Patent ID: 7482928

Claim:
A smart mini-pallet box for secure, trackable, pollable and auditable, shipment and warehousing of products and materials comprising in operative combination: a) a unitary container body having two pairs of opposed, spaced, generally orthogonally oriented generally planar vertical side walls integral with a bottom, a first pair of said side walls defining a front wall and a back wall and a second pair defining a left and a right side wall, said front wall and said back wall range from equal to, to longer than, said side walls, and at least one pair of opposed walls is short enough to permit said container to fit through residential entry doorways, a generally planar, openable single-piece lid including a margin having a lip for sealingly engaging the tops of said side walls, said lid is hinged to said back wall and includes tangs to engage lid latch members mounted in association with said body front wall and said body walls, bottom and lid defining a cargo load space; b) an external structural exoskeleton for both said lid and said body, said lid skeleton comprising criss-crossed straps and a marginal band, and said body external structural exoskeleton is comprised of three panels, a front panel, a rear panel and a bottom panel, said front and rear panels being hinged at a lower marginal edge to the front and back of said bottom panel, said body exoskeleton panels provide a continuous structure for reinforcing said front and back walls against unauthorized entry and transit damage; c) an auditable electronic lock system integrated into at least one of a front panel and a back panel of said exoskeleton; d) a cover that is closable over the body of said electronic lock and said lid latches to prevent access thereto, said cover including a flange extending over the front lip of said lid and said electronic lock preventing said cover from being opened to reveal said lid latches until said electronic lock is selectively opened by an authorized key at an authorized time, at an authorized place and at combinations of authorized key, time and/or place; e) at least one sensor disposed to provide a signal relating to an internal security condition of said cargo container; and f) a pollable communications module disposed in at least one of said container walls, bottom or top, said module including a battery power supply, a microprocessor controller, an RF transceiver unit and a GPS locator unit, said controller including inputs for said sensor and said GPS unit, and including a timing circuit for selectively periodically sending data via RF signals representing a unique identifier of said cargo container, and the status and location of said cargo container.