Patent ID: 8583314

Claim:
A method of prioritizing timely service to a fleet of monitored industrial vehicles based upon usage metrics, comprising: receiving by a server computer, wirelessly communicated industrial vehicle information from a plurality of industrial vehicles, wherein each industrial vehicle includes a transceiver provided thereon for wirelessly conveying information about at least one of: the associated industrial vehicle and a vehicle operator of the associated industrial vehicle; storing the received industrial vehicle information in a data storage accessible by the server computer; characterizing the received industrial vehicle information according to a hierarchical organizational structure, the hierarchical organizational structure comprising: a summary level that is organized into a plurality of categories, each category defining a subject matter associated with the management of a fleet of industrial vehicles; a plurality of intermediate levels, each intermediate level corresponding to an associated one category within the summary level, each intermediate level organized into at least one sub-category, wherein each sub-category defines subject matter associated with the management of the fleet of industrial vehicles within the corresponding category; and a plurality detail levels, each detail level having at least one detail level metric that characterizes at least one of: an industrial vehicle feature or a vehicle operator feature; storing for at least one detail level metric, a corresponding customizable benchmark value; associating an intermediate status indicator with each intermediate level having its sub-category associated with a detail level whose detail level metric is associated with a corresponding customizable benchmark; associating a summary status indicator for each summary level category associated with at least one intermediate level that is associated with a corresponding intermediate status indicator; defining at least two states such that each intermediate status indicator and each summary status indicator is associated with a selected one defined state; processing at least a portion of the previously received industrial vehicle information to transform the processed information based upon the plurality of detail level metrics; determining a state for each intermediate status indicator based upon a value of at least one associated detail level metric having an associated benchmark and the associated benchmark value; determining a state for each summary status indicator based upon the state of at least one associated intermediate status indicator; and communicating dashboard information to a user interface in data communication with the server computer such that a user can navigate through the summary level categories, plurality of intermediate level categories and the plurality of detail level metrics and prioritize fleet management based upon the state of summary and intermediate status indicators.