Patent ID: 7974774

Claim:
A method for operating at least one vehicle, each vehicle including an engine operating on a plurality of fuel types, the method comprising: a) determining the location of the vehicle; b) providing information about a terrain of said at least one vehicle; c) storing characteristic information for each of said plurality of fuel types; d) creating a trip plan including minimizing the total fuel consumed of said plurality of fuel types of said at least one vehicle, based upon said information about the terrain and said characteristic information for each of said plurality of fuel types that optimizes performance of the at least one vehicle in accordance with one or more operational criteria for said at least one vehicle; wherein said minimizing the total fuel consumed of said plurality of fuel types is performed by a processor, said minimizing the total fuel, comprises minimizing a weighted sum, said weighted sum being a sum of respective terms for each fuel type of said plurality of fuel types, said respective term being a product of a respective weighted coefficient and a respective fuel efficiency of each respective fuel consumed of said plurality of fuel types.