Transportation planning, execution, and freight payments managers and related methods
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A system for managing transportation operations, the system comprising:
- means for processing information related to the transportation of a good; and
means for determining an optimal transportation solution for the good using the processed information.
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Abstract
Disclosed herein is a transport manager and related method for determining an optimal, cost-minimizing set of product transportation decisions based upon expected transportation costs. Additionally, disclosed herein is an electronic execution and related method for tracking and controlling the delivery and/or pickup of products according to the optimal transportation plan and a payment manager and related method for forwarding payments and invoices for the transport of the products.
329 Citations
67 Claims
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1. A system for managing transportation operations, the system comprising:
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means for processing information related to the transportation of a good; and
means for determining an optimal transportation solution for the good using the processed information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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24. A method for managing transportation operations, the method comprising:
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processing information related to the transportation of a good; and
determining a transportation solution for the good using the processed information.
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42. A transportation operations managing network for managing transportation operations, the network comprising:
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a planning module for planning a freight movement between a initial pick-up location and a final drop-off location;
a management module to manage and execute the planned movement with private carrier fleets and/or one or more public carriers; and
a cost module for accrual, accounting and subsequent payment of all shipping costs incurred. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
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53. A computer program product for managing transportation operations, the computer program comprising:
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a computer readable program code configured for planning a freight movement between a initial pick-up location and a final drop-off location;
a computer readable program code configured for managing and executing the planned movement with private carrier fleets and/or one or more public carriers; and
a computer readable program code for accrual, accounting and subsequent payment of all shipping costs incurred during the transportation.
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54. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps for managing transportation operations for a plurality of orders, the method steps comprising:
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planning a freight movement between a initial pick-up location and a final drop-off location;
executing the planned freight movement with carriers; and
accounting for shipping costs incurred during execution of the planned freight movement. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64)
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65. A network of manager modules for planning, executing and paying for freight movements necessitated by a plurality of orders, said network comprising:
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a problem-solver module, said problem-solver module being adapted to accept carrier services information from potential carriers and business preferences information from a network user, said problem-solver module being further adapted to accept said orders and construct optimal freight movements from said orders based upon said carrier services information and said business preferences information;
an execution module, said execution module adapted to send tender offers to carriers associated with said optimal freight movements by said problem-solver module and to schedule said optimal freight movements for execution, and further adapted to track status of freight movements during execution; and
a freight payment module, said freight payment module being adapted to allocate invoiced costs received from carriers to appropriate orders and authorize payment of said invoiced costs to a relevant carrier. - View Dependent Claims (66, 67)
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Specification