SBIR Phase I:Green Fleet Management System

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop an affordable integrated vehicle fleet and mobile workforce management system for improved operational efficiency and environmental sustainability by better route assignments, refueling advice, and real-time vehicle connectivity for heterogeneous fleets. This system will incorporate three novel technologies to provide an end-to-end solution to the heterogeneous fleet management problem: 1) route assignments that take into account different types of drive trains and correspondingly, different fuel consumption along different types of routes; 2) refueling advice that provides insight as to where and when a driver should refuel taking into consideration forecasted fuel prices and multiple fuel types; 3) and a new system for decision support is needed for refueling and routing strategies that minimize the cost of fuel, environmental impact, and customer satisfaction. Reducing carbon emissions has become a societal problem that touches every business sector and individual. Different fuel types and different vehicle powertrains provide small fleet owners with the opportunity to improve their overall fleet's carbon footprint, but also add a huge level of complexity, with the additional volatility of prices of multiple fuel types. As fleets make up a large percentage of cars, a reduction of CO2 by fleets can have a significant impact on a region's CO2 reduction; This solution targets not only large fleet owners, but also enables small fleet owners to affordably analyze and reduce their carbon footprint. The company plans to build revenue by 1) using a SAAS model, smart phones, and cloud computing to enable small fleet owners to have an affordable option to for green routing and minimizing fuel costs for their fleets 2) partnerships with gas price database companies, such as OPIS and Gas buddy; 3) licensing to strategic partners in direction services for adaptive routing based on powertrain and drive style.