Global consolidated clearance methods and systems
First Claim
1. A shipping system for shipping international packages, comprising:
- a port of entry database; and
a consolidated clearance application, said consolidated clearance application configured to perform the steps of;
capturing shipment characteristics of a plurality of packages, wherein said shipment characteristics comprise an international destination and a consignee associated with each of said plurality of packages;
querying said port of entry database with at least one of said consignee and said international destination to assign a consolidated port of entry to each of said plurality of packages;
assigning each of said plurality of packages to a global consolidated shipment in accordance with a set of consolidation guidelines; and
generating global consolidated shipping labels for each of said plurality of packages.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention discloses systems and methods for automated consolidation of packages bound for international destinations. A first embodiment is disclosed for a client-side shipping application that automates the consolidation of packages and shipping of packages. In a second disclosed embodiment, the aggregation of like shipments occurs in one or more backend applications preferably residing on a service provider server. This will eliminate the need to produce and apply an over label for each package in the consolidated shipment. The first embodiment will address the elimination of the manual process of producing the address, over label and master invoice.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A shipping system for shipping international packages, comprising:
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a port of entry database; and
a consolidated clearance application, said consolidated clearance application configured to perform the steps of;
capturing shipment characteristics of a plurality of packages, wherein said shipment characteristics comprise an international destination and a consignee associated with each of said plurality of packages;
querying said port of entry database with at least one of said consignee and said international destination to assign a consolidated port of entry to each of said plurality of packages;
assigning each of said plurality of packages to a global consolidated shipment in accordance with a set of consolidation guidelines; and
generating global consolidated shipping labels for each of said plurality of packages. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A computer readable substrate having a computer program saved thereupon, said computer program configured to perform the steps of:
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capturing a first set of shipment characteristics that are associated with a first package that is bound for a first destination;
capturing a second set of shipment characteristics that are associated with a second package bound for a second destination;
aggregating said first and said second packages as a consolidated international shipment if said first and second sets of shipment characteristics satisfy a requirement for consolidated shipping;
associating a consolidated port of entry to said consolidated international shipment; and
generating a consignee address label and an over-label for said first and second packages. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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12. The computer program of clam 4, further configured to perform the step of associating at least one of summary shipment data, a master shipment identifier and a package tracking number with said consolidated international shipment.
Specification