Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Inventory management
Patent
1998-03-19
2000-09-05
Trammell, James P.
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Inventory management
705407, 705410, 705 1, G06F 1760
Patent
active
061156965
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates, in particular, to a network for distributing and managing orders issued by user-clients and carried out by carriers.
Carrying out an order for carriage, for example an errand carried out by a messenger, requires the user-client to be able to place his order as simply and effectively as possible with a service provider who is responsible for the order received being carried out satisfactorily.
To this end, the service provider must have at his disposal a fleet of carriers, for example messengers, with whom he can enter into contact in order to communicate to them the technical data relating to the various errands to be carried out.
These data relate, in particular, to pickup and delivery addresses and times and also to the type of parcel or envelope to be carried.
In addition to these conventional technical operations of managing each order received, with a view to its being carried out by one of the fleet's carriers, the service provider must also manage the orders in financial terms with a view to their being paid for by the clients and manage the fleet members in financial terms with a view to its members being paid for the orders they have carried out.
Most commonly, the service provider receives the orders to be carried out, via the telecommunications network, for example via telephone or via fax, which originate from user-clients.
In order to ensure the smooth running and satisfactory economic management of his company and, in particular, to avoid non-payment in the future, user-clients must have been previously identified and registered by the service provider as clients authorized to transmit orders for carriage.
Receipt of a first order originating from a new client does not therefore immediately give rise to the order being carried out because the service provider will wish to verify the identity and possibly the solvent financial status of this new client, a delay such as this not being conducive to fulfilling a new client's immediate need.
When an order for carriage is received, originating from an authorized and recognised client, the service provider must, on the basis of the pickup or collection and delivery addresses and timescales, determine which of the members of his fleet of carriers is capable of carrying out this order with the desired efficiency and precision.
Currently, the orders received by the service provider are distributed "empirically" and this procedure relies, for its efficiency, on the service provider's know-how and on the competence and integrity of the members of the fleet with whom the service provider is generally in communication by radio or by telephone.
In particular, when the service provider is in communication with a messenger, he actually has no way in which to monitor the geographical location of this messenger at the time when he is in contact with him and he is thus unable to verify "a priori" whether the messenger will be capable of making the collection on time.
In order to ensure that his services are as efficient as possible, the provider will also wish to have at his disposal the largest possible fleet of carriers, for example messengers.
It is thus desirable for the service provider to be able to call upon the largest number possible of carriers while at the same time being able to check the identity of each carrier (whether an individual or a company), the type and suitability of their carriage equipment, and the fact that these carriers have complied with legal provisions, particularly provisions relating to labour law and carriage law.
Finally, economic and financial management, both with regard to user-clients and to the various carriers who are members of the fleet, requires the ability to automate the various verification, invoicing and payment operations as far as possible, particularly by using computerized means.
The object of the invention is to propose a design for a network, for distributing and managing orders for carriage, which makes it possible to solve the various problems just referred to.
To this end, the invent
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Ingersoll PC Buchanan
Nguyen Cuong H.
Plevy Arthur L.
Trammell James P.
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