System and method for optimization of group shipments to reduce shipping costs

• US 7,496,520 B1
• Filed: 07/22/2005
• Issued: 02/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Deem, Incorporated (Jack Taylor Family Voting Trust U A D 4 14 99)
• Original Assignee: Rearden Commerce Inc
• Inventors: Hernandez, Rick, Patwardhan, Shantanu, Handel, Sean, Orttung, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Hayes; John W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Flynn; Kevin
• Application Number:
  US11/187,484
• Time in Patent Office: 1,313 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/6, 705/7, 705/400
• US Class Current: 705/320
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08345 Pricing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/105 Human resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination

Abstract

A method and system to provide optimizing shipping costs that can help arbitrate between a precise solution at an unreasonable cost and a reasonable solution at a very reasonable cost. In one aspect, a method includes: receiving data related to delivering shipments to a set of recipients at separate addresses; generating a first shipping option to deliver shipments to a first sub-set of the recipients within a first time period, and to deliver shipments to a second sub-set of recipients within a second time period that is greater than the first time period, shipments to the second sub-set of recipients being a greater distance than shipments to the first sub-set of recipients, the first shipping option provides a cost of shipping savings relative to shipping to all of the recipients within the first time period; and presenting the first shipping option in a user interface to a user for selection.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving data related to delivering shipments to a set of recipients at separate addresses;

generating by a computer a first shipping option to deliver shipments to a first sub-set of the recipients within a first time period, and to deliver shipments to a second sub-set of recipients within a second time period that is greater than the first time period, shipments to the second sub-set of recipients being a greater distance than shipments to the first sub-set of recipients, the first shipping option provides a cost of shipping savings relative to shipping to all of the recipients within the first time period;

generating by the computer a second shipping option to deliver shipments to the first sub-set of the recipients within the first time period, and to deliver shipments to a third sub-set of recipients within a third time period that is greater than the second time period, the second shipping option provides a cost savings unequal to the first shipping option; and

presenting the first shipping option and the second shipping option in a user interface to a user for selection;

wherein a quantity of the third sub-set of recipients is unequal to a quantity of the second sub-set of recipients.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the first shipping option further comprises selecting the second sub-set of recipients to include a quantity of recipients to provide a cost of shipping savings equal to or greater than a predetermined percentage.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the generating of the first shipping option further comprises generating the first shipping option to deliver shipments to the first sub-set of recipients via a first shipping method, and to deliver the shipments to the second sub-set of recipients via a second shipping method.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first shipping option includes a first carrier delivering shipments to the first and second sub-set of recipients.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the first shipping option includes a first carrier delivering shipments to the first sub-set of recipients and a second carrier delivering shipments to the second sub-set of recipients.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising repeating the generating of the second shipping option to generate multiple shipping options to be provided to a user for selection, each shipping option providing the shipping cost savings equal to or greater than shipping to all of the recipients within the first time period, the multiple shipping options comprising one or more of different subset of recipients of different quantities, different time periods to deliver shipments to the different sub-set of recipients, and different shipping methods.

7. A tangible machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon a set of instructions which when executed on a processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

receiving data related to delivering shipments to a set of recipients at separate addresses;

generating a first shipping option to deliver shipments to a first sub-set of the recipients within a first time period, and to deliver shipments to a second sub-set of recipients within a second time period that is greater than the first time period, shipments to the second sub-set of recipients being a greater distance than shipments to the first sub-set of recipients, the first shipping option provides a cost of shipping savings relative to shipping to all of the recipients within the first time period;

generating a second shipping option to deliver shipments to the first sub-set of the recipients within the first time period, and to deliver shipments to a third sub-set of recipients within a third time period that is greater than the second time period, the second shipping option provides a cost savings unequal to the first shipping option; and

presenting the first shipping option and the second shipping option in a user interface to a user for selection;

wherein a quantity of the third sub-set of recipients is unequal to a quantity of the second subset of recipients.

8. The machine-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the generating of the first shipping option further comprises selecting the second sub-set of recipients to include a quantity of recipients to provide a cost of shipping savings equal to or greater than a predetermined percentage.

9. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the generating of the first shipping option further comprises generating the first shipping option to deliver shipments to the first sub-set of recipients via a first shipping method, and to deliver the shipments to the second sub-set of recipients via a second shipping method.

10. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the first shipping option includes a first carrier delivering shipments to the first and second subset of recipients.

11. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the first shipping option includes a first carrier delivering shipments to the first sub-set of recipients and a second carrier delivering shipments to the second subset of recipients.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises repeating the generating of the second option to generate multiple shipping options to be provided to a user for selection, each shipping option providing the shipping cost savings equal to or greater than shipping to all of the recipients within the first time period, the multiple shipping options comprising one or more of different sub-set of recipients of different quantities, different time periods to deliver shipments to the different sub-set of recipients, and different shipping methods.

13. A tangible system comprising:

means for receiving data related to delivering shipments to a set of recipients at separate addresses;

tangible means for generating a first shipping option to deliver shipments to a first subset of the recipients within a first time period, and to deliver shipments to a second sub-set of recipients within a second time period that is greater than the first time period, shipments to the second sub-set of recipients being a greater distance than shipments to the first sub-set of recipients, the first shipping option provides a cost of shipping savings relative to shipping to all of the recipients within the first time period;

tangible means for generating a second shipping option to deliver shipments to the first sub-set of the recipients within the first time period, and to deliver shipments to a third sub-set of recipients within a third time period that is greater than the second time period, the second shipping option provides a cost savings unequal to the first shipping option; and

means for presenting the first shipping option in a user interface to a user for selection;

wherein a quantity of the third sub-set of recipients is unequal to a quantity of the second subset of recipients.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the tangible means for generating the first shipping option further comprises selecting the second sub-set of recipients to include a quantity of recipients to provide a cost of shipping savings equal to or greater than a predetermined percentage.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the tangible means for generating the first shipping option further comprises generating the first shipping option to deliver shipments to the first sub-set of recipients via a first shipping method, and to deliver the shipments to the second sub-set of recipients via a second shipping method.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising tangible means for generating multiple shipping options to be provided to a user for selection, each shipping option providing the shipping cost savings equal to or greater than shipping to all of the recipients within the first time period, the multiple shipping options comprising one or more of different sub-set of recipients of different quantities, different time periods to deliver shipments to the different sub-set of recipients, and different shipping methods.