WO2005088499A1

WO2005088499A1 - Method of optimizing freight of goods

Info

Publication number: WO2005088499A1
Application number: PCT/IT2004/000055
Authority: WO
Inventors: Franco Iacono
Original assignee: Unex Srl
Priority date: 2004-02-12
Filing date: 2004-02-12
Publication date: 2005-09-22
Also published as: EP1716523A1

Abstract

A method of optimizing freight of goods for users, each of them in relationship with carriers comprising the following steps: the user (1) is connected through a computer (10) to an information system (30) of a service provider; the user (1) sends goods delivery requests to the information system (30), specifying the destination, the quantity of goods with their physical characteristics, the desired delivery time; the information system (30) transmits through a telecommunication network the requests to each carrier (41, 42, 43; 51, 52, 53) in relationship with the user. The method comprises also the following steps: the information system (30) receives from the carriers, processes, compares, organizes and sends to the user the delivery request and confirms the freight of each request to the chosen carrier, so that the user can prepare the required documents for the freight; and the information system (30) provides for a database of the programmed and the performed freights in a reserved memory area (20).

Description

- i .

METHOD OF OPTIMIZING FREIGHT OF GOODS.

The present invention is about a method of optimizing price parameters, delivery time and freight of goods reliability using conventional delivery means like international couriers, express couriers, ships, aircrafts, etc. Every enterprise, even of medium or small size, is nowadays in relationship with two or more forwarding agents, drawing up with them a supply contract for goods freight in the territory and to different destinations in the world. The supply contract of the service generally defines one or more specific kinds of goods destined to a certain location, the delivery and transportation conditions and the related delivery times.

On the basis of these parameters required by the user, the firms supplying freight services (carriers) offer to the companies determined goods pick up services and establish certain prices according to certain conditions and certain delivery times, said services being offered on the market with different parameters based on the customer's importance and thus on the programmable freight volume.

Normally, the stipulated conditions do not remain the same in the course of the year but they can change according to the main interests of the service firm which can modify, usually depending on the served area, prices and delivery times according to the global market in which it operates.

It is therefore possible that the choice of a certain carrier, considered convenient by the user when it was made, could result not completely satisfactory with time if compared with other conditions made by other carriers which, although offering the same service, propose different conditions and costs.

However, it often happens that the companies involved in goods freight do not care to verify regularly the modifications of the service supply conditions occurring during the year. Sometimes it is not possible, or it is objectively difficult, to compare the conditions offered with those of other firms operating in the same sector, because said conditions can change due to the variations of the market situation into more interesting ones than the conditions originally chosen by the company. Even if the company has a contract with two or more delivery service providers, for instance with the carrier A for a determined geographic area and the carrier B for another world area, it is possible that during a certain period of time the provider B becomes more competitive than the provider A in the area in which A was more convenient, and that the provider A becomes more competitive in the area served by the provider B. In conclusion, most times the companies are not able to entrust their freights to the courier having and granting the lowest prices and/or the fastest deliveries for a certain kind of goods in a specific moment.

The main object of the invention is to solve the aforesaid inconveniences. The main purpose intended by the present invention is to give to the user of freight services a tool which, for each programmed freight, is able to send an automatic offer request and to receive likewise automatically and in real time the consequent offers by different service firms (carriers) already operating with the company by having an agreement with the same company. According to another aspect of the invention, it has to be obtained that the method of the invention can enable the user who has chosen one or more carriers for his freight to automatically prepare all the required documents for the freight with a determined carrier, such as the shipment bill and the labels to be attached on the goods, according to his own requirements and parameters and those of the chosen carrier. According to a further aspect of the invention, an object is to obtain a software system has to be obtained, able to continuously supply information about the status of the executed freights, also with different carriers, and to arrange said information according to determined rules chosen by the user. A further object of the device according to the invention is to detect and to signal possible delays or problems concerning the goods delivery by single carriers.

It is also another object of the invention to obtain that the device according to the invention provides for up-to-date statistics on the executed freights, the prices, the respect and the safe receipt of the deliveries. Another object of the invention is to provide for a freight management system which allows the user to interact, in addition to carriers having an arrangement with said user, also with carriers not having any arrangement, concerning for instance unusual freights like overload or out of standard size special goods, or freights which need special handling means like ships, aircrafts or other means of transportation. The object of the invention is substantially to provide for a freights optimizing global tool especially, but not exclusively, designed for small and medium size enterprises, able to minimize the delivery costs according to decisions to be taken at any time at the best price, keeping at best th< . quality of the service. A further and not secondary object of the invention is to provide for an information system inside the company which allows the different company departments like the warehouse, the administration, Ine commercial office, the purchase office to be constantly informed about the evolution either of the goods delivery situation or the related costs. Another object of the invention is to enable the device for generating all the required information supports for performing the freight and for controlling said freight so that each office of the company can have he information of its own interest and eventually retrieve and print the required documents without transferring such documents from an office to anothei . All the aforesaid objects, and others better specified in the following description, are attained by a method of optimizing freight of goods for one or more users, each of them in relationship with two or more carriers, comprising the following steps: a) the user is connected through a telecommunication device to an information system of a service provider; b) the user sends one or more goods delivery requests to said information system, specifying for each freight at least the destination, the quantity, the physical characteristics of said goods and the desired delivery time; c) said information system transmits through a te ecommunication network said one or more requests to each carrier in relationship with said user; d) said information system receives from said carrie rs,, processes, compares, organizes and sends to the user, by a telecor .munication network, the delivery offers; e) the user chooses an offer for each delivery raquest and confirms the freight of each request to the chosen carrier; f) the information system connects the user to each chosen carrier, so that the user can prepare the required documents for the freight; g) the information system provides for a database o^: the programmed and the performed freights in a reserved memory area. The invention also concerns the device carrying out - aid method. More specifically, according to an embodiment of the invention the software system of the method needed by the device according to the invention is installed on a server belonging to a service provider, connected to the user through a telecommunication network, such as internet. According to another embodiment of the invention, the software system used by the method and needed by the device according to the invention is installed on the computer of said user.

Advantageously, according to the method of the invention, every time that the user sends a request of offer for one or more freights, he is able to receive from each carrier in relationship with him a specific offer.

So the user can choose and evaluate either the most convenient price or, alternatively, the delivery time corresponding to his needs, or both. Substantially, every time that a freight is requested, the user is able to optimize his freight because he can choose the best conditions, whether they are a lower price or a faster delivery, for performing said freight.

Moreover the fact that the software system carrying out the method of the invention allows the user to create all the required documents for the freight, such as the shipment bill, the labels to be attached on the goods and any invoices, simplifies a lot the freight procedure. It is another advantage of the invention the fact that the information created by the software program of the invention can be accessible through different computers so that, for example, the delivery office is able to directly print by itself the labels, the shipment bill and everything needed to handle the freight without transferring these paper documents from a company department to another with clear saving of time and labour.

Another advantage offered by the invention is to have constantly at disposal information either about the progress status of the goods delivery or a statistical history relating to the expenses made, the quality of the services or any inefficiencies of each carrier as well. Further characteristics and features of the invention will be better highlighted in the description of the method and an embodiment of the device according to the invention, given in an explanatory but not limiting way, described with reference to the figures of the annexed drawings, wherein: - Figure 1 shows a flow chart of a device to carry out the method of the invention; - Figure 2 shows in sequence the logical operations performed by the system according to the invention;

- Figure 3 shows the monitoring operations of the system according to the invention; - Figure 4 shows an example of statistics provided by the system according to the invention;

- Figure 5 shows a further example of statistics provided by the system according to the invention; and

- Figure 6 shows a different embodiment of the flow chart of Figure 1. With reference to Figures 1 and 2, the user, indicated with numeral 1 , has previously started a number of contracts with both national and international carriers, for instance with the carrier A for freights to Italy and Europe, with the carrier B for freights to the United States, with the carrier C for freights to Middle and Far East. The user 1 is provided with an information means, such as a computer or his own server 10 suitable for being connected telematically, for instance through the internet or a local network, to a server 100 of a service provider. The service provider is in turn telematically connected to a plurality of carriers A, B, C. The user's 1 access to the server 100 is allowed by authentication through username and password.

The server 100, after the identification of the user, allows him to use a reserved memory area indicated with numeral 20. In said memory area all the already performed freights are stored, comprising all the information about the procedures, price, carrier, required and obtained delivery time.

The user 1 thus compiles a new list of delivery requests for certain destination and certain goods quantities, indicating the quantity, the size, the desired delivery time and any carrying modes, such as normal, express, priority. The list of said requests is sent by a telematic connection 101 , like internet, to the memory area 20 which, after storing it, send it through the channel 21 to the carriers interface 34 and from the latter, through the channel 22 to the different carriers A, B, C indicated with numerals 41 , 42, 43. The carriers interface 34 is a first information means of the information system 30 which consists in a language adapter software able to interact with the software of the various carriers to whom the information ha s been transmitted.

It should be pointed out that the transmission channel 22 will be advantageously a telematic connection, such as internet or another interconnecting network. Each of said carriers answers each of the received requests of delivery offer, producing an offer for each delivery requested, giving information about the relating price and confirming the delivery for the requested date or an alternative date.

These processed offers are resent through the same channel 22 from each carrier to the server 100 and they reach the second information means consisting in a comparator 31 , belonging to the software area 30.

The comparator 31 is a software tool for comparing -and organizing the received answers. The comparator, dialoguing with the software interface 34, compares the received offers by sorting them according to a logical sequence and sends them to the reserved memory area 20 of the user 1 through the channel 310.

In this way the user is able to evaluate what is the best op portunity offered for each requested freight and he can confirm, always through the channel 21 , the interface 34 and the channel 22, the delivery request to the carrier A, the carrier B and/or the carrier C according to his convenience -evaluation.

Each of the carriers A, B and C confirms the engagement of delivery, always through the channel 22, so that the user 1 is able to prepare the required documents for each freight according the requirements of each carrier.

Said documents can be advantageously printed using a third informative means consisting in a software area 35 which manage--- and prepares the documents printing according to the requirements of each chosen carrier.

The print can be advantageously performed by the delivery office which should then hand over the goods to the carrier for the withdrawal.

It is important to note that, according to the invention, the -user 1 , which is for instance a manufacturing company, can be connected to the server 100, as previously explained, through his own server indicated with numeral 10.

Said server 10 is thus able to grant the access to the information coming from the server 100 to different information supports belo nging to different departments. In the example it is to be noted that the server 10 is connected to the warehouse, indicated with numeral 11 , the delivery office, indicated with numeral 12, the purchase office, indicated with numeral 13, the commercial office, indicated with numeral 14, and the administration office, indicated with numeral 15. Each of said departments belonging to the same company is thus able to manage the information received by the server 10 according to its competence.

In the example shown in Figure 2, the warehouse 11 has the information about the goods ready to be delivered, the recipients of the same goods and the date by which the goods must be delivered.

Thus it is from the computer of said warehouse 11 that the offer requests for freight of goods are sent.

So the warehouse receives the offers of the carrier and from its computer 11 the freights and the carrier choice are confirmed. The delivery office 12 could then accede to the information related to the goods to be prepared for the freight and to the carrier entrusted of the withdrawal.

In this way said office 12 is able to create and to print the delivery documents connecting through the service provider to each of the different carriers entrusted to withdraw the goods, using the memory 20, the carriers interface software 34 and the documents printing software 35.

Once the freight is performed, it is important to control at any time the status of each freight in order to see if the goods have been delivered, if there have been transportation problems and thus if the delivery date has been met or delayed as regards the expected one.

This information is continuously exchanged between the server 100 of the service provider and the single carriers 41 , 42 and 43. The information, through the communication channel 22 and the carrier interface 34, reaches the fourth information means consisting of the monitoring area 32 shown in Figure 1.

Subsequently, the information stored in the monitoring area 32 is sent to the memory area 20 through the channel 320, so that the user 1 , and more specifically each of the interested departments, can check in real time all the modifications of the information and follow the freights and the deliveries in a continuous way. The server 100 maintains in the user's memory area 20 all the data transmitted by the monitoring area 32.

As shown in Figure 3, each of the departments, commercial, delivery, purchase, administration, can control all the freights performed and to be performed by connecting to the monitoring area 32, with up to date information about the situation in real time.

Therefore, searching for a certain programmed freight, it is possible to see if it has to be taken or if it has already been taken.

If the goods have been taken by the carrier it is possible to know, connecting to the interface 34 and to the channel 22 and thus permanently to each carrier involved in the freight, where are the goods in transit, if they have been delivered and, the delivery time and the signature of the receiver.

In case of delay with respect to the estimated delivery time, a signal for advising the user could appear. The information concerning the programmed, in progress or performed freights are thus accessible through the server 10 of the user 1 by all the interested departments of the company, like the commercial office, which maintains the contacts with the final customer, or the delivery office, which directly manages the freight of goods assigning them to each courier. The server 100 of the service provider also comprises a fifth information means consisting in an area 33 dedicated to process the statistics concerning the freights of the user 1.

An example of a statistic is shown in Figure 4.

For instance, according to the data contained in the table created by the statistic area 33 software and sent to the memory area 20 through the channel

330, the purchase office 13 or the administration 15 can control the effective expense related to the freights, for a determined carrier or determined goods.

It will be also possible to evaluate the quality of the carrier service, because the system provides for signalling the possible differences between the actual goods delivery and that expected by the courier on the offer and confirmed by the user 1.

The statistics could be organized by the user 1 according to his needs, for instance searching the number of freights delivered in a determined period, or the number of freights correctly delivered with a certain carrier, or else the number of freights delayed or not delivered to have the percentage of inefficiencies related to a certain carrier.

In figure 5 is shown another kind of statistic in which are displayed and compared the carriers used for a certain geographic area, for instance the

U.S.A., with the description of the delivered goods and the used means of transportation.

It is possible that the user 1 requests freight of goods outside the standards accepted by the carriers A, B, C, for example for excess weight or out of ordinary overall dimensions.

In this case it is necessary to ask for an offer to carriers dealing in special and not standard freights.

In the diagram of Figure 1 these carriers are indicated with numerals 51 , 52 and 53.

When the user 1 sends the offer requests to the carriers and the software system of the server 100 recognizes that said requests performed by the user 1 are not within the standards of the carriers A, B, C, the system then sends an out of standard request of offer to the special carriers 51 , 52 and 53 which can be able to satisfy the user's request.

This is obtained by transferring the request from the memory 20 to the carriers interface 34 and using the telecommunication channel 23, which can be of the same type of the channel 22, for example internet.

When each of the carriers 51 , 52 and 53 answer and transmit the offer concerning such kind of freight, this offer is sent trough the interface 34 to a comparator 31 which sorts the received offers and sends them to the memory area 20 of the server 100. It is important to note that the device according to the invention, and in particular the server 100 of the service provider, is thus able to manage either the requests meeting the carriers A, B, C standards, or the non-standard requests.

Obviously, the aforesaid example described in Figure 1 and concerning the user 1 is repeatable for a plurality of users.

This is the case in which the economic community benefits by the effects of the invention.

In this case, the server 100 is connected to n different users and thus to a plurality of companies which can request at the same time the above described service and optimize their delivery costs. Each user will have a reserved memory area 20 and he will use the software 30, having the comparing function 31 , the monitoring function 32, the statistic function 33 and the interface function 34 able to dialogue with the different software of each carrier in relationship with the user. The aforesaid functions are programmable in the server 100 using the common programming knowledge, which is the common skill of any information technician, and thus are not described in particular. It is also evident that the information system obtained by the connection of the user 1 with the server 100 of the service provider allows the different departments of a company to independently dialogue with the server 100 which manages the freights and to have all the information needed to each of said offices.

Operatively, a single office only will have the possibility to send the offer requests for the freights, to receive them and to confirm them with the chosen carrier, for clear organizational reasons.

In the example shown this office is the warehouse 11 , which is connected to the server 100 through the server 10.

However, the freights control and the statistics will be available to different departments, to allow them to obtain the information of their competence. Figure 6 shows a different embodiment of the device to carry out the method of the invention.

As shown in this embodiment, all the software of the information system 30 is resident in the user's 1 server 10. Also in this embodiment all the previously described functions and each of the information means 31 , 35 will be present in the information system 30 without any change.

Substantially, the server 10 of the user 1 , rather than being connected through a communication network, as internet, to the server 100 of a service provider, uses a software 30 provided by said service provider and directly installed on the information means 10.

In this way, as shown in Figure 6, the connection to the telematic network only involves the link with the carriers 41 , 42, 43 or the carriers 51 , 52, 53. All the other operations, that is comparing, monitoring, making statistics and documents printing, are provided with the aid of the software installed on the information system 30, properly installed on the user's 1 server 10 too. As previously said, one of the most evident advantages of the invention is that the user is able to choose the more advantageous offer available on the market in that moment for each freight to be planned, and thus to optimize his resources. It is also evident that the control of each freight is made easier, although the freights are assigned to different couriers.

According to the invention it is thus avoided the necessity to be connected or to phone or to communicate at any time with different carriers, because it is the operating system of the server 100 which is connected with each of the chosen carriers and which allows to view at the same time the advancement status of the performed freights.

It is also important to note that the storage of statistic information inside the server 100 allows the competent departments, like the purchase office, to obtain data concerning the convenience and the reliability of the carriers, the choice of the freights methods and thus to optimize said freights.

Claims

CLAIMS 1 ) A method of optimizing freight of goods for one or more users, each of them in relationship with two or more carriers, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: a) the user (1 ) is connected through a computer (10) to an information system (30) of a service provider; b) the user (1 ) sends one or more goods delivery requests to said information system (30), specifying for each freight at least the destination, the quantity, the physical characteristics of said goods and the desired delivery time; c) said information system (30) transmits through a telecommunication network said one or more requests to each carrier (41 , 42, 43; 51 , 52, 53) in relationship with said user; d) said information system (30) receives from said carriers, processes, compares, organizes and sends to the user the delivery offers; e) the user (1 ) chooses an offer for each delivery request and confirms the freight of each request to the chosen carrier; f) the information system (30) connects the user (1 ) to each chosen carrier, so that the user can prepare the required documents for the freight; g) the information system (30) provides for a database of the programmed and the performed freights in a reserved memory area (20). 2) The optimizing method according to claim 1 ) characterized in that said information system (30) of said service provider performs monitoring operations of the freights in progress with the related carriers, obtaining and sorting information at least about the withdrawal, the transit area of the goods, the possible performed delivery, and compares said information with that sent by each carrier when the offer is transmitted, detecting the differences between the offered and the received information. 3) The optimizing method according to claims 1 ) or 2) characterized in that said information system (30) performs statistical treatments sorting the results of the performed freights, comparing them with the data of the offered freights and showing, with numerical or percentage indications, the delayed or not delivered freights. 4) The optimizing method according to claims 1 ) or 2) or 3) characterized in that each user (1 ) distributes through an own server (10) the information received by said information system (30) to information means (11 , 12, 13, 14, 15) connected to his own server and belonging to different departments of said user. 5) The optimizing method according to claim 4) characterized in that the connection established by said information system between said user and each chosen carrier is able to create the delivery documents required by each carrier. 6) A device to carry out a method of optimizing freight of goods, comprising: - at least an information means (10) owned by each user (1 ) able to be telematically connected with

- an information system (30) of a service provider, said information system being able to be telematically connected with a plurality of carriers (41 , 42, 43; 51 , 52, 53) and to exchange information with said carriers characterized in that said information system (30) comprises processing means (30) consisting at least in:

- a first information means (34) suitable for providing for a software interface able to dialogue with the different software of each carrier (41 , 42, 43; 51 , 52, 53); - a second information means (31 ) suitable for performing comparison operations between the different offers received by said carriers;

- a third information means (35) suitable for organizing and performing the printing of delivery documents according to the requirements of each carrier; - a fourth information means (32) suitable for performing monitoring operations related to the programmed freights;

- a fifth information means (33) suitable for performing statistical operations about the performed freights. 7) The device according to claim 6) characterized in that said information system (30) is resident in a server (100) of a service provider, said server (100) being telematically connected with said user (1 ) through an interconnection tetwork. 8) The device according to claim 7) characterized in that said server (100) of said service provider comprises a memory area (20) reserved to said user (1 ). 9) The device according to claim 6) characterized in that said information system (30) is resident in the information means (10) belonging to said user (1 ). 10) The device according to claim 9) characterized in that said information means (10) of said user (1 ) is a server suitable for being connected to more information units (11 , 12, 13, 14, 15) belonging to said user (1).