Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-29
2002-07-16
Beaulieu, Yonel (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Reexamination Certificate
active
06421586
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a vehicle tracking and auditing system for construction projects, and more particularly, a method for tracking vehicles carrying construction materials by creating electronically stored records that can be used in the invoicing and auditing procedures of a construction project.
2. Background of the Invention
Construction projects often involve significant amounts of construction material being hauled to and from the construction site. Typical construction materials that are hauled by trucks include fill material, asphalt, aggregate, or concrete. During the construction of a large project there are numerous trucks on site.
A project may require hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of fill material to be used in the construction of the project. The fill material is hauled by dump trucks to the project site. With each dump truck having a typical eighteen cubic yard capacity, the number of individual daily hauling trips made by each dump truck is significant on a project that requires hundreds of thousands of cubic yards. Thus, over the course of a project the number of hauling trips can be in the thousands for each dump truck.
The current invoicing and auditing practice in the construction industry is based on a three-ticket system for tracking the number of hauling trips made by a truck and invoicing the quantity of construction material based on the hauling trips. The three-ticket system, and variations, works substantially the same way in that when the dump truck arrives at the construction site, the truck driver making the hauling trip issues the first ticket to a contractor on the construction site. The second ticket is issued to the trucking company and the truck driver will keep the third ticket. A total of three tickets are used for the invoicing and auditing of each and every hauling trip. The trucking company invoices the contractor for the fill material based on the number of hauling trips documented by the tickets the trucking company received by the truck driver. The contractor will match the tickets that the trucking company has provided with the tickets that the truck driver upon arrival at the construction site gave them.
The foregoing was for just one dump truck. The number of tickets multiplies by the number of trips that can be made by one dump truck on a daily basis over the life of a project that lasts for months. That number of tickets is multiplied by the number of different trucks of a trucking company involved in the project. Multiply that number of tickets by the total number of hauling trips made by one trucking company by the total of all the trucking companies on a construction project and the number of tickets involved is practically unmanageable. Office staff spends hours entering the information for inventory and billing purposes.
The ticket system has been used not only for the invoicing procedure but also for estimating the quantities of construction material used on a site during the construction process. This is important for estimating and scheduling the requirements of additional construction material that may be needed during the construction or used as a basis for future construction projects. Thus, correct invoicing of the hauling trips completed by the dump trucks is important from a financial standpoint, and from the standpoint of construction, where the total amount of material used is a function of the efficiency of the construction.
The opportunity for inaccurate invoicing and fraud also exists by the truck driver or trucking company. More than one ticket may be submitted to the contractor or the trucking company for only one hauling trip, either by accident or fraudulently. This results in the invoicing to the contractor based on tickets for hauling construction material that never occurred. Also, estimating the needed quantity of future fill material will not be based on accurate information further resulting in delay and scheduling problems. Construction companies have increased costs due to excessive key entry by clerical staff and lost time to resolve inconsistencies in the invoices.
In summary, previous attempts for tracking construction vehicles have not provided a simple and easy to use mechanism that is customized to prevent fraud and eliminate the need for tickets within the construction industry.
Bar coding systems have been developed to use a printed pattern of lines or bars to identify inventory, mail, videocassettes, books, packages, customer accounts, and the like. Bar codes can be read by optically scanning the printed pattern of lines or bars. The scanner has an encoded computer program that can decipher the bar code pattern. The bar code represents a string of numbers or letters that can be associated with the desired data. The common Universal Product Symbol uses a set of four bars of differing widths in pair groupings to represent alphanumeric characters.
Generally, the prior art bar code scanner systems involve tracking inventory through scanning a bar code physically attached to the inventory. Once the inventory is scanned, a person can verify the inventory count by scanning the inventory a second time or by physically counting the inventory. Prior art inventory systems provide no control over scanning the identical item more than once either by error or through fraud, thus providing an inaccurate inventory count of that item.
There are numerous tracking devices available on the market today for tracking many different types of items. Continuing efforts are being made to improve tracking devices and tracking systems. By way of example, note U.S. Pat. No. 5,777,884 to Belka et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,078 to Bridges, Jr. et al. that disclose an article inventory tracking and control system that assigns a unique barcode to an article and to a user identification card. A processor is used to authenticate both the user and the article and the processor then determines whether to authorize the desired transaction, e.g., check out a library book or videocassette. The Belka et al. and Bridges, Jr. et al. patents are typical examples of the use of tracking devices.
Other tracking systems that use bar code scanners have not developed the means to address the particular problems with tracking materials arriving and leaving a construction site where there is no computer available. Typical construction materials that are hauled by trucks are fill material, asphalt, aggregate, or concrete, although other materials may be used in a construction project. A portable scanner is needed that is durable enough to survive not only all weather conditions at the construction site, but also frequent drops and tough treatment. The scanner must resist moisture and dust, and work reliably in a wide range of temperatures.
Notwithstanding the existence of such prior art tracking systems, there is a need for an improved and more efficient system for the tracking and auditing of vehicles hauling construction materials. Unlike the inventory control tracking systems of Belka et al. and Bridges, Jr. et al. and other similar tracking systems, construction material once incorporated into a construction project, cannot be tracked.
It is, therefore, to the effective resolution of the aforementioned problems and shortcomings of the prior art that the present invention is directed.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a tracking system designed specifically for the tracking of construction material hauled by vehicles. More particularly, there is a need for a means that enables a contractor, trucking company, or quarry owner using custom database technology to accurately and efficiently track the construction material arriving or leaving the construction site and also generate all of the desired reports and invoices at the touch of a few buttons, thus eliminating the three-part ticketing system.
However, in view of the prior art at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in the pertinent art how the identified needs could be fu
Beaulieu Yonel
Hopen Anton J.
Smith & Hopen , P.A.
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