Bill of lading transmission and processing system for less than a load carriers

• US 7,769,644 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2007
• Issued: 08/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: R+L Carriers, Inc.
• Original Assignee: R+L Carriers, Inc.
• Inventors: Naghshiineh, Steve F., Roberts, Ralph L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart; Matthew S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Goyea; Olusegun
• Application Number:
  US11/950,529
• Publication Number:
  US 20080086393A1
• Time in Patent Office: 972 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/28, 705/30, 705/22, 455/466, 455/552.1, 455/557, 455/457, 370/313, 370/401, 370/341, 370/345, 375/216, 707/10, 707/102, 700/223
• US Class Current: 705/28
• 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 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08355 Routing methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0838 Historical data
• 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 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

The present invention automates the process of receiving transportation documentation and producing advance loading manifests therefrom to optimize load planning and dynamic product shipment and delivery control. Methods provide for receipt of the transportation documentation, initial preparation, and transmission of the documentation from on board a vehicle or while the vehicle is in transit. A remote processor receives the documentation, stores the documentation and feeds the documentation to a load planning software for generation of advance loading manifests from the remote processor and receive them on demand. Further, a mobile data transmission device is provided for use by a driver to communicate transportation documentation, and vehicle information to the remote processor, and, in some applications, can receive instructions for en route alterations of package pickup or delivery. The documentation can reside on a server remotely accessible by customers.

Claims

1. A remote processing system capable of dynamically calculating an advance loading manifest, comprising:

a processor;

a memory; and

a set of executable instructions residing on the processor capable of dynamically receiving one or more documents from a transportation vehicle, processing and routing the one or more transportation documents, storing the one or more transportation documents in the memory, extracting packing data from the one or more transportation documents, and utilizing the extracted packing data to dynamically calculate the advance loading manifest and transmit the advance loading manifest to a remote facility in advance of the arrival of a transportation vehicle at the remote facility.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a set of communication executable instructions residing on the processor and capable of electronically communicating bi-directionally with the transportation vehicle.

3. The remote processing system of claim 1, further comprising:

a set of work-flow executable instructions residing on the processor and capable of identifying a classification to which at least a portion of the transportation document is associated and performing one or more operations based on the classification; and

a set of diagnostic executable instructions residing on the processor and capable of receiving vehicle information from the vehicle.

4. The remote processing system of claim 1, wherein the utilities include at least one of:

a set of enhancement executable instructions residing on the processor, which includes at least one of an image enhancement process to modify the transportation document quality, an optical character recognition process to create an electronic text representation of the transportation document; and

a work-flow process to route the transportation document to one or more queues for a work processing.

5. The remote processing system of claim 1, further comprising:

a set of communication instructions residing on the processor and capable of electronically communicating with a remote client configured for access to the documents by a customer.

6. The remote processing system of claim 5, wherein the set of communication instructions reside on a web server.

7. The remote processing system of claim 1, wherein extracting packing data from the one or more transportation documents comprises computer implemented optical character recognition.