Systems and methods for international shipping and brokerage operations support processing

• US 7,725,406 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2004
• Issued: 05/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: United Parcel Service Of America Incorporated (United Parcel Service Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: United Parcel Service Of America Incorporated (United Parcel Service Incorporated)
• Inventors: Black, Dale, Clements, Gary
• Primary Examiner(s): Hayes; John W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jabr; Fadey S
• Application Number:
  US10/814,958
• Publication Number:
  US 20050222853A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,247 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/400
• US Class Current: 705/331
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0831 Overseas transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for a brokerage operations support system to facilitate international shipping of goods into a country. The system receives information pertaining to a shipment and rates the shipment for a specific country by applying rules defined for the country'"'"'s customs regulations. Status information of the shipment is received by the system, including whether the shipment has cleared the importing country'"'"'s customs process. If the shipment has not cleared, the handling systems ensure the shipment is withheld from delivery until clearance is obtained. A flexible system architecture comprising a server and both attended and unattended workstations for a core system that can be modified to allow rating and processing of shipments occur in various modes to accommodate the procedures for each importing country.

Claims

1. A system for rating a shipment comprising:

a database for storing shipment data comprising a description of one good in the shipment, a shipper of the good, and an importer of the good,

the database storing a plurality of rating profiles, each rating profile comprising a description of an item, a shipper of the item, an importer of the item, and a tariff code associated with the item; and

a processor configured to;

access the database;

compare the description of the good with the description of the item for each of the plurality of rating profiles;

select a first rating profile from the plurality of rating profiles based at least in part on a comparison between the description of the good with the description of the item from the first rating profile;

determine a confidence level associated with the first rating profile based at least in part on a comparison between;

(1) the description of the good and the description of the item from the first rating profile, (2) the shipper of the good and the shipper of the item from the first rating profile, and (3) the importer of the good and the importer of the item from the first rating profile, wherein the confidence level is based at least in part on a number of matches between;

(1) the description of the good and the description of the item, (2) the shipper of the good and the shipper of the item, and (3) the importer of the good and the importer of the item and what was matched between;

(1) the description of the good and the description of the item, (2) the shipper of the good and the shipper of the item, and (3) the importer of the good and the importer of the item;

in response to the confidence level exceeding a predetermined threshold value,

calculate a tariff amount associated with the good based in part on the tariff code associated with the item; and

update the shipment data in the database to include the tariff amount.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to receive user input to select the first rating profile if the confidence level is less than the predetermined threshold value.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to record in the shipment data the tariff code associated with the selected first rating profile.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the tariff amount is calculated using a tariff rate associated with the tariff code.