Real time communication for carrier operations

• US 10,332,058 B1
• Filed: 06/27/2014
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kandregula, Krishnaditya, Kasat, Nimish, Burugu, Palvali Teja, Shukla, Swapnil
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn, Kevin H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Murray, Wayne S.
• Application Number:
  US14/317,527
• Time in Patent Office: 1,824 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0835 Relationships between shipper or supplier and carriers

Abstract

Aspects of real time communications for carrier operations are described. In one embodiment, a shipping or operations schedule may include information associated with containers awaiting disposition at a materials handling facility. Based on a schedule of vehicles expected to arrive for loading or unloading the containers, for example, one or more move plan messages may be generated and forwarded to carriers. When a carrier starts a loading or unloading operation at the materials handling facility, messages from the carrier, such as load start, move update, or load complete messages may be received. The messages may be used to update the shipping or operations schedule in an ongoing fashion. Further, a display may be generated based on the updated shipping or operations schedule. By reference to the display, it may be possible to identify holdups, backups, errors, or other problems in loading and/or unloading operations at the materials handling facility.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying at least one program executable in at least one computing device, the at least one program having instructions that perform a method comprising:

generating, by the at least one computing device, a shipping schedule for a materials handling facility;

accessing, by the at least one computing device, a message service to retrieve a vehicle run information message from a carrier;

generating, by the at least one computing device, a move plan message based at least in part upon the vehicle run information message and the shipping schedule;

posting, by the at least one computing device, the move plan message to the message service for access by the carrier;

accessing, by the at least one computing device, the message service to retrieve a load start update message from the carrier responsive to the carrier starting a loading operation according to the move plan message;

accessing, by the at least one computing device, the message service to retrieve at least one move update message from the carrier responsive to the carrier moving at least one container of the loading operation according to the move plan message;

generating, by the at least one computing device, a real-time survey of the materials handling facility, wherein generating the real-time survey comprises identifying a location of the at least one container in the materials handling facility using a camera;

comparing, by the at least one computing device, the location of the at least one container and an expected location of the at least one container from the shipping schedule in response to generating the real-time survey of the materials handling facility

accessing, by the at least one computing device, the message service to retrieve a load complete update message from the carrier responsive to the carrier completing the loading operation according to the move plan message;

updating, by the at least one computing device, the shipping schedule based at least in part on at least one of the comparison between the location of the at least one container and the expected location of the at least one container from the shipping schedule, the load start update message, the at least one move update message, or the load complete update message; and

providing, by the at least one computing device, feedback to at least one of the carrier or the materials handling facility at each stage of the loading operation by generating a page for display of the updated shipping schedule.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, the method further comprising accessing, by the at least one computing device, the message service to retrieve a vehicle arrival update message from the carrier.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the move plan message includes at least one of an identifier of the move plan message, a facility identifier, a carrier identifier, a container identifier, a container availability start time, a container availability end time, a staging location, or a container task operation code.

4. A system, comprising:

at least one memory device to store computer-readable instructions; and

at least one computing device configured, through execution of the computer-readable instructions, to perform a method comprising;

generating, by the at least one computing device, a shipping schedule for a materials handling facility;

generating, by the at least one computing device, a move plan message based at least in part on the shipping schedule, the move plan message including information for loading or unloading one or more containers by a carrier at the materials handling facility;

accessing, by the at least one computing device, at least one update message from the carrier responsive to the carrier at least one of starting a loading operation, moving at least one container for the loading operation, or completing a loading or unloading operation at the materials handling facility;

generating a survey of the materials handling facility, wherein generating the survey comprises identifying a location of the at least one container in the materials handling facility using a camera;

comparing the location of the at least one container and an expected location of the at least one container from the shipping schedule;

updating, by the at least one computing device, the shipping schedule based at least in part on the comparison between the location of the at least one container and the expected location of the at least one container from the shipping schedule or the at least one update message; and

providing, by the at least one computing device, feedback to at least one of the carrier or the materials handling facility during at least one stage of the loading or unloading operation based at least in part on the updated shipping schedule.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein:

updating the shipping schedule comprises revising, by the at least one computing device, a data entry associated with at least one attribute of a container awaiting disposition at the materials handling facility; and

providing feedback comprises generating and displaying a network page for display, the network page for display including the shipping schedule and the at least one attribute of the container awaiting disposition at the materials handling facility.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the at least one attribute of the container includes at least one of a load state attribute, an expected load time attribute, a route attribute, an assigned carrier attribute, or a truck identifier attribute.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the network page includes at least one of move plan, carrier, route, expected load time, and actual load time display fields.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the method further comprises:

accessing, by the at least one computing device, a vehicle run information message from the carrier, wherein generating the move plan message comprises generating the move plan message based at least in part upon the vehicle run information message and the shipping schedule.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein the method further comprises:

at least one of accessing, by the at least one computing device, a vehicle arrival update message from the carrier, or accessing, by the at least one computing device, a load complete update message from the carrier responsive to the carrier completing the loading or unloading operation,

wherein updating the shipping schedule comprises updating the shipping schedule based at least in part upon the vehicle arrival update message or the load complete update message.

10. The system of claim 4, wherein providing the feedback comprises providing information associated with error conditions of the loading or unloading operation.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the error conditions include at least one of vehicle arrival at an incorrect location, arrival of incorrect vehicle for the loading or unloading operation, early or late start of the loading or unloading operation, incorrect loading or unloading of the one or more containers, incomplete loading or unloading of the one or more containers, incorrect order of loading or unloading of the one or more containers, incorrect handling of the one or more containers, or early or late completion of the loading or unloading operation.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the error conditions are provided as italicized, bolded or underlined outputs, different colored outputs, flashing outputs, or audio alerts or messages.

13. The system of claim 4, wherein the updating of the shipping schedule is based at least in part on the survey of the materials handling facility, wherein the survey of the materials handling facility is based at least in part on inputs received from sensors, scanners or tag readers within the materials handling facility.

14. A method, comprising:

generating, by at least one computing device, a shipping schedule for a materials handling facility;

accessing, by the at least one computing device, a vehicle run information message from a carrier;

based at least in part upon the vehicle run information message and the shipping schedule, generating, by the at least one computing device, a move plan message associated with containers awaiting a loading or unloading operation by the carrier;

accessing, by the at least one computing device, at least one move update message from the carrier during at least one stage of the loading or unloading operation of the move plan message;

generating, by the at least one computing device, a survey of the materials handling facility, wherein generating the survey comprises identifying a location of at least one container in the materials handling facility using a camera;

comparing, by the at least one computing device, the location of the at least one container and an expected location of the at least one container from the shipping schedule;

updating, by the at least one computing device, the shipping schedule based at least in part upon the at least one move update message or the comparison between the location of the at least one container and the expected location of the at least one container from the shipping schedule, and

providing, by the at least one computing device, feedback to at least one of the carrier or the materials handling facility during at least one stage of the loading or unloading operation of the move plan message by generating a page for displaying the updated shipping schedule.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising accessing, by the at least one computing device, a vehicle arrival update message from the carrier.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

accessing, by the at least one computing device, a load start update message from the carrier responsive to the carrier starting the loading or unloading operation; and

accessing, by the at least one computing device, a load complete update message from the carrier responsive to the carrier completing the loading or unloading operation.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising updating the shipping schedule based at least in part upon at least one of the vehicle arrival update message, the load start update message, or the load complete update message.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the move plan message includes at least one of an identifier of the move plan message, a facility identifier, a carrier identifier, a container identifier, a container availability start time, a container availability end time, a staging location, or a container task operation code.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein generating the shipping schedule comprises determining at least one of a carrier, a route, or expected load time for at least one container in the materials handling facility.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein updating the shipping schedule comprises revising a data entry associated with at least one attribute of a container awaiting disposition at the materials handling facility.