Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Electronic shopping
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-22
2004-08-03
Smith, Jeffrey A. (Department: 3625)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Electronic shopping
Reexamination Certificate
active
06772130
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention disclosed herein relates generally to parcel shipping systems and methods. More particularly, the present invention is directed to carrier management systems and methods that track parcel delivery. Specifically, this invention relates to the periodic or direct tracking of parcel delivery and updating customers about package delivery status and originating sender data.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Recently, time delivery guarantees for package and parcel delivery have become an essential form of business communication. With the advent of e-commerce web shopping, use of mail order has significantly increased, and so, too, has consumer's and other shipping system customer's concerns that mail order packages will not reach their designated destination due to loss or delay. Once a package has been ordered and shipped by the seller, the seller losses direct contact with its customers. However, the seller continues to be interested in maintaining contact and communicating with the customer. The best customers are repeat customers; therefore, once a seller concludes a sale, the seller also desires to solicit the customer for collateral and future purchases. However, present package delivery systems do not provide sellers the ability to maintain contact with their customers after the purchase order is placed and the item is shipped. Therefore, customers have demanded faster, more accurate delivery of parcels and expect to be given up-to-the-minute information about the status of the parcel delivery of the mail order purchases while, at the same time, sellers are continually searching for new ways to advertise to their customers.
Customers also demand the ability to use a diverse selection of carriers in order to receive the advantage of competitive rates and to minimize loss of delivery capability caused by emergencies, such as strikes. However, customers do not wish to compromise common, easy access to their shipping information. Therefore, in the shipping of parcels, it is frequently desirable to provide access to shipping information by at least two major carriers, such as United Parcel Service® (UPS) and the United States Postal System® (USPS), in addition to a number of other carriers. Each of these carriers maintains its own distinct form of package tracking, and each has posted a Website to assist customers in tracking the package. Aspects of the information contained on each website are similar; however, each carrier offers slightly different prices and services. In these systems, the seller losses contact with the customer once the package is in the carrier's possession.
Systems for package tracking have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,839,813 (hereinafter “the '813 patent”) issued to Hills, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,051 (hereinafter “the '051 patent”) issued to Brigida, et al. The '813 patent discloses a computerized parcel shipping system which enables a user to track and record transactions of various different carriers and which can store a file of records relating to the transactions.
However, the '813 patent merely provides the ability for the user to maintain files relative to shipments made with different carriers. The '051 patent discloses a paperless parcel tracking system capable of reading bar codes on packages, capturing signatures and alphanumeric data related to the parcels using a touch panel display. The parcel data is stored and transmitted to a host system at a convenient time without the need of paper records. Neither the '051 patent nor the '813 patent provides multi-carrier automatic tracking over the Internet or the ability for seller to be visibly presented to the customer after a mail order purchase has been placed.
Most recently, the introduction of wide area networks, such as the Internet, has enabled customers to track their package status by directly accessing carrier websites. These systems are designated such that the customer can track shipping status by entering the package tracking number into the website form. This, however, requires the customer to actively request the package status. One solution to this problem is found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,264 (hereinafter “the '264 patent”) issued to Fisher, et al., which discloses a method and system for automatically providing customers with their purchase order status via electronic mail over a computer network, without the aid of a human customer service representative and without the need for a user profile. However, this system does not enable retailers the ability to directly communicate with their customer to offer other items and promotions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In the package tracking system and method according to the present invention, a sender and a recipient of a package are able to determine the package's location while it is enroute for delivery. At the same time the recipient is given a message about the delivery status, the sender is provided an opportunity to directly present information to the recipient about similar or collateral products and/or services. In order to achieve this result, the present invention uses a network-based service, in particular, the Internet, to provide the means for transferring tracking information from the carrier responsible for delivery of the package and product/service information from the sender to the requesting party. In particular, the present invention comprises a tracking system for a shipping system determining a carrier to be used for shipping a package to a recipient and for storing package tracking data at a shipping system database. The invention includes submitting a package tracking request to a data center including a tracking number associated with a package to be sent from the sender to the recipient by a selected carrier; and an e-mail address for receiving information about the package tracking status and information about the retailer. This tracking request is stored in a queue and separated by a specific carrier identification number into tracking segment requests. The tracking requests are then sent to the tracking website of the selected carrier in accordance with the capabilities of each carrier's website. The results from the carrier package tracking website are gathered and stored at the database. Information from the sender's website is then gathered from the corresponding sender's website and stored in combination with the updated shipping data. An e-mail message is sent to the intended recipient including the status and any information gathered from the sender's website.
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“DHL to parcel-up operations for market,” Clayton Hirst, The Independent, London, May 14, 2000.
Boucher Glen A.
Karbowski Kenneth
Krouch Richard J.
Miller Ronald S.
Njo Angela
Chaclas Angelo N.
Chotkowski Kimberly S.
Gart Matthew
Pitney Bowes Inc.
Reichman Ronald
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