Method and system for e-commerce freight management
First Claim
1. A computerized freight management method for arranging for shipment of a load from a shipper by a carrier, based on shipping data and carrier data supplied by the shipper and the carrier and for arranging for the buying or selling of a product, wherein the product comprises either a good or service, based on buyer data and seller data supplied by the buyer and the seller, the method comprising:
- inputting into the central processing system a request for bids—
from and—
by the shipper for shipping the load and by a buyer for purchasing a product;
transmitting an invitation electronically to bid for shipping the load and for purchasing a product by the central processing system to a plurality of carriers and product sellers,wherein carriers and product sellers can review the individual invitations just on their individual bulletin boards or use all or part of the bulletin board, master bulletin board and grand master bulletin board included in the transportation and marketplace tool concept to address, compare individual and alternatives, coordinate, and analyze a myriad of critical interrelated aspects of the freight management and product environments to determine the best business decisions prior to submitting a bid,wherein the individual bulletin boards being combined into master bulletin boards and into the grand master bulletin board addresses all transportation and product subsets including individual and multiple loads, combined loads, multiple deliveries, tours, interlining, warehousing and products,wherein these bulletin boards can be public or private;
receiving bids electronically at the central processing system by at least some of the carriers for shipping the load and by the sellers for selling a product;
transmitting to the shipper electronically a bid report with bids received from at least some of the carriers and some of the product sellers receiving the invitation to bid generated by the central processing system;
without the shipper and product buyer initiating communication with the computer system,wherein shippers and product buyers can review the individual bid reports just on their individual bulletin boards or use all or part of the bulletin board, master bulletin board and grand master bulletin board included in the transportation and marketplace tool concept to address, compare individual and alternatives, coordinate, and analyze a myriad of critical interrelated aspects of the freight management and product environments to determine the best business decisions prior to selecting a bid,wherein the individual bulletin boards being combined into master bulletin boards and into the grand master bulletin board addresses all transportation, product and service subsets including individual and multiple loads, combined loads, multiple deliveries, tours, interlining, warehousing and products,wherein these bulletin boards can be public or private;
receiving electronically at the central processing system by the shipper and by the buyer a bid selection of at least one of the bids; and
storing all entries both public and private to the grand master bulletin board, along with the appropriate master bulletin boards and the appropriate bulletin boards electronically by the computer system.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A freight management method and system for arranging for shipment of a load, offering equipment, selling a product, or providing a service from a shipper by a carrier, based on shipping data and carrier data supplied by the shipper and the carrier, respectively, comprising a central processing system (10), inputting into the central processing system (10) a request for bids (18), which includes requests to apply pre-defined rates from the shipper (12) for shipping a load; electronically transmitting an invitation to bid (19) for shipping the load from the central processing system (10) to a plurality of carriers (13); electronically receiving bids (20) at the central processing system (10) from at least some of the carriers (13) for shipping the load; electronically transmitting to the shipper a bid report (21) with bids received from at least some of the carriers (13) receiving the invitation to bids; and electronically receiving from the shipper a bid selection (22) and notifying the carrier of acceptance (23) of at least one of the bids.
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Citations
37 Claims
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1. A computerized freight management method for arranging for shipment of a load from a shipper by a carrier, based on shipping data and carrier data supplied by the shipper and the carrier and for arranging for the buying or selling of a product, wherein the product comprises either a good or service, based on buyer data and seller data supplied by the buyer and the seller, the method comprising:
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inputting into the central processing system a request for bids—
from and—
by the shipper for shipping the load and by a buyer for purchasing a product;transmitting an invitation electronically to bid for shipping the load and for purchasing a product by the central processing system to a plurality of carriers and product sellers, wherein carriers and product sellers can review the individual invitations just on their individual bulletin boards or use all or part of the bulletin board, master bulletin board and grand master bulletin board included in the transportation and marketplace tool concept to address, compare individual and alternatives, coordinate, and analyze a myriad of critical interrelated aspects of the freight management and product environments to determine the best business decisions prior to submitting a bid, wherein the individual bulletin boards being combined into master bulletin boards and into the grand master bulletin board addresses all transportation and product subsets including individual and multiple loads, combined loads, multiple deliveries, tours, interlining, warehousing and products, wherein these bulletin boards can be public or private; receiving bids electronically at the central processing system by at least some of the carriers for shipping the load and by the sellers for selling a product; transmitting to the shipper electronically a bid report with bids received from at least some of the carriers and some of the product sellers receiving the invitation to bid generated by the central processing system;
without the shipper and product buyer initiating communication with the computer system,wherein shippers and product buyers can review the individual bid reports just on their individual bulletin boards or use all or part of the bulletin board, master bulletin board and grand master bulletin board included in the transportation and marketplace tool concept to address, compare individual and alternatives, coordinate, and analyze a myriad of critical interrelated aspects of the freight management and product environments to determine the best business decisions prior to selecting a bid, wherein the individual bulletin boards being combined into master bulletin boards and into the grand master bulletin board addresses all transportation, product and service subsets including individual and multiple loads, combined loads, multiple deliveries, tours, interlining, warehousing and products, wherein these bulletin boards can be public or private; receiving electronically at the central processing system by the shipper and by the buyer a bid selection of at least one of the bids; and storing all entries both public and private to the grand master bulletin board, along with the appropriate master bulletin boards and the appropriate bulletin boards electronically by the computer system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A computerized method of buying or selling a product wherein the product comprises either a good or a service, the method comprising:
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making a plurality of invitations to bid from a plurality of product buyers and shippers available to a plurality of product sellers and carriers on the computer system for electronic access by the product sellers and carriers, wherein carriers and product sellers can review the individual invitations just on their individual bulletin boards or use all or part of the bulletin board, master bulletin board and grand master bulletin board included in the transportation and marketplace tool concept to address, compare individual and alternatives, coordinate, and analyze a myriad of critical interrelated aspects of the freight management and product environments to determine the best business decisions prior to submitting a bid, wherein the individual bulletin boards being combined into master bulletin boards and into the grand master bulletin board addresses all transportation and product subsets including individual and multiple loads, combined loads, multiple deliveries, tours, interlining, warehousing and products, wherein these bulletin boards can be public or private; making a plurality of bids from a plurality of product sellers and carriers available to product buyers and shippers on said computer system for electronic access by the product buyers and shippers; receiving in response electronically a plurality of bids from a plurality of product sellers and carriers for a product requested by a product buyer and shipper, making an analysis of the bids and generating a first report that ranks the bids according to at least one predetermined criterion stored in the computer system; transmitting the first report to the product buyer and shipper electronically without the product buyer and shipper initiating communication with the computer system, wherein shippers or product buyers can review the individual bid reports just on their individual bulletin boards or use all or part of the bulletin board, master bulletin board and grand master bulletin board included in the transportation and marketplace tool concept to address, compare individual and alternatives, coordinate, and analyze a myriad of critical interrelated aspects of the freight management and product environments to determine the best business decisions prior to selecting a bid, wherein the individual bulletin boards being combined into master bulletin boards and into the grand master bulletin board addresses all transportation and product subsets including individual and multiple loads, combined loads, multiple deliveries, tours, interlining, warehousing and products, wherein these bulletin boards can be public or private; wherein the product buyer and shipper can select one of the bids and communicate an acceptance to the computer system, which will then notify the other party of the communication to complete the sale; and storing all entries both public and private to the grand master bulletin board, along with the appropriate master bulletin boards and the appropriate bulletin boards electronically by the computer system. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A computerized freight management system for arranging for shipment of a load from a shipper by a carrier, based on shipping data and carrier data supplied by the shipper and the carrier and for arranging for the buying or selling of a product, wherein the product comprises either a good or service, based on product buyer data and product seller data supplied by the product buyer and the product seller the system comprising:
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a central processing system; means for making a plurality of invitations to bid from a plurality of shippers available to a plurality of carriers as a carrier'"'"'s master bulletin board and/or bulletin board on the computer system for electronic access from the central processing system by the carriers and from a plurality or product buyers available to a plurality of product sellers as a product seller'"'"'s master bulletin board and/or bulletin board on the computer system for electronic access from the central processing system by the product sellers; means for making a plurality of bids from a plurality of carriers available to shippers on said computer system as a shipper'"'"'s master bulletin board and/or bulletin board for electronic access from the central processing system by the shippers or from a plurality of product sellers available to product buyers on said computer system as a product buyer'"'"'s master bulletin board and/or bulletin board for electronic access from the central processing system by the product buyers; said shipper'"'"'s master bulletin board and/or bulletin board and said carrier'"'"'s master bulletin board and/or bulletin board are integrated together into a grand master bulletin board on the central processing system or said product buyer'"'"'s master bulletin board and/or bulletin board and said product seller'"'"'s master bulletin board and/or bulletin board are integrated together into a grand master bulletin board on the central processing system that is publicly accessible of which can be viewed by a member of the public, and wherein said grand master bulletin board also includes private master bulletin boards and bulletin boards that are only accessible by a limited number of parties having proper identification and passwords for access. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37)
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Specification