System and method for evaluating a shipping route and a package under transport in the shipping route using an environmental sensor

• US 7,937,244 B2
• Filed: 10/24/2006
• Issued: 05/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2004
• 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: Kadaba, Nagesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Nghiem; Michael P
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le; Toan M
• Application Number:
  US11/552,173
• Publication Number:
  US 20070095905A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,652 Days
• Field of Search: 702/184, 702/81, 702/84, 702/193, 702 34- 36, 702/127, 702130-136, 702138-140, 702182-183, 702187-188, 707/10, 705/6, 705 22- 23, 705/28, 340/572.1, 340/539.1, 340/539.22, 340/539.26, 235/384
• US Class Current: 702/184
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 21/00 Measuring or testing not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0717 the sensor being capable of sensing environmental conditions such as temperature history or pressure
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers

Abstract

Systems and methods disclosed herein use environmental sensor technology to enhance the tracking and transporting capabilities of a product delivery system. The systems and methods provide the capability to track and verify the environmental condition(s) to which a product is subjected during its transportation or movement through a supply chain. In particular, the systems and methods allow a sender, a receiver, and other authorized persons to access or interrogate environmental data that describes the environmental conditions to which a product within a container has been subjected during transport from the sender to the receiver. The systems and methods also permit in-transit intercept handling when it is determined that a package was unexpectedly subjected to an environmental condition that by definition makes it unfit for delivery to the original receiver.

Claims

1. A method comprising the steps of:

(a) scanning, with at least one scanner, environmental sensors physically associated with respective products in containers to read respective product environment data from the environmental sensors wherein the product environmental data includes time data indicating the time of sensing an environmental condition;

(b) scanning, with the scanner, respective identification data physically associated with and unique to each product or container;

(c) transmitting the identification data and the product environment data from the scanner to a computer system via a network;

(d) receiving the identification data and the product environment data from the scanner at the computer system via the network;

(e) storing the product environment data in association with respective identification data in the computer system;

(f) generating, with the scanner, tracking data for each product identifying a time or a location at which the respective product environment data or the respective identification data was scanned;

(g) transmitting the tracking data from the scanner to the computer system via the network;

(h) receiving the tracking data from the scanner at the computer system via the network;

(i) storing the tracking data in association with the respective identification data and product environment data in the computer system; and

(j) analyzing the product environment data and the tracking data to determine whether an adverse environmental condition is recurring at a specific location or time in a shipping route and, if so, at what location or at what time in the shipping route the adverse environmental condition is recurring.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

(k) receiving at the computer system via the network a request including identification data for a particular product of said products from a user of a computing device to access product environment data for the particular product;

(l) retrieving product environment data for the particular product with the computer system based on the identification data included in the request; and

(m) transmitting the product environment data for the particular product in association with the tracking data for the particular product retrieved from the computer system to the computing device via the network.

3. A system comprising:

environmental sensors physically associated with respective products in respective containers, each environmental sensor being configured to sense an environmental condition capable of affecting the respective product and to store product environment data representing the environmental condition sensed at different locations in a shipping route and the times the environmental condition is sensed;

a non-transitory data-storing medium connected to each of the containers, each medium having unique identification data;

at least one scanner configured to;

scan the environmental sensors to read the product environment data from the environmental sensors;

scan the identification data;

transmit the identification data and the product environment data via a network;

generate tracking data for each product and container identifying the time and location at which the respective product was scanned by the scanner for product environment data; and

transmit the tracking data via the network; and

a computer system connected in communication with the scanner via the network, the computer system configured to receive and store the identification data, the product environment data, and the tracking data from the scanner via the network and analyze the product environment data and the tracking data associated with the products and containers to determine whether an adverse condition is recurring and, if so, at what location or at what time in a shipping route an adverse environmental condition is recurring.

4. A system as claimed in claim 3 further comprising:

a computing device connected to communicate with the computer system via the network, the computing device configured to generate a request including identification data identifying a particular product or particular container of said products or containers , and configured to transmit the request to the computer system via the network,

the computer system configured to receive the request from the computing device via the network and to use the identification data from the request to access product environment data corresponding to the particular product in the particular container, the computer system transmitting the accessed product environment data with tracking data corresponding to the particular product in the particular container to the computing device via the network in response to the request.

5. A system as claimed in claim 3 wherein each environmental sensor comprises a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag and the scanner comprises an RFID interrogator configured to scan the RFID tags.

6. A method comprising the steps of:

physically associating environmental sensors with respective packages holding respective products, the packages including packages of different types;

transporting each package of said packages so that the corresponding environmental sensor travels with the package in a shipping route associated with the package, wherein the package is exposed to a variety of environmental conditions during transport;

sensing, with each environmental sensor, an environmental condition capable of affecting the respective product, at different locations in the respective shipping route as the environmental sensor travels with the respective package in the respective shipping route, the sensing with the environmental sensors generating respective product environment data representing the environmental condition sensed at different locations in a shipping route and the times the environmental condition is sensed;

storing in each environmental sensor the respective product environment data;

capturing product environment data from respective environmental sensors;

generating tracking data indicating a location of said different locations or a time for when the product environmental data is captured; and

analyzing the product environment data and tracking data to determine

whether an adverse environmental condition is recurring and in response to determining an adverse environmental condition is recurring, identifying a location or a time in the shipping route at which the adverse environmental condition is recurring.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6 further comprising the step of:

identifying a problem in the shipping route causing the adverse environmental condition.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7 further comprising the step of:

correcting the problem in the shipping route causing the adverse environmental condition.

9. A method as claimed in claim 7 further comprising the step of:

allowing a user to request, upon detecting said problem, that containers of a certain type be shipped by way of an alternate lane of shipping so as to avoid the adverse environmental condition.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9 wherein said user is a customer of a shipper transporting the package through at least a portion of the shipping route.

11. A method comprising the steps of:

(a) scanning, with at least one scanner, environmental sensors physically associated with respective packages to read respective environment data from the environmental sensors wherein the environmental data includes data representing the environmental condition sensed at different locations in a shipping route and the times the environmental condition is sensed;

(b) scanning, with the scanner, respective identification data physically associated with and unique to each package;

(c) transmitting the identification data and the environment data from the scanner to a computer system via a network;

(d) receiving the identification data and the environment data from the scanner at the computer system via the network;

(e) storing the environment data in association with respective identification data in the computer system;

(f) generating, with the scanner, tracking data for each package identifying a time or a location at which the respective environment data or the respective identification data was scanned;

(g) transmitting the tracking data from the scanner to the computer system via the network;

(h) receiving the tracking data from the scanner at the computer system via the network;

(i) storing the tracking data in association with the respective identification data and environment data in the computer system; and

(j) analyzing the environment data and the tracking data associated with the packages to determine effectiveness of the different types of packages under a variety of environmental conditions.

12. A system comprising:

environmental sensors physically associated with respective products in respective packages, wherein the packages include packages of different types and each environmental sensor is configured to sense an environmental condition capable of affecting the respective product and to store product environment data representing the environmental condition sensed at different locations in a shipping route as the environmental sensor travels with the respective packages and the times the environmental condition is sensed;

a non-transitory data-storing medium connected to each of the packages, each medium having unique identification data;

at least one scanner configured to;

scan the environmental sensors to read the product environment data;

scan the identification data from the products and packages;

transmit the identification data and the product environment data via a network;

generate tracking data for each product and package identifying a time or a location at which the scanner scanned the product environment data from the respective environmental sensor; and

transmit the tracking data via the network; and

a computer system in communication with the scanner via the network, the computer system configured to receive and store the identification data, the product environment data, and the tracking data from the scanner via the network and analyze the environment data and the tracking data associated with the packages to determine effectiveness of the different types of packages under a variety of environmental conditions.

13. A method comprising the steps of:

(a) scanning, with at least one scanner, environmental sensors physically associated with respective packages to read respective environment data from the environmental sensors wherein the environmental data includes data representing the environmental condition sensed at different locations in a shipping route and the times the environmental condition is sensed;

(b) scanning, with the scanner, respective identification data physically associated with and unique to each package;

(c) transmitting the identification data and the environment data from the scanner to a computer system via a network;

(d) receiving the identification data and the environment data from the scanner at the computer system via the network;

(e) storing the environment data in association with respective identification data in the computer system;

(f) generating, with the scanner, tracking data for each package identifying a time or a location at which the respective environment data or the respective identification data was scanned;

(g) transmitting the tracking data from the scanner to the computer system via the network;

(h) receiving the tracking data from the scanner at the computer system via the network;

(i) storing the tracking data in association with the respective identification data and environment data in the computer system; and

(j) analyzing the environment data and the tracking data associated with the packages to identify a pattern of environmental conditions occurring at certain times or at certain places within a shipping route.

14. A system comprising:

environmental sensors physically associated with respective products in respective packages wherein each environmental sensor is configured to sense an environmental condition capable of affecting the respective product and to store product environment data representing the environmental condition sensed at different locations in a shipping route as the environmental sensor travels with the respective packages and the times the environmental condition is sensed;

a non-transitory data-storing medium connected to each of the packages, each medium having unique identification data;

at least one scanner configured to;

scan the environmental sensors to read the product environment data;

scan the identification data from the products and packages;

transmit the identification data and the product environment data via a network;

generate tracking data for each product and package identifying a time or a location at which the scanner scanned the product for the respective environmental sensor; and

transmit the tracking data via the network; and

a computer system in communication with the scanner via the network, the computer system configured to receive and store the identification data, the product environment data, and the tracking data from the scanner via the network and analyze the environment data and the tracking data associated with the packages to identify a pattern of environmental conditions occurring at certain times or at certain places within a shipping route.