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Systems and methods for managing railcar usage

  • US 9,849,896 B1
  • Filed: 09/26/2014
  • Issued: 12/26/2017
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2013
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A system for managing the transportation of crude oil by rail, comprising:

  • a plurality of user terminals each including a display screen for presenting a graphical user interface and output information, the graphical user interface including a user interface section having a loading facility arrival time field for presenting a forecast arrival time of a set of railcars at a loading facility, an unloading facility arrival time field for presenting a forecast arrival time of the set of railcars at an unloading facility, a loading facility selection window responsive to user input for selecting a loading facility for the set of railcars, and an unloading facility selection window responsive to user input for selecting an unloading facility for the set of railcars;

    a network communicating with the plurality of user terminals; and

    a processing system communicating with the plurality of user terminals and operable to;

    receive information entered through the loading facility selection window of the graphical user interface of a selected one of the plurality of user terminals indicating a loading facility for loading a selected set of railcars and through the unloading facility selection window of the graphical user interface indicating an unloading facility for unloading the selected set of railcars;

    dynamically forecast an arrival time for the selected set of cars at a selected one of the loading and unloading facilities selected through a corresponding one of the loading facility and unloading facility selection windows of the graphical user of the selected one of the plurality of user terminals, the arrival time dynamically forecast in response to events reported from a train including the set of cars to the processing system during transit of the selected set of railcars between a starting one of the loading and unloading facilities to the selected one of the loading and unloading facilities; and

    presenting the dynamically forecasted arrival time in a corresponding one of the loading facility and unloading facility arrival time fields of the graphical user interface on the display screen of the selected user terminal as updated in response to the reported events.

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