Vehicle fleet control systems and methods

A system, comprising:

• a dedicated fleet control system configured to communicatively couple to communications circuitry disposed within each of a first plurality of vehicles of a dedicated carrier fleet, and to communicate with at least one common carrier control system,
• wherein the communications circuitry disposed within a respective vehicle of the first plurality of vehicles is configured to communicatively couple to a respective operator device of a plurality of operator devices when the respective operator device is moved within a proximity of a cab of the respective vehicle, and to communicate driver status information to the dedicated fleet control system based on information received from the respective operator device when the respective operator device is within the proximity of the cab of the respective vehicle,
• wherein the dedicated fleet control system is configured to:
• receive real-time vehicle status information from the communications circuitry disposed within each of the first plurality of vehicles;
• receive, via the communications circuitry disposed within each of the first plurality of vehicles, based on the information communicated by each of the plurality of operator devices when within the proximity of the cab of the corresponding vehicle, the driver status information, including driver hours of service based on an amount of time that a driver has been operating the corresponding vehicle;
• receive real-time availability information for a second plurality of vehicles operated by a common carrier from the common carrier control system for one or more windows of time;
• determine a plurality of dedicated carrier constraints based, at least in part, on the real-time vehicle and the driver status information received via the communications circuitry disposed within each of the first plurality of vehicles;
• and
• distribute a plurality of shipments among the first plurality of vehicles and the second plurality of vehicles for transportation of the plurality of shipments from respective pickup locations to respective delivery locations within the one or more windows of time based on a determination of routes for the first plurality of vehicles made in real time with a concurrent real-time minimization of an overall cost of a resulting distribution, using the real-time availability information received from the common carrier control system for the second plurality of vehicles and using the plurality of dedicated carrier constraints determined based, at least in part, on the real-time vehicle and the driver status information received via the communications circuitry disposed within each of the first plurality of vehicles, and
• wherein the concurrent real-time minimization of the overall cost of the resulting distribution comprises a first cost minimization based on a real-time cost model that excludes time-based maintenance costs.