ROAMING TRANSPORT DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

摘要

A roaming transport distribution management apparatus and method are provided. A controller selects transports within a defined service zone in response to customer transit requests from customer locations or a central hub which are capable of meeting maximum transit time to the end destination in either an inbound or outbound direction from the hub. A hub manager varies the position and/or the size of an exclusive coverage area of each transport within the overall service zone to insure a dense accumulation of transports over the entire service zone and alters the position of other transports in response to the movement of a transport inbound or outbound from the hub with a passenger. The hub manager can vary the size of the exclusive coverage area of each transport to account for population and request call densities and the number of available transports.

主权项

1. A method of operating a roaming transport distribution system to service customer requests for transportation comprising:
operating a fleet of transports in a first service zone having a first hub for transporting customers within the first service zone to and from the first hub; receiving a service request from a first customer at a first location in the first service zone for transportation of the first customer to the first hub; locating one transport of a plurality of transports in the first service zone to answer the service request based on one or more of the first location of the first customer, a second location of the transport, the distance between the first and second locations, a travel time of the transport from the second location to the first location, and a travel time of the transport with the first customer from the first location to the first hub; sending a communication to the transport to travel to the first location to pick up the first customer for transport to the first hub; creating an exclusive coverage area about each transport in the first service zone, the coverage areas disposed in a dynamic arrangement with adjacent transport coverage sub-areas; and directing the plurality of transports in the first service zone to unevenly distributed locations with non-lapping coverage areas.