System for exchanging materials

• US 20030110068A1
• Filed: 02/15/2002
• Published: 06/12/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Construction Emarket Incorporated, Constructions Emarkets, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Construction Emarket Incorporated
• Inventors: Rossi, David, Cottrell, Timothy, Matheson, Lesley R.
• Application Number:
  US10/077,498
• Publication Number:
  US 20030110068A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A method of facilitating the exchange of bulk materials is provided. The method involves receiving and storing in a searchable database postings from potential providers of excess materials regarding their respective excesses. The posting includes information indicative of the material, such as its composition, location, source, and contact information for the potential provider. Potential acceptors of material search and view the postings, rather than purchase newly quarried material. The potential acceptors can also post descriptions of their needs. The database is searched, comparing the descriptions of the needs with postings of the excesses. Information about compatible excesses or needs found to correspond with a user'"'"'s need or excess are then displayed to the user, with information regarding the location of the material relative to the need.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating the exchange of bulk materials, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a searchable database;

adding information indicative of potential suppliers'"'"' excess material to the database;

accepting information indicative of a potential acceptor'"'"'s need for material;

comparing the information indicative of a potential acceptor'"'"'s need for material to the information indicative of potential suppliers'"'"' excess material to determine the excess materials that are compatible with the need; and

reporting the compatible excess material or need to a user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the adding step comprises the step of recording location, characteristics, and contact information for the potential supplier of the excess materials.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the accepting step comprises receiving information indicative of a location where material is needed.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the accepting step further comprises the step of receiving a geographic distance away from the location where material is needed, the distance representing a limit of how far compatible material may be located from the location where material is needed.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

gathering information about suppliers of one or more services related to the material, the type of information that is gathered being particularly associated with the type of services being provided; and

displaying advertisements for selected suppliers of a particular service about which a user who desires that service inquires, the displayed information being based on the gathered information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein prior to the step of displaying, the method comprises the steps of:

searching a directory of service providers in response to a user query for providers of a particular service;

providing a list matches from the directory of service providers that provide the particular service, the providers being sorted by the distance of each provider from the location of the user'"'"'s need;

wherein the displaying step is performed in response to the user'"'"'s selection of a particular provider from the sorted list.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing step includes the steps of:

establishing the database on a computer connected to the Internet, and

providing a web page interface for a user to access information from the database from a remote computer.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of allowing users access to the database by establishing user accounts.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the allowing step comprises the step of charging a fee for subscriptions to establish the user accounts.

10. A system for facilitating the exchange of excavated material, the method comprising the steps of:

providing an Internet host capable of storing information indicative of available materials at locations of a first group and needs for materials at locations of a second group;

receiving information from potential suppliers indicative of available excavated materials at a plurality of locations;

receiving information from a potential purchaser indicative of a need for available excavated material at a location;

comparing the information indicative of the potential purchaser'"'"'s need to the information indicative of available materials to identify available materials that are compatible with the potential purchaser'"'"'s need; and

reporting to the potential purchaser a list of available material that meets the potential purchaser'"'"'s need.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the system further comprises the step of writing to computer memory the locations of the available materials, characteristics of the materials at each location, and contact information for the potential supplier of the available material at each location.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the information indicative of the need for materials includes information indicating the location where material is needed.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the comparing step further comprises the step of determining the distances between the location where material is needed and the locations of the available materials, and wherein the reporting step includes the step of sorting based on distance the available materials that meet the potential purchaser'"'"'s need.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the step of receiving information from a potential purchaser comprises the step of storing in computer memory information indicating the location where material is needed.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the comparing step further comprises the step of periodically evaluating the needs for materials and the available materials to identify any compatible available materials and needs.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the reporting step comprises sending an email to the user when a compatibility is determined.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the reporting step comprises contacting the user when a compatibility is determined, the step of contacting the user involves performing an action selected from a group consisting of telephoning the user, sending the user a facsimile, sending the user a text message, and sending the user a phone page.

18. The system of claim 10 further comprising the step of providing a user homepage, the user homepage displaying information previously selected by the user and information related to the user, the information related to the user including a list of the particular user'"'"'s job sites and information related to the user'"'"'s activity on the system including number of active search requests that the user has submitted.

19. The system of claim 10 wherein the reporting step further includes the step of listing available materials sorted by distance from a location where material is needed.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the reporting step further comprises the step of providing links to detailed descriptions of the listed available materials.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein each detailed description includes characteristics of the available material and a link which provides an email page preaddressed to the potential provider of the material for contacting the provider about the available material.

22. The system of claim 10 further comprising the steps of:

providing a plurality of computer user interfaces, each computer interface being tailored to a particular service, each computer interface having text boxes for entry of text by a service provider related to the particular service for which the computer interface was configured;

allowing service providers to select one of the computer interfaces for supplying advertising information for an on-line advertisement; and

displaying, in response to a user command, a list of service providers of a particular service, the display including links to at least some of the listed service providers'"'"' on-line advertisements.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the list is sorted by the distance the providers are located from a specific location.

24. A method of facilitating the exchange of bulk materials, the method comprising the steps of:

providing searchable computer memory;

storing in memory postings indicative of excess bulk materials at a plurality of job sites;

displaying one or more of the postings in response to an input of a particular need by a user for excess materials;

accepting alerts from users regarding a need for excess material;

comparing the alerts and postings to determine if any excess materials are compatible with any needs identified in the alert; and

reporting the compatible excess material to the user.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising the steps of

providing a plurality of user interfaces, each interface being configured to receive information related to a user and a particular service, each user interface having sections for receiving textual information pertinent to the particular service for which each interface was designed;

receiving and storing information inputted by the service providers using the user interfaces;

creating on-line advertisements for at least selected service providers, each advertisement being based at least in part on the received information; and

displaying a list of providers of a particular service in response to a user selection, the list including links to at least some of the provider'"'"'s on-line advertisements.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein each posting comprises the location of the excess material, characteristics of the material, and contact information for a potential provider of the material.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the displaying step comprises producing a list of postings within a selected distance of a location where material is needed.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the selected distance is chosen by a user and wherein the list is sorted by the respective distances between the locations of excess materials and the location of the need.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein the displaying step further comprises the step of providing links to a detailed description of at least some of the postings.

30. The method of claim 29 further comprising the step of displaying the detailed description of a posting in response to the selection of a link being selected by a user.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein each detailed description of a posting includes an option for a user to respond to the posting.

32. The method of claim 31 further comprising the step of producing a homepage individualized for a particular user, the homepage including a list of the particular user'"'"'s job sites, indications of a quantity of alerts submitted by the particular user that are still active, a quantity of postings submitted by the particular user that are still active, a quantity of responses to the particular user'"'"'s postings, and information selected by the user.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein the indication of the quantity of responses to the particular user'"'"'s postings includes a link which when selected displays a list of the particular responses to the user'"'"'s postings.

34. The method of claim 26 wherein the displaying step comprises producing a list of postings indicative of excess materials having one or more selected characteristics.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein the selected characteristics are selected by a user.

36. The method of claim 24 wherein the reporting step comprises sending an email to the user.

37. The method of claim 24 wherein the reporting step comprises contacting the user when a compatibility is determined, the step of contacting the user involves performing an action selected from a group consisting of telephoning the user, sending the user a facsimile, sending the user a text message, and sending the user a phone page.

38. The method of claim 27 further comprising the step of providing a homepage individualized for a particular user, the homepage including a list of the particular user'"'"'s job sites, indications of a quantity of alerts submitted by the particular user that are still active, a quantity of postings submitted by the particular user that are still active, a quantity of responses to the particular user'"'"'s postings, and information selected by the user.

38-1. A storage medium encoded with machine-readable computer program code, the computer program code for directing a computer to perform the steps of:

receiving posting indicative of bulk materials that are or will be available at particular locations;

storing the material postings;

receiving postings indicative of a need for bulk materials at particular locations;

storing the need postings;

receiving inputted information from a user of either a need for material or availability of material;

searching the database in response to the user inputted information for need or material postings that are responsive to the user inputted information; and

displaying the responsive postings, the displayed postings including a calculated distance between a user selected location and a location associated with each posting.

40. The storage medium of claim 39 wherein the bulk materials are soil.

41. The storage medium of claim 39 wherein the bulk materials are selected from a group consisting of excavation materials, asphalt grindings, and earthwork.

42. A storage medium encoded with machine-readable computer program code, the computer program code for directing a computer to perform the steps of:

receiving information indicative of potential suppliers'"'"' excess bulk material;

storing the excess bulk material information in a database;

receiving information indicative of a potential acceptor'"'"'s need for bulk material;

comparing the information indicative of the potential acceptor'"'"'s need for bulk material with the excess bulk material information to determine if the excess bulk material information meets the specified need; and

displaying the excess material information if that material meets the specified need.

43. The storage medium of claim 42 wherein the information related to the potential suppliers'"'"' excess bulk material includes information of the bulk material characteristics, and wherein the information related to the potential acceptor'"'"'s need includes desired bulk material characteristics, and wherein the step of comparing information involves comparing the desired characteristics with the characteristics of the excess material.