System for Tracking Shipments

• US 20150324741A1
• Filed: 05/07/2014
• Published: 11/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories, LLC (Laboratory Corporation Of America Holdings)
• Original Assignee: Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories, LLC (Laboratory Corporation Of America Holdings)
• Inventors: Parry, John Mathew, Pock, Tamra Dee, Farnsworth, JoAnn Fay, Fowler, Michael Lee, Borg, Aaron
• Application Number:
  US14/272,196
• Publication Number:
  US 20150324741A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08355 Routing methods

Abstract

This disclosure describes, in part, systems and techniques for tracking shipments from multiple locations in transit with multiple couriers. In some implementations, this disclosure describes a tracking service which uses data sources to generate one or more tracking interfaces which may allow a user to dynamically monitor and/or modify each shipment. In some implementations, each tracking interface may include tracking data from the data sources such as shipment origin, courier information, tracking identification numbers for each shipment from the multiple locations, items in the shipment, and/or identification numbers for the items in the shipment.

Claims

1. A tracking system comprising:

one or more processors;

memory;

a data acquisition module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to acquire data from one or more data sources, wherein the data acquired corresponds to tracking data of one or more items in transit from one or more locations;

a communications module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to communicate with the one or more data sources to alter the transit of at least one of the one or more items from the one or more locations; and

an interface module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to generate one or more interfaces for presentation on an electronic device, the one or more interfaces to present the data acquired by the data acquisition module, and the one or more interfaces comprising at least a pending shipment interface to display tracking data for the one or more items in transit from the one or more locations.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more interfaces generated by the interface module for presentation on an electronic device further comprise:

a shipment history interface to display tracking data for one or more items previously received from the one or more locations;

a configuration interface in communication with the communications module including one or more controls usable to alter the transit of at least one of the one or more items from the one or more locations; and

an administration interface to display details about the data acquired from the one or more data sources by the data acquisition module and the communications with the one or more data sources by the communications module.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the tracking data comprises one or more of the following:

a status of each of the one or more items in transit from the one or more locations;

a name of the one or more locations;

a courier of each of the one or more items;

a tracking identification number of each of the one or more items in transit from the one or more locations;

an original estimated time of arrival of each of the one or more items in transit from the one or more locations;

an adjusted estimated time of arrival of each of the one or more items in transit from the one or more locations;

traffic information for a route of each of the one or more items in transit from the one or more locations;

weather information for the route of each of the one or more items in transit from the one or more locations;

a number of the one or more items in transit from the one or more locations;

or

a tracking identification of each of the number of the one or more items in transit from the one or more locations.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the tracking data is acquired from one or more users of the tracking system.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the interface module generates one or more notifications for presentation on the electronic device, the one or more notifications comprising tracking data corresponding to a delay in transit for one of the one or more items from the one or more locations.

6. The system as recited in claim 5, wherein the one or more notifications generated by the interface module are sent to one or more users of the tracking system by at least one of an email, a short message service (SMS) or a multimedia message service (MMS).

7. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to performs acts comprising:

accessing data associated with tracking data of one or more shipments in transit to a destination, the one or more shipments being from multiple locations; and

generating, based at least on the tracking data, one or more user interfaces for presentation on an electronic device, wherein at least one of the one or more user interfaces comprises tracking data corresponding to an adjusted estimated time of arrival of each of the one or more shipments in transit to the destination.

8. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein the acts further comprise:

receiving a request to alter the one or more shipments by deleting one or more stops for one of the multiple locations;

or

receiving a request to alter the one or more shipments by adding one or more stops for one of the multiple locations.

9. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein the acts further comprise:

generating a notification for presentation on the electronic device, the notification comprising tracking data corresponding to a delay in transit for one of the one or more shipments; and

sending the notification to one or more users via an email, a short message service (SMS) or a multimedia message service (MMS).

10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein one or more user interfaces are configured to present a pop-up box to present additional details for the tracking data presented in each of the one or more interfaces.

11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein one or more user interfaces comprise one or more sort controls usable to sort the tracking data.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein the tracking data comprises one or more of the following:

a status of each of the one or more shipments;

a name of a location of the multiple locations;

a courier of each of the one or more shipments;

a tracking identification number of each of the one or more shipments;

an original estimated time of arrival of each of the one or more shipments;

traffic information for a route of each of the one or more shipments;

weather information for the route of each of the one or more shipments;

a number of items in each of the one or more shipments;

or

a tracking identification of each of the number items in each of the one or more shipments.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein accessing the data associated with tracking data comprises acquiring the tracking data from one or more data sources, each of the one or more data sources maintained by one or more third party monitoring services, one or more weather monitoring systems, one or more traffic monitoring systems, one or more global positioning system monitoring systems, or one or more flight tracking networks.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein accessing the data associated with tracking data comprises acquiring the tracking data from one or more users.

15. A method comprising:

presenting, by one or more computing devices, one or more shipment tracking interfaces, wherein at least one of the one or more shipment tracking interfaces comprises route details corresponding to one or more stops in transit toward a destination of one or more shipments;

receiving, by at least one computing device of the one or more computing devices, a request to alter the route details of one of the one or more shipments; and

communicating, by at least one computing device of the one or more computing devices, the request to the one or more stops to alter the route details.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, further comprising altering, by at least one computing device of the one or more computing devices, the route details for the one of the one or more shipments by one or more of the following:

deleting one or more stops for the route;

or

adding one or more stops for the route.

17. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the communicating further comprises the request to one or more couriers to alter the route details.

18. The method as recited in claim 15, further comprising:

acquiring tracking data associated with the one or more shipments in transit toward the destination from one or more data sources, each of the one or more data sources maintained by one or more third party monitoring services, one or more weather monitoring systems, one or more traffic monitoring systems, one or more global positioning system monitoring systems, or one or more flight tracking networks; and

generating, based at least on the acquired tracking data, an adjusted estimated time of arrival of each of the one or more shipments in transit toward the destination for presentation in at least one of the one or more shipment tracking interfaces.

19. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the tracking data comprises one or more of the following:

a status of each of the one or more shipments;

a courier of each of the one or more shipments;

a tracking identification number of each of the one or more shipments;

an original estimated time of arrival of each of the one or more shipments;

traffic information for a route of each of the one or more shipments;

weather information for the route of each of the one or more shipments;

a number of items in each of the one or more shipments;

or

a tracking identification of each of the number items in each of the one or more shipments.

20. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the presented one or more shipment tracking interfaces may be presented simultaneously on a plurality of electronic devices.