System and method for providing a price quotation for a transportation service based on equipment ownership
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for computing the price of a railway transportation service for the shipping goods is provided. A computer delivers first information to a user prompting the user to enter at the computer information about a rail route for shipment of goods by one or more railcars. A price for the shipment of the goods is then computed at least in part on the basis of the information about the rail route and the ownership of the one or more railcars. The computer displays to the user the price for the shipment of the goods or, alternatively, the price for the shipment of the goods is provided to the user via other ways such as e-mail, snail-mail or fax.
88 Citations
23 Claims
-
1-5. -5. (canceled)
-
6. A method for delivering a price from a railway transportation company to a customer for shipping a commodity by rail, the method implemented by a system comprising a computing device associated with the customer, the method including:
-
a) displaying at the computing device one or more information gathering fields to allow the customer to specify an origin and destination of the shipment; b) displaying at the computing device a railcar information gathering field that that allows the customer select an input option amongst a plurality of input options, wherein; i) a first input option amongst the plurality of input options indicates that a railcar to be used for shipping the commodity is owned by the rail transportation company; ii) a second input option amongst the plurality of input options indicates that a railcar to be used for shipping the commodity is owned by a party other than the rail transpiration company; c) displaying at the computing device a control operable by the customer to cause a price for shipping the commodity to be computed on the basis of multiple factors including the input option selected amongst the plurality of input options; d) displaying at the computing device the computed price. - View Dependent Claims (7)
-
-
8. A computer readable medium including a program element implementing a graphical user interface (GUI) allowing a railway transportation company to deliver to a customer a price for shipping a commodity by rail, the GUI comprising:
-
a) an origin and destination information gathering fields allowing a customer to specify an origin and destination of the shipment; b) a railcar information gathering field that that allows the customer to select an input option amongst a plurality of input options, wherein; i) a first input option amongst the plurality of input options indicates that a railcar to be used for shipping the commodity is owned by the rail transportation company; ii) a second input option amongst the plurality of input options indicates that a railcar to be used for shipping the commodity is owned by a party other than the rail transpiration company; c) a control component operable by the customer to cause a price for shipping the commodity to be computed on the basis of multiple factors including the input option selected amongst the plurality of input options; d) a price display field for displaying to the customer the price for shipping the commodity. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
-
-
12. A method for a railway transportation company to provide a customer with a price for shipping a commodity by one or more railcars, the method comprising:
-
a) receiving at a network server that communicates with a customer'"'"'s computer over a data network; i) information input by the customer that specifies an origin of the shipment of the commodity; ii) information input by the customer that specifies a destination of the shipment of the commodity; iii) information input by the customer specifying that a railcar that is to be used for shipping the commodity is owned by an entity other than the rail transportation company; b) generating a price for shipping the commodity computed on the basis of multiple factors including the information input by the customer specifying that a railcar that is to be used for shipping the commodity is owned by an entity other than the rail transportation company; c) sending data to the customer'"'"'s computer to display the price for shipping the commodity to the customer. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A method for a railway transportation company to electronically receive from a customer an order for shipping a commodity by rail, the method implemented by a system comprising a computing device associated with the customer, the method including:
-
a) displaying at the computing device one or more information fields to allow the customer to specify an origin and destination of the shipment; b) displaying at the computing device a railcar information field that that allows the customer to selected an input option amongst a plurality of input options, wherein; i) a first input option selected amongst the plurality of input options indicates that a railcar to be used for shipping the commodity is owned by the rail transportation company; ii) a second input option amongst the plurality of input options indicates that a railcar to be used for shipping the commodity is owned by a party other than the rail transpiration company; c) displaying at the computing device a control operable by the customer to order from the transportation company a transportation service for shipping the commodity using a railcar according to the input option selected amongst the plurality of input options.
-
-
17. A method for delivering a price from a railway transportation company to a customer for shipping a commodity by rail, the method implemented by a system comprising a computing device associated with the customer, the method including:
-
a) displaying at the computing device one or more information gathering fields to allow the customer to specify an origin and destination of the shipment; b) displaying at the computing device a railcar information gathering field that that enables the customer to select an input option amongst a plurality of input options, wherein; i) a first input option amongst the plurality of input options indicates that a railcar to be used for shipping the commodity is owned by the customer; ii) a second input option amongst the plurality of input options indicates that a railcar to be used for shipping the commodity is owned by a party other than the customer; c) displaying at the computing device a control operable by the customer to cause a price for shipping the commodity to be computed on the basis of multiple factors including the input option selected amongst the plurality of input options; d) displaying at the computing device the computed price for shipping the commodity.
-
-
18. A method for delivering a quote from a railway transportation company to a customer for shipping a commodity by rail, the method being implemented on a computing device, the method comprising:
-
a) presenting a customer with an option to specify an origin and destination of the shipment; b) presenting the customer with an option to specify a railcar owner whose one or more railcars are to be used for shipping the commodity, the option to specify a railcar owner allowing the customer to specify an entity as railcar owner that is distinct from the railway transportation company; c) computing a price quote for shipping the commodity on the basis of multiple factors including the entity specified by the customer as railcar owner; d) providing the customer with the price quote for shipping the commodity computed on the basis of multiple factors including the entity specified by the customer as railcar owner. - View Dependent Claims (19)
-
-
20. A computer readable medium including a program element implementing a graphical user interface (GUI) allowing a railway transportation company to deliver to a customer a quote for shipping a commodity by rail, the GUI comprising:
-
a) an origin and destination field allowing a customer to specify an origin and destination of the shipment; b) a railcar owner selection field presenting the customer with an input option to specify a railcar owner whose one or more railcars are to be used for shipping the commodity, the input option allowing the customer to specify an entity as railcar owner that is distinct from the railway transportation company; c) a control component for allowing the customer to cause a price quote for shipping the commodity to be computed on the basis of multiple factors including the entity specified by the customer as railcar owner; d) a price quotation field for displaying to the customer the price quote for shipping the commodity computed on the basis of multiple factors including the entity specified by the customer as railcar owner. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
-
Specification