherein the status indicator is "CLEAR" status.

36. The method as claimed in any one of the claims 30 to 35, which includes a pre- registration step to enable the equipment stakeholder to pre-register prior to listing an equipment.

37. The method as claimed in claim 36, wherein the pre-registration step includes:

38. The method as claimed in claim 37, wherein the pre-registration step includes generating a stakeholder unique identifiers and communicating the stakeholder unique identifier to the stakeholder.

39. The method as claimed in claim 38, wherein the pre-registration step includes sending a request message to the communication device of the equipment stakeholder to request status of the equipment associated with at least one equipment information.

40. The method as claimed in any one of the claims 30 to 39, wherein the method is partially or entirely computer-implemented.

41. The method as claimed in any one of the claimed 30 to 40, wherein the method is implemented by a suitably configured computer system, the method including:

interrogating, via an interrogation module, an equipment database in order to determine whether or not the received equipment information matches any of the equipment information stored on the equipment database; in response to there being a match, retrieving, via the interrogation module, a status indicator indicative of a status associated with the received equipment information; and

communicating, via a communication module, the status indicator to communication device of a user.