System and method for providing a price quotation for a transportation service providing equipment selection capability

• US 7,539,650 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2002
• Issued: 05/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canadian National Railway Company
• Original Assignee: Canadian National Railway Company
• Inventors: Ernesaks, Anita, Podgurny, Leonard John
• Primary Examiner(s): Beach; Thomas A
• Application Number:
  US10/060,402
• Publication Number:
  US 20030163378A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,671 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/26, 705/28, 705/29, 705/400, 104/119
• US Class Current: 705/400
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• 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 10/0834 Choice of carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/201 Price look-up processing, e.g. updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/10 Tax strategies
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/145 PLU-management
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 999/00 dummy group
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 999/99 : dummy group

Abstract

A method and system for computing the price for shipping goods. The method includes causing a computer to deliver first information to a user prompting the user to enter at the computer information about a rail transportation service for shipment of goods by one or more railcars. Information about a basic pool of railcars is received and filtered based on one or more filtering criteria to produce a filtered pool of railcars. The computer is then caused to deliver second information to the user prompting the user to select at the computer one or more railcars among the filtered pool of railcars for the shipment of goods. A price for the shipment of the goods is then computed at least in part on the basis of the rail transportation service and the one or more characteristics of the railcars in the filtered pool of railcars selected by the user.

Claims

1. A method for computing the price for shipping goods, comprising:

a) causing a computer to deliver first information to a user, the first information prompting the user to enter at the computer information about a rail transportation service for shipment of goods by one or more railcars;

b) receiving information about a basic pool of railcars and filtering the basic pool of railcars based on one or more filtering criteria to produce a filtered pool of railcars, the one or more filtering criteria being derived at least in part based on the information about the rail transportation service entered by the user;

c) causing the computer to deliver second information to the user, the second information prompting the user to select at the computer one or more railcars among the filtered pool of railcars for the shipment of goods;

d) computing a price for the shipment of the goods at least in part on the basis of;

i) the rail transportation service;

ii) one or more characteristics of the railcars in the filtered pool of railcars selected by the user.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the delivering of the first information to the user is done by displaying information on a screen.

3. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the user provides the information about the rail transportation service through an input device selected in the group consisting of keyboard, pointing device, touch sensitive surface and speech recognition unit.

4. A method as defined in claim 3, including causing the computer to display to the user on the screen the price for the shipment of the goods.

5. A method as defined in claim 3, including causing generation of an e-mail containing information indicative of the computed price for the shipment of the goods.

6. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein the information about the rail transportation service includes information specifying an origin of the shipment.

7. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein the information about the rail transportation service includes information specifying a destination of the shipment.

8. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein the first information includes a series of routes among which the user can select at least one route, the entry at the computer of information about the rail transportation service by the user including the user selecting a route in the series of routes.

9. A method as defined in claim 3, including causing the computer to deliver second information to the user to prompt the user to enter at the computer the one or more filtering criteria for use by the filtering.

10. A method as defined in claim 9, wherein the one or more filtering criteria includes information about ownership of the rail cars to be used for the shipment of the goods.

11. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein the information about ownership of the rail cars to be used for the shipment of the goods includes information identifying the party that owns the one or more rail cars to be used for the shipment of the goods.

12. A method as defined in claim 9, wherein the one or more filtering criteria includes information about the type of goods to be shipped.

13. A method as defined in claim 9, wherein the one or more filtering criteria includes information about the type of rail car to use for the shipment of the goods.

14. A method as defined in claim 3, including extracting from a user profile file one or more of the filtering criteria and use the extracted one or more filtering criteria for the filtering.

15. A method as defined in claim 14, wherein the one or more filtering criteria extracted from the user profile file includes information about ownership of the rail cars to be used for the shipment of the goods.

16. A method as defined in claim 15, wherein the information about ownership of the rail cars to be used for the shipment of the goods includes information identifying the party that owns the one or more rail cars to be used for the shipment of the goods.

17. A method as defined in claim 14, wherein the one or more filtering criteria extracted from the user profile file includes information about the type of goods to be shipped.

18. A method as defined in claim 14, wherein the one or more filtering criteria extracted from the user profile file includes information about the type of rail car to use for the shipment of the goods.

19. A server system for computing a quote for a price for shipping goods by rail, said server system containing a program element for execution by a CPU, said program element comprising:

a) a first program component for causing a client system to deliver first information to a user, the first information prompting the user to enter at the client system information about a rail transportation service for shipment of goods by one or more railcars;

b) a second program component for receiving information about a basic pool of railcars, said second program component implementing a filter for filtering the basic pool of railcars based on one or more filtering criteria to produce a filtered pool of railcars, the one or more filtering criteria being derived at least in part based on the information about the rail transportation service entered by the user, said second program component causing the client system to deliver second information to the user, the second information prompting the user to select at the client system one or more railcars among the filtered pool of railcars for the shipment of goods;

c) a third program element for computing a price for the shipment of the goods at least in part on the basis of;

i) the rail transportation service;

ii) one or more characteristics of the railcars in the filtered pool of railcars selected by the user.

20. A server system as defined in claim 19, wherein said third program component causes the client system to display to the user the price for the shipment of the goods.

21. A client-server system for computing a quote for a price for shipping goods by rail, comprising:

a) a client system;

b) a server system, said client system and said server system operative to exchange messages over a data network;

c) a first program component for execution on said server system for sending messages to said client system causing said client system to deliver information prompting the user to enter at the client system information about a rail transportation service for shipment of goods by one or more railcars;

d) a second program component for execution on said server system for receiving information about a basic pool of railcars, said second program component implementing a filter for filtering the basic pool of railcars based on one or more filtering criteria to produce a filtered pool of railcars, the one or more filtering criteria being derived at least in part based on the information about the rail transportation service entered by the user, said second program component sending messages to said client system causing said client system to deliver information to the user prompting the user to select at said client system one or more railcars among the filtered pool of railcars for the shipment of goods;

e) said client system being operative to send to said server system messages to communicate to said server the information about the rail transportation service entered by the user and the one or more rail cars selected by the user;

f) a third program element executed at said server system for computing a price for the shipment of the goods at least in part on the basis of;

i) the rail transportation service;

ii) one or more characteristics of the railcars in the filtered pool of railcars selected by the user.

22. A client-server system as defined in claim 21, said third program component sends messages to said client system for causing said client system to display to the user the price for the shipment of the goods computed by said second program element.

23. A computer readable storage medium containing a program element for execution by a CPU, said program element comprising:

a) a first program component for causing a computer to deliver first information to a user, the first information prompting the user to enter at the computer information about a rail transportation service for shipment of goods by one or more railcars;

b) a second program component for receiving information about a basic pool of railcars, said second program component implementing a filter for filtering the basic pool of railcars, at least in part on the basis of the information about the rail transportation service entered by the user, to produce a filtered pool of railcars, said second program component causing the computer to deliver second information to the user, the second information prompting the user to select at the computer one or more railcars among the filtered pool of railcars for the shipment of goods;

c) a third program element for computing a price for the shipment of the goods at least in part on the basis of;

i) the rail transportation service;

ii) one or more characteristics of the railcars in the filtered pool of railcars selected by the user.

24. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 23, wherein the delivering of the first information to the user is done by displaying information on a screen.

25. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 24, wherein the user provides the information about the rail transportation service through an input device selected in the group consisting of keyboard, pointing device, touch sensitive surface and speech recognition unit.

26. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 25, wherein the third program component causes the computer to display to the user on the screen the computed price for the shipment of the goods.

27. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 25, wherein the third program component causes generation of an e-mail containing information indicative of the computed price for the shipment of the goods.

28. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 25, wherein the information about the rail transportation service includes information specifying an origin of the shipment.

29. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 25, wherein the information about the rail transportation service includes information specifying a destination of the shipment.

30. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 25, wherein the first information includes a series of routes among which the user can select at least one route, the entry at the computer of information about the rail transportation service by the user including the user selecting a route in the series of routes.

31. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 25, wherein said second program component causes the computer to deliver second information to the user to prompt the user to enter filter information at the computer, said second program component using the filter information entered by the user to filter the basic pool of railcars.

32. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 31, wherein the filter information includes information about the ownership of the rail cars to be used for the shipment of the goods.

33. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 32, wherein the information about ownership of the rail cars to be used for the shipment of the goods includes information identifying the party that owns the one or more rail cars to be used for the shipment of the goods.

34. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 31, wherein the filter information includes information about the type of rail car to use for the shipment of the goods.

35. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 25, wherein said second program element is operative to extract from a user profile file filter information and use the filter information to produce the filtered pool of rail cars.

36. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 35, wherein the filter information extracted from the user profile file includes information about ownership of the rail cars to be used for the shipment of the goods.

37. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 36, wherein the information about ownership of the rail cars to be used for the shipment of the goods includes information identifying the party that owns the one or more rail cars to be used for the shipment of the goods.

38. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 35, wherein the filter information extracted from the user profile file includes information about the type of rail car to use for the shipment of the goods.

39. A method for allowing a railway transportation company to provide a customer with a quote for a shipping service involving shipping a commodity by rail, said method comprising:

a) receiving at a network server that communicates with a customer'"'"'s computer over a data network shipping information input by the customer on the customer'"'"'s computer, the shipping information providing particulars of the shipping service for which a quote is desired, the shipping information including;

i) information that specifies an origin of a shipment of a commodity;

ii) information that specifies a destination of the shipment of the commodity;

b) processing with a software filter a basic pool of railcars to produce a filtered pool of railcars, the software filter implementing one or more filtering criteria derived from either one of;

i) data derived from the shipping information input by the customer that provides the shipping service for which the quote is desired;

ii) a customer profile residing in a customer profile database, where the customer profile is associated with the customer currently requesting the quote;

c) sending to the customer'"'"'s computer information to allow the customer'"'"'s computer to display to the customer the filtered pool of railcars and to allow the customer to specify the one of more railcars to be used for shipping the commodity;

d) receiving at the network server railcar selection information specifying one or more railcars selected from the filtered pool of railcars by the customer at the customer'"'"'s computer;

e) generating a price quote for shipping the commodity computed based on multiple factors including the railcar selection information;

f) sending information to the customer'"'"'s computer to display the price quote to the customer;

g) in response to information received by the network server from the customer'"'"'s computer indicating that the customer has accepted the price quote, performing the service of shipping the commodity at the quoted price with the railcars selected by the customer.

40. A method as defined in claim 39, wherein the particulars of the shipping service for which the quote is desired include railcar ownership information, the railcar ownership information specifying the owner of one or more of the railcars to be used for shipping the commodity, the filtering criteria implemented by the software filter using the railcar ownership information to produce the filtered pool of railcars.

41. A method as defined in claim 40, wherein the basic pool of railcars includes railcars owned by different parties, the filtering criteria operates to extract from the basic pool of railcars only railcars that are owned by the customer, in generating the filtered pool of railcars.

42. A method as defined in claim 39, wherein the particulars of the shipping service for which the quote is desired include commodity information, the commodity information specifying a type of commodity to be shipped, the filtering criteria implemented by the software filter using the commodity information in producing the filtered pool of railcars.

43. A method as defined in claim 42, wherein the basic pool of railcars includes railcars suitable for different types commodities, the filtering criteria operating to extract from the basic pool of railcars only railcars compatible with the type of commodity specified by the commodity information, in generating the filtered pool of railcars.

44. A method as defined in claim 39, wherein the customer profile includes railcar ownerships information, the railcar ownership information specifying the owner of the one or more of the railcars to be used for shipping the commodity, the filtering criteria implemented by the software filter using the railcar ownership information in producing the filtered pool of railcars.

45. A method as defined in claim 44, wherein the basic pool of railcars includes railcars owned by different parties, the filtering criteria operates to extract from the basic pool of railcars only railcars that are owned by the customer, in generating the filtered pool of railcars.

46. A method as defined in claim 39, wherein the customer profile includes commodity information, the commodity information specifying the commodity to be shipped, the filtering criteria implemented by the software filter using the commodity information in producing the filtered pool of railcars.

47. A method as defined in claim 46, wherein the basic pool of railcars includes railcars suitable for different types commodities, the filtering criteria operating to extract from the basic pool of railcars only railcars compatible with the commodity to be shipped, in generating the filtered pool of railcars.