Patent ID: 6982656

Claim:
An apparatus for monitoring and reporting the status of a mobile asset, where the mobile asset may be moved by a transport vehicle from one location to another location, the apparatus comprising: a tether sensor for sensing whether the mobile asset is electrically connected to or disconnected from the transport vehicle, and for providing a tether sensor signal indicative of whether the mobile asset is electrically connected to or disconnected from the transport vehicle; one or more door sensors for sensing whether one or more doors on the mobile asset are open or closed, and for providing one or more door sensor signals indicative of whether one or more doors on the mobile asset are open or closed; a location determining device for determining a geographic location of the mobile asset, and for providing a location signal indicative of the geographic location of the mobile asset; a transmitter for transmitting status messages to a central monitoring station related to the status of the mobile asset; and a processor for determining whether the mobile asset has arrived at and departed from a first location based on one or more conditions of the mobile asset by (a) receiving the tether sensor signal, the one or more door sensor signals, and the location signal, (b) determining the first location of the mobile asset and setting a first boundary about the first location when (i) the tether sensor signal indicates that the mobile asset is electrically disconnected from the transport vehicle, or (ii) one or more of the door sensor signals indicate that one or more of the doors on the mobile asset are opened, (c) determining based on the location signal whether the mobile asset moves beyond the first boundary, and (d) activating the transmitter to transmit a status message to the central monitoring station when the mobile asset has moved beyond the first boundary.