Systems and methods for assessing delivery vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11836658-B2
Application number	US-201715843857-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 15, 2017
Priority date	Dec 16, 2016
Publication date	Dec 5, 2023
Grant date	Dec 5, 2023

Abstract

In some embodiments, systems and methods are provided herein useful to assess or determine available cargo capacity for multiple commercial product delivery vehicles (“delivery vehicles”). In some embodiments, systems are provided to assess delivery vehicles and may include multiple electronic user devices each having a delivery agent interface operating thereon and an association with one or more delivery agents. At least one control circuit is communicatively coupled to the electronic user devices. By one approach, the control circuit may estimate delivery requirements for purchased orders, which includes volume requirements and geometric configurations of purchased orders. The control circuits may evaluate delivery vehicles, utilizing cargo space sensor data, to determine which are suitable for the purchased order by comparing delivery requirements with the available vehicular cargo spaces, and present, to the appropriate electronic user devices, an opportunity to deliver at least a portion of the purchased order to a delivery location.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system to assess alternative vehicles for product delivery, comprising:
a delivery agent interface configured to:
operate on an electronic user device associated with a crowdsourced delivery agent, the electronic user device configured to provide cargo availability data corresponding to an available vehicular cargo space of a vehicle associated with the crowdsourced delivery agent; and
display at least a graphical icon or a visual indicator manipulatable by the crowdsourced delivery agent to indicate acceptance of a delivery opportunity presented by a control circuit, wherein the graphical icon or the visual indicator is displayed concurrently to electronic user devices associated with vehicles found suitable by the control circuit to facilitate a request for a quick delivery;

the control circuit communicatively coupled to a plurality of electronic user devices via a corresponding delivery agent interface executed by a corresponding electronic user device of the plurality of electronic user devices when in communication with the control circuit, the control circuit is configured to:
estimate delivery requirements for a purchased order, the estimated delivery requirements including a volume requirement and a geometric configuration determined by physical aspects of the purchased order;
receive cargo availability data stored in a vehicle database and representative of currently available vehicular cargo space of a plurality of vehicles associated with crowdsourced delivery agents, the cargo availability data corresponding to a time following receipt of the purchased order and at a time the crowdsourced delivery agent would pick up and load items of the purchased order for delivery, wherein the plurality of vehicles associated with the crowdsourced delivery agents are variously owned, rented, leased, and of varying makes, models, manufacturer supplied cargo space capacities, and amounts of occupied cargo space capacities;
compare the estimated delivery requirements with the cargo availability data of the plurality of vehicles associated with the crowdsourced delivery agents;
receive, from a sensor communicatively coupled to the control circuit, a location of each of the plurality of vehicles associated with the crowdsourced delivery agents;
evaluate the plurality of vehicles associated with the crowdsourced delivery agents to find one or more suitable vehicles of the plurality of vehicles associated with the crowdsourced delivery agents based on the comparison and at least one of the following: the location of each of the plurality of vehicles associated with the crowdsourced delivery agents, one or more customer preferences and availability of the plurality of vehicles associated with the crowdsourced delivery agents; and
present the delivery opportunity to the electronic user devices associated with the one or more suitable vehicles in response to the evaluation such that the electronic user devices separately display the delivery opportunity and instruct the crowdsourced delivery agents to indicate the acceptance to deliver at least a portion of the purchased order to a delivery location,
wherein the one or more customer preferences include at least one of cost preferences, vehicle preferences, delivery schedule preferences, willingness to split the purchased order into multiple deliveries, and environmental impact preferences,
wherein the purchased order comprises a list of each item purchased and the system further comprises a product database of product attributes and wherein the control circuit is further configured to estimate the delivery requirements by accessing the product database to determine at least one of: a weight, the volume requirement, and the geometric configuration of purchased items, and
wherein the delivery agent interface of the electronic user device associated with the crowdsourced delivery agent displays at least the graphical icon or the visual indicator manipulatable by the crowdsourced delivery agent to indicate the acceptance of the delivery opportunity presented by the control circuit, the crowdsourced delivery agent having a corresponding one of the one or more suitable vehicles and having been presented the delivery opportunity; and

cargo space sensors comprising an image capturing device configured to capture images of vehicular cargo space; and in evaluating the plurality of vehicles, the control circuit is further configured to evaluate the plurality of vehicles using the captured images of the vehicular cargo space.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising the sensor communicatively coupled to the control circuit, the sensor configured to report a location of a particular vehicle associated with the sensor substantially in real-time.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising an order database comprising a plurality of purchase orders stored therein.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the delivery agent interface is further configured to be provided to the electronic user devices by the control circuit.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein evaluating the plurality of vehicles comprises:
evaluating a cargo area of a primary vehicle;
upon a determination that the cargo area of the primary vehicle is unsuitable for delivery of an entirety of the purchased order, evaluating a secondary cargo area of a secondary vehicle;
upon a determination that the secondary cargo area is suitable for delivery of the entirety of the purchased order, the control circuit is configured to present the delivery opportunity to the secondary vehicle via the delivery agent interface; and
upon a determination that the secondary cargo area is suitable for delivery of the purchased order in combination with the cargo area of the primary vehicle, the control circuit is configured to present multiple delivery opportunities, one for each of the primary vehicle and the secondary vehicle via the delivery agent interfaces associated with the primary and secondary vehicles.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to cancel, reschedule, or split purchased orders if a customer elects not to utilize a particular vehicle.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a shopping user interface configured to operate on a second electronic user device associated with a customer, wherein the control circuit in communication with the second electronic user device is further configured to cause the second electronic user device to present to the customer a delivery option based, in part, on one or more customer preferences and availability of the one or more suitable vehicles.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to cause the second electronic user device to present multiple delivery options to the customer.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the shopping user interface is at least one of: provided to the second electronic user device by the control circuit or executed by the second electronic user device when in communication with the control circuit.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to receive a requested delivery time and update the delivery option presented to the customer via the second electronic user device.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more customer preferences include at least one of the cost preferences, the vehicle preferences, timeline preferences, and willingness to split the purchased order into the multiple deliveries.

12. The system of claim 1 , further comprising an order database having a plurality of purchase orders stored therein, wherein the control circuit is further configured to:
query a

Assignees

• Walmart Apollo Llc

Inventors

• Wilkinson Bruce W
• Mattingly Todd D

Classifications

• G06Q10/06313 Primary

  Resource planning in a project environment · CPC title

• G06Q10/06314

  Calendaring for a resource · CPC title

• G06Q10/083

  Shipping · CPC title

• G06Q30/0635

  replenishment orders; recurring orders · CPC title