Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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TITLE: System and Method for Providing Customized Pricing Information
On-line for a Transportation Service with Promotional Event Notification
Capability
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system and method for facilitating on-line
commerce over a
computer network such as the Internet. More specifically, the present
invention relates to a
system for enabling a customer to obtain, over a computer network, a price
quotation for a
transportation service and be notified of related promotional events.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Traditionally, price quotations for standard goods and services have been
given via
catalogue, telephone, facsimile and more recently electronically via web pages
on global
computer networks such as the Internet. Internet service providers are, more
and more,
connecting users to the Internet at no cost to the users, thereby making the
Internet more
accessible to a wide range of users. Many of the users connected to the
Internet, or having
access to other forms of computer networks are choosing to conduct activities
relating to
commerce over these networks. At the same time, merchants are increasingly
developing
sites on the World Wide Web (or simply "www" or "web") that customers can
access in
order to purchase goods and/or services. It is now fairly common for a
customer to browse
a merchant's catalogue, select a product or service and place an order for the
product or
service all electronically over the Internet or other computer network.
For example, U.S. Patent 6,115,690, issued on September 5, 2000 to Wong,
describes a
software system for providing integrated business-to-business Web commerce and
business automation. The end-to-end Web business is facilitated by using a
computing
model based on a single integrated database management system. The software
provides a
graphical user interface that allows a user to obtain a quote for a product
based on a
merchant's product list. The quote is assigned a quote number and saved in a
database
management system, and may be retrieved and viewed at a later date by the
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customer. Customers and vendors can view payment status, previous quotes and
product
tracking information.
In another example, U.S. Patent 5,926,817, issued on July 20, 1999 to
Christeson et al.,
describes a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that allows a user to select
optional features
relating to a product or service, and then provides the user with immediate
feedback in the
form of product availability and price quotations. The GUI allows the user to
select a
product/service, as well as to select and unselect a set of optional features
to customize a
desired product/service. The system, on the basis of the information provided
by the user
generates a quote for that product/service and the quote is displayed on the
GUI. This system
to is directed for use by communication service companies for providing
dynamic price quoting
to their clients when the latter select particular service features.
In the above-described documents, the user is provided with predefined goods
and services
from which the user makes a selection. Such a method generally provides little
choice in
terms of the definition of the service to be provided and, as such, these
systems are generally
ill-suited for providing price quotations in the field of transportation
services.
In the field of transportation services, systems providing price quotations
based on origin,
destination and commodity types have also been developed. U.S. Patent
6,061,667, issued
on May 9,2000 to Danford-Klein et al., describes a rating engine for
processing rating
requests associated with a carrier contract. The system provides a base rating
engine for use
on a computer that is operable to calculate line rates in response to a rating
request by a client
application. A rating server application performs the necessary calculations
regarding a
rating request and returns the results of the request to a client application.
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A deficiency of the systems of the type described in Danford-Klein et al. is
that they
provide limited flexibility in the price quotation process for a
transportation service. The
price quotations are typically generic quotations given to all customers. In
order for a
customer to obtain a more customized price quotation, the customer must
generally
contact an account manager in the traditional manner via telephone, mail, e-
mail or other
means. This type of interaction is costly from both the customer's end and
from the
transportation service provider's end since valuable resources in terms of man-
hours must
be dedicated to these telephone, mail, e-mail and other contacts.
Therefore a problem with prior art systems, which the present invention aims
to alleviate,
is the need for the customer to interact with a human (account manager) to
obtain a
customized quote and/or order a transportation service on-line.
Consequently there exists a need in the industry to provide an improved system
and
method for providing a price quotation for a railway transportation service
that alleviates
at least in part the deficiencies of prior art systems and methods.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with a broad aspect, the invention provides a computer readable
storage
medium including a program element for execution by a CPU. The program element
includes a first program component for causing a computer to deliver first
information to a
user. The first information prompts the user to enter at the computer a
parameter,
specifying a given characteristic of a transportation service. The program
element also
includes a second program component operative to interact with a database of
promotional
events. The database of promotional events includes a plurality of entries,
each entry
mapping a discount eligibility criterion to a promotional event. The second
program
component identifies an entry in the database of promotional events associated
to a certain
promotional event and to a certain discount eligibility criterion on the basis
of the
parameter specifying a given characteristic of a transportation service. The
identification
of the entry is such that the certain discount eligibility criterion in the
identified entry
would be satisfied if the parameter was altered. The program element also
includes a third
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program component for causing the computer to deliver second information to
the user
indicative of the certain promotional event.
Advantageously, the invention allows a transportation service provider to
advertise a
promotional event for which a customer would be eligible if a parameter
specifying a
given characteristic of a transportation service was altered.
In a specific implementation, the promotional event includes a discount data
element.
Other promotional event can be considered such as actual gift items and points
(such as
frequent user points) amongst others.
In a specific example of implementation, the certain promotional event
includes a
certain discount data element. The delivering of the first information to the
user is done
by displaying information on a screen and the user provides the parameter
specifying a
given characteristic of a transportation service through an input device
selected in the
group consisting of keyboard, pointing device, touch sensitive surface and
speech
recognition unit.
In a specific example of implementation, the third program element prompts the
user to
select at the computer at least one data element providing the user with an
option to
modify the parameter specifying a given characteristic of a transportation
service.
Advantageously, the invention allows a user to elect to modify the parameter
describing
a transportation service to benefit from the promotional event. Where the
promotional
event is a discount on the transportation service, the customer may benefit
from a lower
transportation cost.
Another advantage of the present invention in a potential increased
participation to a
promotional event by customers. This is particularly advantageous for instance
when
the transportation service provider wishes to encourage customer to purchases
transportation services having certain characteristics. For example, if
generally there is
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a transportation lull during the month of February, the transportation service
provider
may provide a discount to the customers purchasing transportation services
during the
month of February. The present invention would allow customers desirous of
purchasing a transportation service in proximity of the month of February, say
in
March, to be advised of this promotional event and to modify their request to
use the
transportation service during the month of February. This has the added
benefit of
improving transportation resources allocation by encouraging customers to
switch their
transportation schedule to a time where fewer of such services are typically
demanded.
it) In a non-limiting implementation, the program element includes a fourth
program
component. The fourth program element component is adapted to derive an
initial price
quote for the transportation service at least in part on the basis of the
parameter and a
promotional price quote at least in part on the basis of the initial price
quote and the
certain discount data element. The promotional price quote is a price quote
for a
5 transportation service that would be obtained if the parameter were
altered to satisfy the
certain discount eligibility criterion. The program element includes a fifth
program
component for causing the computer to display to the user on a screen the
initial price
quote and the promotional price quote.
20 In a specific non-limiting example of implementation, the program
element prompts the
user to enter at the computer a selection data element causing either one of
the initial
price quote and the promotional price quote to be selected. In response to the
selection
of the promotional price quote, the program element alters the parameter such
as to
satisfy the certain discount eligibility criterion.
In accordance with a first variant, each entry in the database of protnotional
events maps
information identifying- a discount eligibility criterion and an altered
eligibility criterion
to a promotional event. The second program component is operative for
identifying an
entry in the database of promotional events associated to a certain altered
eligibility
criterion and to a certain promotional event where the parameter satisfies the
certain
altered eligibility criterion. Accordingly, in this first variant, the altered
eligibility
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criterion represents a value or a range of values against which the parameter
provided
by the user arid specifying the given characteristic of the transportation
service is
compared to identify a match.
In accordance with a second specific example of implementation, the parameter
provided by the user is a first parameter. The second program component
interacts with
a set of rules to generate a second parameter on the basis of the first
parameter, the
second parameter being an altered version of the first parameter. The second
program
component the identifies a least one entry in the database of promotional
events
associated to a certain discount eligibility criterion and to a certain
promotional event,
where the second parameter satisfies the certain discount eligibility
criterion.
In accordance with a specific implementation, each entry in the database of
promotional
events maps a plurality of discount eligibility criteria to a promotional
event. The first
information prompts the user to enter at the computer a plurality of
parameters, each
parameter specifying a given characteristic of a transportation service. The
second
program component is operative for identifying an entry in the database of
promotional
events associated to a certain plurality of discount eligibility criteria and
to a certain
promotional event. The selection is such than each discount eligibility
criterion in the
certain plurality of discount eligibility criteria of the selected entry would
be satisfied if
at least one parameter of the plurality of parameters was altered.
In a non-limiting implementation, the transportation service is a
transportation service
for shipment of goods. The entries in the database of promotional events may
include
discount eligibility criteria indicative of equipment type, origin of
transportation
location, destination of transportation location, distance data, commodity
type and time
data amongst others. The time data may be in the form of a day of the year, a
time of
the day, a day of the month, a day of the week, a month of the year, a set of
days/months or any other suitable manner of expressing a time interval.
In a specific implementation the transportation service is a rail
transportation service.
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In a non-limiting implementation, the CPU resides in the computer.
In an alternative non-limiting implementation, the CPU on which the program
element
is executed may reside on a server machine and the computer is a client
machine in a
network arrangement with the server machine. In such an implementation, the
program
element generates control messages to the client machine to cause the client
machine to
display the information to the user. The control messages may for example by
in the
form of HTTP messages and the client machine displays the information to the
user
i 0 through a browser.
In accordance with another broad aspect, the invention provides a method for
providing
price quotation information for shipping goods. The method includes causing a
computer to deliver first information to a user, the first information
prompting the user
to enter at the computer a parameter specifying a given characteristic of a
transportation
service. In response to an entry by the user indicative of the parameter, a
database of
promotional events including a plurality of entries, each entry mapping a
discount
eligibility criterion to a promotional event, is processed to identify an
entry associated to a
certain discount eligibility criterion and to a certain promotional event. The
certain
discount eligibility criterion is such that it would be satisfied if the
parameter was altered.
The computer is caused to deliver second information to the user indicative
oldie certain
promotional event and to deliver third information to the user indicative of
price quotation
information.
In accordance with another broad aspect, the invention provides a server
system
including a computer readable medium which includes a program element suitable
for
execution by a CPU for providing a quote for a price for shipping goods by
rail in
accordance with the above described method.
In accordance with another broad aspect, the invention provides a method for
requesting
a price quotation information for shipping goods by rail. First information is
displayed
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at a client system prompting a user to enter at the client system information
about a rail
transportation service for shipment of goods. The
information about a rail
transportation service includes at least one parameter specifying a given
characteristic
of the rail transportation service for shipment of goods. At least one
parameter is sent
to a server system. The client system receives from the server system
information about
a certain promotional event and displays that information to the user at the
client
system. The user is prompted to enter a selection data element allowing the
user to
indicate whether a modification to at least one parameter is desired and the
selection
data element is sent to the server system. The client system receives from the
server
ID system pricing information about the price for the shipment of the goods
and displays to
the user at the client system the price information for the rail
transportation service for
the shipment of the goods.
In accordance with yet another aspect, the invention provides a server system
for
providing a price quote for shipping goods by rail. The server system
including a
program element for execution by a CPU. The program element including a first
program component for causing a client system connected to the server over a
computer
network to display first information to a user. The first information prompts
the user to
enter at the client system a parameter specifying a given characteristic of a
transportation service. A second program component is operative to interact
with a
database of promotional events. The database of promotional events includes a
plurality
of entries mapping discount eligibility criteria to respective promotional
events. The
second program component is operative for identifying an entry in the database
of
promotional events associated to a certain discount eligibility criterion and
to a certain
promotional event such that the certain discount eligibility criterion would
be satisfied if
the parameter was altered. A third program component causes the computer to
deliver
second information to the user indicative of the certain promotional event. A
fourth
program element component causes the computer to deliver third information to
the
user indicative of price quotation information.
. .
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In accordance with yet another broad aspect, the invention provides a client-
server
system for providing a price quote for shipping goods by rail. The system
includes a
client system and a server system operative to exchange messages over a data
network.
A first program component executed on the server system sends messages to the
client
system for causing the client system to display first information to a user.
The first
information prompts the user to enter at the client system a parameter
specifying a given
characteristic of a transportation service. The client system is operative to
send
messages to the server to communicate the parameter to the server. A second
program
component is executed on the server and interacts with a database of
promotional
events. The database of promotional events includes a plurality of entries,
each entry
mapping a discount eligibility criterion to a promotional event. The second
program
component is operative for identifying an entry in the database of promotional
events
associated to a certain discount eligibility criterion and to a certain
promotional event,
such that the certain discount eligibility criterion would be satisfied if the
parameter
provided by the user was altered. A third program component executed on the
server
sends messages to the client system for causing the client system to display
second
information to the user, the second information being indicative of the
certain
promotional event.
In yet another broad aspect, the invention provides, a computer readable
storage
medium including a program element for execution by a CPU. The program element
includes 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 a
parameter
specifying a given characteristic of a transportation service. The program
element also
includes a second program component operative to derive a first price quote
for the
transportation service at least in part on the basis of the parameter. The
program
element also includes a third program component operative to interact with a
database
of promotional events. The database of promotional events includes a plurality
of
entries, each entry mapping a discount eligibility criterion to a promotional
event. The
third program component is operative for identifying a given entry in the
database of
promotional events associated to a certain discount data element and to a
certain
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promotional event where the parameter provided by the user, when altered,
being a
match to the certain discount eligibility criterion. The program element also
includes a
fourth program component for causing the computer to deliver to the user
second
information indicative of the price quote, third information indicative of the
certain
5 promotional event and fourth information prompting the user about the
acceptance or
rejection of a modification to the parameter. The modification to the
parameter is such
that the when the modification to the parameter is applied, the resulting
modified
parameter becomes a match to the certain discount eligibility criterion.
10 In a specific implementation, the client system and the server system
communicate via
the Internet and the client system displays the first information, the
information about
the certain promotional event and the information about the price for the
shipment
through a browser.
In accordance with another aspect, the invention relates to a method that
allows a
railway transportation company to take an order from a customer for shipping a
commodity. The method comprises receiving at a network server that
communicates
with a customer's computer over a data network information on shipping
parameters,
the information on shipping parameters conveying a type of commodity to be
shipped
and a type of railcar to use for shipping the commodity. The method also
comprises
performing a search on a network server to determine if the shipping
parameters match
a promotional event in a promotional event database that entitles the customer
to a
promotion selected in the group consisting of a discount and an awarding of
merchandise. When the search performed matches with a promotional event, the
method comprises that the network server send information to the customer's
computer
to advise the customer that the promotion applies to the shipping of the
commodity. The
method also comprises that, when the search performed does not match with a
promotional event, the network server identify a change in at least one of the
type of
commodity to be shipped and the type of railcar to use for shipping the
commodity
conveyed by the information on shipping parameters received from the
customer's
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computer, the identified change being effected would create a match with a
promotional
event in the promotional events database. The method also comprises that, when
the
search performed does not match with a promotional event, the network server
send
information to the customer's computer to advise the customer that a promotion
would
apply to the shipping of the commodity if the identified change was accepted
by the
customer. The method also comprises that, when the search performed does not
match
with a promotional event, the network server be responsive to reception of
information
originating from the customer's computer indicating that the customer accepts
the
identified change such that the shipping of the commodity according to the
shipping
parameters including the identified change can be performed.
In accordance with yet another broad aspect, the invention relates to a
computer
readable storage medium storing a program element for execution by a
processor. The
program element implements a graphical user interface on a customer computer
to
allow a customer to order from a railway transportation company the shipping
of a
commodity. The graphical user interface is configured for displaying on the
customer
computer information input components allowing the customer to input a set of
shipping parameters. The set of shipping parameters includes a type of
commodity to be
shipped and a type of railcar for use in shipping the commodity. The graphical
user
interface is also configured for transmitting to a network server information
conveying
the set of shipping parameters input by the customer. The graphical user
interface is
also configured for receiving information from the network server conveying a
suggested change to at least one of the type of commodity to be shipped and
the type of
railcar to use for shipping the commodity, the suggested change being derived
at least in
part based on a search performed on the network server to determine if the set
of
shipping parameters input by the customer match a promotional event in a
promotional
event database. The graphical user interface is also configured for displaying
on the
customer computer information display components to display the suggested
change to
at least one of the type of commodity to be shipped and the type of railcar to
use for
shipping the commodity, whereby the suggested change if accepted would entitle
the
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customer to a promotion selected in the group consisting of discount and award
of
merchandise. The graphical user interface is also configured for displaying on
the
customer computer a control component operable by the customer and presenting
the
customer with an option to order from the railway transportation company a
transportation service for shipping the commodity according to the shipping
parameters
including the suggested change.
In accordance with yet another broad aspect, the invention relates to a method
for
ordering from a railway transportation company a shipping service for shipping
a
commodity by rail. The method comprises using a customer computer to establish
a
communication with a network server associated with the railway transportation
company, the communication being established over a data network. The method
also
comprises using the customer computer to receive data originating from the
network
server, the customer computer being responsive to the data for causing a web
browser
running on the customer computer to display a transportation order web page
associated
with the railway transportation company. The method also comprises enabling a
user at
the customer computer to input via the web browser, shipping parameters for a
transportation service, the shipping parameters including a type of railcar
for use in the
shipping. The method also includes causing the customer computer to transmit
the
shipping parameters to the network server via the data network. The method
also
includes receiving at a communication interface associated with the customer
computer
promotional event information originating from the network server, the
promotional
event information being derived at least in part based on a search performed
on the
network server to determine if the shipping parameters match a promotional
event in a
promotional event database, the customer computer being responsive to
reception of the
promotional event information for causing the web browser to display
information
related to the promotional event information indicating that the
transportation service
would be entitled to a promotion if the shipping parameters were changed to
use a
railcar type different from the railcar type input indicated above, wherein
the promotion
includes either one of a discount and an award of merchandise. The method also
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comprises enabling a user at the customer computer to input via the web
browser order
placement information to place the order for shipping the commodity according
to the
changed shipping parameters.
In accordance with another aspect, the invention relates to a method allowing
a railway
transportation company to provide a price quote to a customer over a data
network for a
specific rail transportation service for shipping a commodity by rail, the
method implemented
by a programmable system including at least one programmable processor. The
method
comprises:
a) receiving at
the programmable system information originating from a
computing device associated with the customer and specifying the specific rail
transportation service, the computing device associated with the customer
being in communication with the programmable system over the data network,
the information specifying the specific rail transportation service including
shipping a plurality of parameters conveying at least a type of commodity to
be
shipped and a type of railcar to use for shipping the commodity;
b) at the programmable system, providing a promotional event database
including
a plurality of entries mapping promotion eligibility criteria to promotional
events;
c) using the
programmable system, processing the information specifying the
specific rail transportation service against the promotional event database to
determine if the specific rail transportation service is promotion eligible
thereby entitling the customer to a promotion selected in the group consisting
of a discount and an awarding of merchandise;
d) when the
processing in c) determines that the specific rail transportation
service is not promotion eligible:
i) using the programmable system, identifying a change in at least one
of
the type of commodity to be shipped and the type of railcar to use for
shipping the commodity conveyed by the shipping parameters, the
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identified change being effected would create a match with a
promotional event in the promotional events database;
ii) using the programmable system, transmitting electronic data to the
computing device associated with the customer for presenting
information conveying to the customer that the specific rail
transportation service would be promotion eligible if the identified
change was accepted by the customer; and
iii) at the programmable system, in response to receipt of information
received from the computing device associated with the customer
to
indicating that the customer accepts the identified change, using the
programmable system:
(a) modifying the specific rail transportation service according to
the accepted identified change; and
(b) transmitting electronic data to the computing device associated
with the customer for presenting information conveying that a
specific promotion applies to the modified specific rail
transportation service;
e) using the programmable system:
i) processing the information specifying the specific rail transportation
service to
/0 derive a price quote for shipping the commodity: and
ii) using the programmable system, transmitting electronic data for
presenting on
the computing device associated with the customer the derived price quote.
In accordance with another aspect, the invention relates to a computer program
product
comprising one or more tangible computer readable storage media, for allowing
a railway
transportation company to provide a price quote to a customer over a data
network for a
specific rail transportation service for shipping a commodity by rail, the
computer program
product comprising instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a
programmable
system including at least one programmable processor to perform operations.
The operations
comprise transmitting data over the data network to a computing device
associated with the
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customer, the data causing a graphic display to be generated on the computing
device
associated with the customer, the graphic display providing the customer with
input options
for providing information specifying the specific rail transportation service,
the information
specifying the specific rail transportation service including a plurality of
shipping parameters
conveying at least a type of commodity to be shipped and a type of railcar to
use for shipping
the commodity. The operations further comprise receiving from the computing
device
associated with the customer data information specifying the specifying the
specific rail
transportation service and including the plurality of shipping parameters
specified by the
customer. The operations further comprise accessing a promotional event
database including a
plurality of entries mapping promotion eligibility criteria to promotional
events and
processing the information specifying the specific rail transportation service
against the
promotional event database to determine if the specific rail transportation
service is promotion
eligible thereby entitling the customer to a promotion selected in the group
consisting of a
discount and an awarding of merchandise. The operations further comprise, when
the
processing determines that the desired rail transportation service is not
promotion eligible:
- identifying a change in at least one of the type of commodity to be
shipped and the
type of railcar to use for shipping the commodity conveyed by the shipping
parameters, the identified change being effected would create a match with a
promotional event in the promotional events database;
- transmitting electronic data to the computing device associated with the
customer
for presenting information conveying to the customer that the specific rail
transportation service would be promotion eligible if the identified change
was
accepted by the customer; and
The operations further comprise, in response to receipt of information
originating from the
computing device associated with the customer indicating that the customer
accepts the
identified change, using the system:
- modifying the specific rail transportation service according to the accepted
identified change; and
-
transmitting electronic data to the computing device associated with the
customer
for presenting information conveying that a specific promotion applies to the
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modified specific rail transportation service;
The operations further comprise, processing the information specifying the
specific rail
transportation service to derive a price quote for shipping the commodity; and
transmitting
electronic data for presenting on the computing device associated with the
customer the
derived price quote.
In accordance with another aspect, the invention relates to a method for
allowing a customer
to order from a railway transportation company a shipping service for shipping
a commodity
by rail. The method includes using a computing device associated with the
customer to
to establish a communication with a network server associated with the railway
transportation
company, the communication being established over a data network. The methods
also
includes using the computing device associated with the customer to receive
data originating
from the network server, the computing device being responsive to the data for
causing a web
browser running on the computing device to generate a graphic display
providing the
customer with first input options for providing information specifying a
specific rail
transportation service, the information specifying the specific rail
transportation service
including a plurality of shipping parameters conveying at least a type of
commodity to be
shipped and a specific type of railcar to use. The method also includes, using
the computing
device, transmitting the information specifying the specific rail
transportation service to the
network server via the data network. The method also includes using the
computing device to
receive promotional event information originating from the network server, the
promotional
event information being derived at least in part by processing the information
specifying the
specific rail transportation service against a promotional event database
including a plurality
of entries mapping promotion eligibility criteria to promotional events to
determine if the
specific rail transportation service is promotion eligible thereby entitling
the customer to a
promotion selected in the group consisting of a discount and an awarding of
merchandise.
The computing device is responsive to reception of the promotional event
information for
causing the web browser to display an electronic document conveying
information related to
the promotional event information indicating that the specific rail
transportation service would
be promotion eligible if the specific rail transportation service were
modified to use a railcar
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lOg
type different from the specific type of railcar specified by the customer.
The electronic
document provides the customer with second input options for providing
information
conveying a modification in the type of railcar to use for shipping the
commodity to
render the specific rail transportation service promotional eligible. The
method also
includes using the computing device, transmitting the information conveying
the
modification to the specific rail transportation service to render it
promotional eligibles to
the network server via the data network. The method also includes, using the
computing
device, enabling the customer to input via the web browser order placement
information to
place the order for shipping the commodity according to the modified specific
rail
lc) transportation service.
In accordance with another aspect, a method is provided for allowing a
customer to obtain
customized pricing information on-line for a rail transportation service from
a railway
transportation company over a data network for shipping goods by rail. The
method is
implemented by a programmable system including at least one programmable
processor
and comprises:
a) at computing device associated with the customer, receiving data over the
data
network from a remote computing device, the data received directing the
computing device to implement a graphical user interface (GUI), the GUI
providing:
i) a first input object configured to accept a customer input identifying
shipping parameters for the shipment of goods. The shipping parameters
comprises:
(a) a type of goods to be shipped; and
(b) a type of railcar to use for the shipment of goods;
ii) a dynamically adaptable second input object for displaying shipping
service
modification options, wherein one or more of the shipping service modification
options are associated with respective modifications to the type of railcar to
use
for shipping the goods that would render a rail transportation service
promotion
eligible thereby entitling the customer to a promotion selected in a group
consisting of a discount and an awarding of merchandise;
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10h
iii)
wherein the GUI is configured such that the shipping service modification
options displayed at the second input object are individually selectable by
the
customer;
iv) in response to
a customer input at the first input object identifying specific
shipping parameters for the shipment of goods including a specific type of
goods to be shipped and a specific type of railcar to use for the shipment of
goods, directing the GUI to display in the dynamically adaptable second input
object a set of specific shipping service modification options, wherein at
least
one of the specific shipping service modification options displayed at the
second input object presents the customer with:
(a) a suggested modification to the specific type of railcar specified at the
first
input object including an alternate specific type of railcar different from
the
specific type of railcar specified at the first input object; and
(b) an identification of a specific promotion to which the customer would be
eligible if the modification suggested in (a) is accepted by the customer;
v) in response to a customer input at the second input object
identifying a
specific shipping service modification option in the set of shipping service
modification options, directing the GUI to display pricing information
associated with the specific shipping service modification option selected by
the customer.
In accordance with yet another aspect, a method is provided allowing a railway
transportation company to provide customized pricing information for a rail
transportation
service to a customer over a data network for shipping goods by rail. The
method is
implemented by a programmable system including at least one programmable
processor
and comprises:
a) transmitting data over the data network to a computing device associated
with the
customer, the data transmitting directing the computing device to implement a
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loi
graphical user interface (GUI) at the computing device associated with the
customer,
the GUI providing:
i) a first input object configured to accept a customer input
identifying
shipping parameters for the shipment of goods, the shipping parameters
comprises:
(a) a type of goods to be shipped; and
(b) a type of railcar to use for the shipment of goods;
ii) a dynamically adaptable second input object for displaying a
set of
shipping service modification options, wherein one or more of the shipping
to service modification options are associated with respective
modifications to the
type of railcar to use for shipping the goods that would render a rail
transportation service promotion eligible thereby entitling the customer to a
promotion selected in a group consisting of a discount and an awarding of
merchandise;
iii) wherein the GUI is configured such that the shipping service
modification
options displayed at the second input object are individually selectable by
the
customer;
b) in response to receipt at the programmable system of information provided
at the
first input object of the GUI and identifying specific shipping parameters for
the
shipment of goods including a specific type of goods to be shipped and a
specific
type of railcar to use for the shipment of goods:
(a) processing the specific shipping parameters for the shipment of goods
jointly with a promotional event database to identify one or more specific
shipping service modification options for rendering the shipment of goods
promotion eligible; and
(b) transmitting data to the computing device associated with the customer for
directing the GUI to display in the dynamically adaptable second input
object the one or more identified specific shipping service modification
options, wherein at least one of the specific shipping service modification
options displayed at the second input object presents the customer with:
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(i) a suggested modification to the specific type of railcar specified at
the first input object including an alternate specific type of railcar
different from the specific type of railcar specified at the first input
object; and
(ii) an identification of a specific promotion to which the customer
would be eligible if the modification suggested in (a) is accepted by the
customer;
(c) in response to receipt of information identifying a specific shipping
service
modification option in the set of shipping service modification options
provided at the second input object of the GUI, transmitting data to the
customer computing device associated with the customer for directing the
GUI to display pricing information associated with the specific shipping
service modification option selected by the customer.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
A detailed description of examples of implementation of the present invention
is provided
herein below with reference to the following drawings, in which:
Figure 1 is a block diagram of an electronic railway price quotation/ordering
system
suitable for providing price quotations for a railway transportation service
in accordance
with a non-limiting implementation of the invention, including a merchant
computing
entity 104, a network 106, and a customer entity 102 having a plurality of
computing
units;
Figure 2a is a block diagram depicting one of the customer computing units of
customer
entity 102 shown in Figure 1 in accordance with a non-limiting implementation
of the
invention;
Figure 2b is a block diagram depicting the merchant computing system 120 shown
in
Figure 1 in accordance with a non-limiting implementation of the invention.
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ii
Figure 3 is a high level flow diagram of the process for electronically
providing price
quotations for a railway transportation service in accordance with a non-
limiting
specific example of implementation of the present invention;
Figure 4 depicts a user interface for allowing a user to logon or to register
with the
electronic railway price quotation/ordering system 100 in accordance with a
specific
example of implementation of the present invention;
Figure 5 is a flow diagram of a customer registration process for the
electronic railway
In price quotation/ordering system 100 in accordance with a specific example
of
implementation of the present invention;
Figure 6 depicts a user interface for allowing a user to select the electronic
railway price
quotation/ordering system from a set of choices in accordance with a specific
example
t 5 of implementation of the present invention;
Figure 7 depicts a user interface displaying a "railway transportation
ordering" page 700
of the electronic railway price quotation/ordering system in accordance with a
specific
example of implementation of the present invention;
Figure 8 illustrates a graphical representation of two different routes
between Montreal
and Dallas on a geographical map;
Figure 9 shows a user interface depicting a "route display" page 900 of the
electronic
railway price quotation/ordering system in accordance with a specific example
of
implementation of the present invention:
Figure 10 shows a user interface depicting an "equipment selection" page 1001
of the
electronic railway price quotation/ordering system in accordance with a
specific
example of implementation of the present invention;
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1
Figure 11 is a flow diagram depicting a process for generating a price quote
for a rail
transportation service in accordance with a specific example of implementation
of the
present invention.
Figure 12 is a block diagram depicting the interaction between a marketing
engine and a
database of promotional events in accordance with a first variant of the
present
invention; and
Figure 13 is a block diagram depicting the interaction between a marketing
engine, a set
i 0 of rules and a database of promotional events in accordance with a
second variant of the
present invention.
In the drawings, embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of
example. It is
to be expressly understood that the description and drawings are only for the
purposes
I 5 of illustration and as an aid to understanding, and are not intended to
be a definition of
the limits of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
20 The detailed description below refers to a railway price quotation/ordering
system where
the transportation services provided are offered by railway carriers using
trains and
railcars. The skilled person in the art will appreciate that the system
described herein below
may also be applied to transportation services other than railway
transportation services.
For example, other transportation services that provide for the transportation
of goods from
25 an origin location to a destination location include transportation via
trucks, boats,
airplanes and combinations of trucks, boats, airplanes and railways.
Shown in Figure 1 is an electronic railway price quotation/ordering system 100
in
accordance with a specific example of implementation of the present invention
for
30 providing price quotations tbr a railway transportation service. As shown,
the railway
price quotation/ordering system IOU includes a customer entity 102 and a
merchant
. .
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13
entity 104. For the purposes of this specification, merchant entity 104 is a
railway
carrier capable of providing railway transportation services The customer
entity 102
includes a plurality of customer computing units 112, 114 and 116 and the
merchant
entity 104 includes a merchant computing system 120. The merchant computing
system
120 and the customer computing units 112, 114 and 116 are interconnected
through a
network 106.
The network 106 is a data communication network interconnecting the customer
entity
102 and the merchant computing system 120. In a specific example of
implementation,
io the network 106 is a public network. In the illustrated implementation, the
data
communication network 106 is embodied in the Internet. It is to be noted that
the data
communication network 106 may be implemented as a network other than the
Internet
such as an interactive television network, a private network such as an
Intranet, LAN,
WAN, VPN or any other suitable network.
The customer entity 102 includes potential customers of the railway price
quotation/ordering system 100. In the example shown, the customer entity 102
comprises three computing units 112, 114 and 116 each associated to a
respective user
122, 124 and 126. The computing units 112, 114 and 116 are generally in the
form of
personal computers, although other types of computing units may be used
including
laptops, notebooks, hand-held computers, set top boxes, and the likes. The
computing
units 112, 114 and 116 may be connected to one another over an Intranet or may
be
stand-alone computing units. For example, computing units 112 and 114 are
connected
over an Intranet 118 and computing unit 116 is a stand-alone unit. Each of the
computing units 112, 114 and 116 is provided with a connection to network 106.
The
connection may be a permanent connection through a server at the customer's
premises,
or alternatively, a given computing unit may occasionally connect to the
network 106
through the use of a dial-up connection using suitable devices such as a modem
for
example. It will be readily appreciated that customer entity 102 may include
less than
three computing units as well as more than three computing units.
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14
The merchant computing system 120 and the computing units 112, 114 and 116
include
tools for facilitating on-line commerce transactions between the customer
entity 102
and the merchant entity 104. Specifically, the electronic railway price
quotation/ordering system 100 described above allows a customer to obtain a
price
quotation for a certain specific railway transportation service over computer
network
106 and to order the specific railway transportation service on the basis of
the price
quotation. The merchant entity 104 is enabled to provide a price quotation for
the
customer's requested transportation service on the basis of criteria, also
referred to as
parameters, provided by the customer. The merchant entity 104 is enabled to
provide
information regarding one or more promotional events from which the customer
could
benefit if at least one parameters provided by the customer and identifying
the
transportation service is altered. For example, the customer may be enabled to
modify
the parameter describing a transportation service to benefit from the
promotional event.
Where the promotional event is a discount on the transportation service, the
customer
may benefit from a lower transportation cost.
Customer Computing Unit 112
Figure 2A depicts a block diagram of customer computing unit 112. The
structure and
functionality of customer computing units 114 and 116 are identical to that of
customer
computing unit 112 and as such will not be described herein. As shown,
customer
computing unit 112 comprises a processor 202, a memory 206 and a network 1/0
204
(input/output) for accessing network 106. The network 1/0 204 can be
implemented, for
example, as a dial-up modem or as a permanent network connection. The
processor 202,
which can be a CPU, is adapted to execute program elements stored in the
memory 206
for performing certain functions. More specifically, customer computing unit
112 runs
an operating system 208 that supports multiple applications. The operating
system 208
is preferably a multitasking operating system that allows simultaneous
execution of
multiple applications in a graphical windowing environment. The memory 206
preferably also includes a browser program element 210. As will be discussed
further
on in the specification, in a non-limiting implementation, information
regarding a
desired railway transportation service, a promotional event and price
quotation
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information for the railway transportation service are displayed through
browser
program element 210. When the browser program element 210 is launched, it is
executed by the processor 202 atop the operating system 208. The customer
computing
unit 112 may also include e-mail software components (not shown) as well as
additional
5 components and modules. These have been omitted from the description for
the purpose
of clarity
Merchant Computing System 120
10 The merchant computing system I 20 includes one or more computer servers
and one or
more computing apparatuses, and as such includes a server system. The system
includes
program elements 218 allowing the merchant entity 104 to manage a user
interface that
is able to be provided to a computing unit (such as 112) of the customer
entity 102 such
that the customer at computing unit 112 can obtain a price quote and a
notification of a
15 certain potential promotional event for a certain railway transportation
service over
network 106.
Figure 2B shows a block diagram depicting a schematic diagram of the merchant
computing system 120. As depicted, the merchant computing system 120 comprises
a
processor 212, such as a CPU, a memory 216 and a network I/0 214
(input/output) for
connection to the network 106 (shown in figure I). The network 1/0 214 is
preferably
implemented as a permanent network connection, although dial up connections
may be
suitable in certain embodiments. For example, if the merchant computing system
120
interacts with the customer computing units 112, 114 and 116 via e-mail, then
a dial-up
connection may be suitable.
In a non-limiting example of implementation, the electronic railway price
quotation/ordering system 100 has a permanent network connection to network
106. For
clarity, it is this non-limiting example of implementation that will be
described in the
rest of the specification.
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16
The processor 212 is adapted to execute program elements 218 stored in the
memory
216 -for performing various functions. The memory 216 also has a data portion
220
including a customer database 222, a routing database 224, an equipment
database 226,
a commodity database 228 and a database of promotional events 229. Optionally,
the
data portion 220 further includes a set of rules 227. It will be readily
appreciated that
the merchant computing system 120 may include additional components and
modules
that have been omitted from the description tbr the purpose of clarity.
Customer database 222 includes data elements associated to customers of the
merchant
entity. Some non-limiting examples of data elements in the database include: a
customer identifier, a password, a customer address, customer account
information and
potential discount rates associated to the customer. It is within the scope of
the
invention for the customer database 222 to include information regarding
equipment
(i.e. railcars) belonging to specific customers. As will be described further
on in the
specification, the customer database 222 is accessed by the merchant computing
system
120 when a customer logs on to the merchant entity's website, or when specific
customer profile information is needed. A non-limiting example of
implementation of
customer database 222 is shown below.
Table I: Customer database
Customer Password Customer address Discount rate
Identifier
Customer 1 12345 1234 Green Street 10% - Overall
HUH OHO 20% - For wheat
only
15% - For the use
of refrigerated cars
Customer 2 23456 4321 Blue Avenue 15% - Overall
_XOX OX0
Customer 3 34567 9876 Yellow Drive [0% - for flatbeds
AHA
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I 7
Routing database 224 includes data elements associated to segments available
in the
railway system used by railway carriers, each segment being described by a
respective
origin junction and destination junction pair. In a non-limiting
implementation, the
destination junctions are destinations that can be reached from the origin
junction
without transferring railway carriers. Optionally, the routing database
includes the
distances between the origin junctions and the destination junctions as well
as an
average travel time between the origin junctions and the destination
junctions. The
routing database 224 includes segments belonging to the merchant entity 104 as
well as
railway segments belonging to other railway carriers. Therefore, the routing
database
in includes the owner associated to each of the segments listed in the
routing database 224.
It should also be understood that segments can include portions of a route
that require
transportation other than by railway. A non-limiting example of a routing
database is
shown below.
IS Table 2: Routing database
Jet origin Jet Distance Time Origin Destination Railway
destination between between factor factor Carrier
Jet (km) _Jet (hrs)
Montreal Buffalo 300 2.5 1.6 1.3 Merchant
Montreal Huntington 70 0.7 1.6 1.7 Merchant 2
Buffalo Baltimore 250 2.1 2.4 7.2 Merchant 1
Buffalo Memphis 1300 10 7.4 1.9 Merchant 3
Baltimore St Louis 900 8.5 2.7 1.8 Merchant 2
St Louis Dallas 550 4.8 3.5 2.3 Merchant 2
Memphis Dallas 350 3.7 4.0 2.3 Merchant 3
Optionally, although not show in the table above, each segment may also be
associated
to an ownership factor data element allowing to condition the cost on the
basis of the
ownership of the segment. The ownership factor tbr a given segment may further
be
20 dependent on the customer making the request.
The equipment database 226 includes a plurality of records associated to
respective
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1K
railcars that can be used to transport goods from an origin location to a
destination
location. The records include a plurality of fields that include data elements
indicating
the ownership of the railcar as well as the route segments on which that piece
of
equipment can be used. As mentioned with respect to the customer database, as
a
variant the ownership of the railcars belonging to the customers is indicated
in the
customer database 222. A non-limiting example of implementation of equipment
database 226 is shown below:
Table 3: Equipment database
Equipment Carrying Ownership Ownership Chargeable Price
Capacity Factor services per
mile
Flatbed 2 tons Merchant Entity I for all Cleaning
15.95
Unloading
Flatbed 1.5 tons Customer 2 0.5 for Cleaning 15.95
"Customer 2" Unloading
1 lbr everyone
else
Flatbed 2 tons Railway Carrier 2 0.8 for Cleaning 15.95
"Customer 1" Unloading
1.5 for everyone
else
Tanker 5 tons Merchant Entity I Cleaning 20.00
Unloading
Tanker 3 tons Customer I 0.5 for Cleaning 20.00
"Customer 1" Unloading
I for everyone
else
Boxcar 2 tons Merchant Entity I Cleaning 5.95
Unloading
Boxcar 3.5 tons Customer 3 0.75 .for Cleaning 5.95
"Customer 3' Unloading
I for everyone
else
Hopper 6 tons Merchant Entity I Cleaning 17.99
Unloading
i
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19
The commodity database 228 includes data elements corresponding to commodities
potentially selected by the customer. Specifically, the commodity database 228
includes
data elements corresponding to each commodity including chargeable services, a
price
per mile and a price per weight for transportation. Optionally, each commodity
may
also be associated to a list of customers who have a high likelihood of
transporting a
given commodity. A non-limiting example of implementation of commodity
database
228 is shown below:
Table 4: Commodity database
Commodity Customers Price per weight Price per Chargeable
who mile services
transport
commodity
Wheat Customer I 12.00/ton 2.00
Wood Customer 1 6.00/ton 1.99
Customer 2
Petroleum Customer 1 20.00/ton 13.00
Customer 3
Perishable food Customer 4 22.00/ton 7.00 Refrigeration
0
The database of promotional events 229 includes entries associated to
promotional events.
Each entry maps one or more discount eligibility criteria to a promotional
event. In a
specific implementation, the promotional event includes a discount data
element. Other
promotional event can be considered such as actual gift items and points (such
as frequent
IS user points) amongst others. For the purpose of simplicity, the present
invention will
describe the case where the promotional event is a discount data clement.
Non-limiting examples of parameters identifying discount eligibility criteria
include
parameters specifying a particular equipment type, an origin of transportation
location,
20 a destination of transportation location, a distance data, a commodity
type, time data
and a customer identifier amongst others. The time data may include a day of
the year, a
time of the day, a day of the month, a day of the week or a month of the year
associated
. õ
CA 02418258 2014-10-01
to a time during which the transportation service occurs or, alternatively,
associated to a time
at which the transportation service is reserved.
A non-limiting example of implementation of database of promotional events 229
is shown
5 below:
Table 5: Database of Promotional Events
Discount Eligibility Discount Data Element
Criterion
1. Use of refrigerated cars 10%
2, In January
1. Origin of the 100$ / car
transportation in
California
1. Use of flatbed cars 5%
2. Destination of the
transportation in
California
1. Use of flatbed cars 200$/car
2. In February
1. Transportation of 25%
petroleum products
2. February
3. Distance over 500km
It will be appreciate that the above table entries are provided for the
purpose of illustration
10 only and that both the discount eligibility criteria and the discount
data element may vary
significantly in actual implementations.
In a second non-limiting example of implementation, the database of promotion
event 229
includes a plurality of entries, each entry mapping information identifying a
discount
15 eligibility criterion and an altered eligibility criterion to a
promotional event. A non-limiting
example of implementation of database of promotional events 229 is shown
below:
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21
Table 6: Database of Promotional Events
Discount Eligibility Altered eligibility Discount Data Element
Criteria criteria
1. Use of refrigerated
2. In December 10%
cars 2. In February
2. In January
1. Origin of the 100$! car
transportation in
California
1. Use of gondola cars
1. Use of flatbed cars 5%
2. Destination of the
transportation in
California
1. Use of flatbed cars 2. In December
200$/car
2. In February 2. In January
1. Transportation of 2. In March 25%
petroleum products
2. In February
3. Distance over 5001cm
1. In January 2. In December 2 Free tickets to a hockey
game
The set of rules 227 (optional) includes rules for use by the program element
218 to generate
at least one altered parameter specifying a characteristic of a transportation
service on the
basis of a given parameter. The manner in which the program element 218 makes
use of the
set of rules 227 will be described in more details later on in the
specification.
It is to be expressly understood that other formats for each of the above
noted databases are
possible in alternative implementations. It should also be expressly
understood that other data
to fields including additional data elements could also be included and
others omitted in
alternative embodiments.
The use of each of these databases will be described in greater detail further
on in the
specification.
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22
System Overview
With reference to Figure 3, the overall interaction between a customer at the
customer
entity 102 and the merchant entity 104 is described in relation to the railway
price
quotation/ordering system 100 according to an example of implementation of the
present invention.
Firstly, at step 1000 the customer accesses the merchant entity's secure
website by
either entering a user ID and password, or by registering as a new customer.
Once the
customer's identity has been N,eri lied by the merchant computing system 120,
the
customer is granted access to the merchant entity's website.
At step 2000, the customer is presented with a graphical user interface
indicative of the
merchant entity's home page. The graphical user interface provides a number of
links
is to various services and products offered by the merchant entity 104. In the
context of
the railway price quotation/ordering system 100, a link to the railway price
quotation/ordering module is provided. The user selects the railway price
quotation/ordering, module link from the plurality of links through an input
device such
as a pointing device, keyboard, touch sensitive surface, speech recognition
unit or other
suitable input device.
At step 3000, the graphical user interface includes a set of data fields that
are modifiable
by the customer for specifying a desired railway transportation service. The
customer is
enabled to enter via the user interface the origin location and the
destination location of
the railway transportation service desired. The customer is also enabled to
enter the type
and weight of the commodity, which is to he transported between the origin
location
and the destination location. Optionally, the customer is enabled to enter the
preferred
dates for which the transportation service is required. The dates may include
an hour,
day, month, year or season. Once the above-described information is provided,
the
customer submits this information to the merchant entity 104 via network 106.
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23
Optionally, at step 4000, the program element 218 at the merchant computing
system 120
receives and processes the origin location and the destination location
submitted by the
customer to derive a list of transportation routes between the origin location
and destination
location. The merchant computing system 120 then forwards the list of
transportation routes
to the customer's computing unit, which displays the routes to the customer
through a
graphical user interface. The customer is then enabled to select one of the
routes for the
transportation service through the user interface using an input device such
as a pointing
device, keyboard, touch sensitive surface, speech recognition unit or other
suitable input
device. In an alternative implementation, the program element 218 at the
merchant computing
0 system may select a default transportation route and step 4000 may be
omitted.
At step 5000, the program element 218 at the merchant entity processes the
commodity type
and the weight information to derive a list of suitable equipment for
transporting the
commodity. The merchant computing system 120 then forwards the list of
equipment to the
customer's computing unit which in turn displays the list of equipment to the
customer
through the graphical user interface. The customer is then enabled to select
the desired
equipment to be used during transportation from a list of possible railcars
through the user
interface using an input device such as a pointing device, keyboard, touch
sensitive surface,
speech recognition unit or other suitable input device. Optionally, the
graphical user interface
may also enable the customer to select customized chargeable services and
submit the
selections to the merchant entity 104. In an alternative implementation, the
program element
218 at the merchant computing system may select a default equipment type.
It will be readily apparent to the person skilled in the art that the order of
steps 4000 and 5000
may be interchanged or, alternatively, steps 4000 and 5000 may be performed
concurrently in
alternative implementations.
At step 6000, the program element 218 at the merchant computing system 120
generates an
initial price quotation at least in part on the basis of the origin location,
destination
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24
location, weight and type of commodity selected at step 3000, the route
selected at step
4000, and the equipment ownership and chargeable services selected at step
5000.
At step 7000, the merchant computing system 120 searches the database of
promotional
events 229 to locate a promotional event where the discount eligibility
criteria are
satisfied by the parameters provided by the user. If a promotional event is
located, the
merchant computing system 120 applies the promotional event in order to effect
a price
adjustment of the initial price quotation generated at step 6000. 11 a
promotional event
is not located, the merchant computing system 120 searches the database of
promotional
events 229 for one or more entries associated to respective promotional events
from
which the customer could benefit if at least one parameter provided by the
customer and
specifying a given characteristic of the transportation service was altered.
Optionally the
merchant computing system 120 applies the information regarding one or more
promotional events in order to compute one or more promotional price
quotations. The
promotional price quotations reflect the price that would be charged to the
user for the
transportation service if at least one parameter identifying the
transportation service
were altered.
At step 8000, where the parameters provided by the user satisfied all the
discount
eligibility criteria and a promotional event was located, the merchant
computing system
120 forwards the promotional price quotation to the customer's computing unit,
which
displays the price quotations to the customer through a graphical user
interface.
Optionally, the merchant computing system 120 forwards the initial price
quotation, the
promotional price quotation and the promotional event to the customer's
computing
unit, which displays this information to the customer through a graphical user
interface
such as to allow the user to view the discount. The promotional price
quotation is
displayed to the user as the final price quotation.
At step 8000, where a promotional event was located where the discount
eligibility
criteria would be satisfied by the parameters provided by the user if at least
one
parameter was altered, the merchant computing system 120 forwards a message
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indicating the candidate promotional event, the initial price quote and the
promotional
price quotation to the customer computing unit. The customer computing unit
displays
the above information to the customer through a graphical user interface.
In a first
non-limiting implementation, the user is enabled through the user interface to
modify at
5 least one parameter in order to benefit from the promotional event. If
the user chooses
to modify' a parameter such as to benefit from the promotional event, the
promotional
price quotation is displayed to the user as the final price quotation.
Otherwise, the
initial price quote is displayed to the user as the final price quotation. In
a second
alternative non-limiting implementation, the customer is enabled to select the
initial
to price quotation or to accept one or the one or more promotional price
quotations. If the
initial price quotation is selected, the initial price quote displayed to the
user as the final
price quotation. If a promotional price quotation is selected, the merchant
computing
system 120 alters a parameter specifying a characteristic of the
transportation service to
produce a request for a transportation service for which the selected
promotional price
15 quotation applies. The promotional price quotation is then displayed to
the user as the
final price quotation.
At step 8000, where no promotional event was located, the merchant computing
system
120 forwards the initial price quote to the customer's computing unit, which
displays
20 the initial price quotation to the customer as the final price quotation
through a
graphical user interface.
At step 9000, the customer is enabled to accept the final price quotation or
reject the
final price quotation. Optionally, the customer is enabled to save the final
price
25 quotation in a database located at the merchant computing system and
delay making a
decision until a later time. In such an implementation, the final price
quotation
provided at step 8000 is associated to a time delay during which the price
quotation is
valid.
Each of the above mentioned steps will be described in greater detail
hereinbelow.
CA 02418258 2003-01-31
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'26
Login or Register/Create a Customer Profile (Step 1000)
In order to access the electronic railway price quotation/ordering system 100,
a
customer at computing unit 112 invokes browser 210 and enters the merchant
entity's
specific network address. It should be expressly understood that a customer
may be a
user of any computing unit within customer entity 102 that accesses the
railway price
quotation/ordering system 100. For the purposes of this description, the user
122 at
customer computing unit 112 will be called customer 122 to indicate that user
122 is
ordering a service from merchant entity 104. In a non-limiting example of
implementation, once customer 122 has entered the merchant entity's network
address,
the browser 210 displays a webpage on the customer computing unit 112. In such
an
implementation, the customer is first presented with a "login/registration"
webpage. A
non-limiting example of a "login/registration" webpage 400 is shown in Figure
4.
Prior to being able to access the railway price quotation/ordering system, the
customer
either logs into the merchant entity's "login/registration" page 400 by
entering a userlD
and password, or alternatively registers as a new user of the railway price
quotation/ordering service, lithe customer is a "registered customer", meaning
that the
customer has previously registered and has been approved by the merchant
entity, then
the customer simply provides the merchant entity with a userlD and an
associated
password each time the customer desires to access the railway price
quotation/ordering
system 100. As can be seen in Figure 4, in a non-limiting example of
implementation, a
registered user enters the userlD and associated password into customer
modifiable data
Fields 402 and 404 respectively, and then clicks the "go" button 406 in order
to submit
this information to merchant entity 104. It is this login information that
allows the
merchant entity 104 to access the customer profile in the customer database
222.
When a "registered customer" enters a userlD and a password, the merchant
entity 104
receives this login information and processes it with respect to the customer
database
222. More specifically, the processor 212 accesses the customer database 222
to locate
the entry corresponding to the userlD. If no corresponding entry is found in
the
CA 02418258 2014-10-01
27
customer database 222, an error message is returned to the customer. If a
corresponding entry
is found, the password in the entry in the customer database 222 is compared
to the password
provided in the login information. If a match is not found, an error message
is returned to the
customer. If a match is found, the customer is successfully identified and is
granted access to
the website.
If the customer accessing the "login/registration" page 400 is not registered,
the user launches
the registration process by selecting a corresponding link to a "registration"
webpage. The
user can select the "registration" webpage through an input device such as a
pointing device,
keyboard, touch sensitive surface, speech recognition unit or other suitable
input device. In
the non-limiting example of implementation depicted in Figure 4, customer 122
launches the
"registration" webpage by selecting the "register" button 408.
With reference to Figure 5, the registration process will be described below.
At step 502,
customer 122 launches the "registration" webpage (no Figure), and customer
computing unit
112 downloads a registration module implemented by program element 218 (shown
in Figure
2B) from the merchant computing system 120. The registration module
automatically
launches to aid customer 122 in the completion of the online application for
registration. In a
specific example of implementation, the registration module is configured to
provide step-by-
step instructions. At step 504, customer 122 fills out the registration form
that includes
various fields relating to personal and financial matters, such as company
name, address,
telephone number, credit card numbers, bank affiliations, and the like.
Customer 122 also
provides data related to preferred payment methods, a userID and an associated
password.
Optionally, the "registration" webpage may include data fields prompting the
customer to
enter information about railcars that are owned by the customer. Some of these
information
fields may be omitted and others added in alternative embodiments.
It is possible that customer computing units 112 and 114 will have the same
customer
CA 02418258 2003-01-31
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28
registration information since they are connected via an intranet 118. In a
non-limiting
example, computing units 112 and 114 belong to a single company and the
registration
information provided to the merchant entity 104 pertains to the company and
not to the
individual users of computing units 112 and 114. As such, both customers 122
and 124
may use the same userlD and password when accessing the railway price
quotation/ordering system 100.
As a variant, it is possible that the registration between the customer and
the merchant
entity may be effected through the completion of a form that is transmitted to
the
in merchant entity 104 by mail, fax or other suitable transmission method.
These methods
will be readily apparent to the reader skilled in the art.
Once the application for registration is completed, at step 506 the
application for
registration is submitted to the merchant entity 104. The registration module
facilitates
this communication between the customer computing unit 112 and the merchant
entity
104. The registration module itself includes the necessary routing information
to direct
the application over the network 106 to the merchant computing system 120. At
step
508, the merchant entity 104 reviews the application for registration to
determine
whether customer 122 should be permitted to register and whether any
information is
missing. If registration is denied, for example information is missing, the
customer is
already registered, or the customer requesting registration does not have
permission to
do so, at step 510 the merchant entity 104 returns a message to the customer
122
indicating that the application for registration has been denied. Conversely,
if the
application is granted, at step 5 1 2 the merchant entity 104 may return a
message
indicating that the application for registration is successhil.
Assuming that the application for registration is granted, at step 512 the
merchant
computing system 120 at the merchant entity 104 creates a customer account
entry in
customer database 222 (as described and shown previously in the
specification). The
customer database 222 includes information pertaining to the customers of the
merchant
entity 104. In a non-limiting example of implementation, for each customer
entity, an
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2.()
entry is provided including various information data elements associated to
the user.
Amongst others, each entry includes a customer identifier and a corresponding
password. Optionally, each customer identifier is associated to a respective
customer
profile including customer characteristics that may be used by program
elements 218 to
condition the price quotation to be generated. Such information may include
without
being limited to, information indicating a discount rate to which the customer
is
entitled. This will be discussed in more detail in the section entitled
"marketing options
and "adjustment of price quotation". In accordance with a non-limiting
implementation,
until the merchant entity 104 has reviewed the customer's registration
information, the
0 "new customer" has only limited interaction capabilities with the railway
price
quotation/ordering system 100.
As a variant to the electronic railway transportation registration system 100,
the
accessing of a registration page is not required in order for a customer to
access the
merchant entity's homepage or the "railway transportation ordering" page of
the
electronic railway price quotation/ordering system 100. Under this variant, an
unregistered customer can skip step 1000 and access the "railway
transportation
ordering" page directly, so as to be able to enter information regarding a
specific
railway. transportation service that is desired and obtain a price quote for
that service. If
the user desires to accept the price quote, it is at this stage that the user
completes the
registration process in order to provide the merchant entity 104 with
information
regarding the customer.
Selecting the Railway Price Quotation/Ordering System (Step 2000)
Once the customer has been successfully identified by the login process, or
has
successfully completed the registration form, customer computing unit 112
downloads a
module representative of the merchant entity's Thome" site for displaying on
the screen
of the customer computing unit 112. Figure 6 shows a simplified non-limiting
example
of the merchant entity's "home" site 600. The "home" site is implemented by
program
element 218 from the merchant computing system 120 and automatically launches
to
CA 02418258 2003-01-31
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aid customer 122. The railway price quotation/ordering system 100 is part of
an
electronic-commerce platform provided by the merchant entity 104 to support
various
electronic-commerce activities. As can be seen, the "home" site 600 provides a
number
of links to various services and products offered by the merchant entity 104.
In the
5 context of the railway price quotation/ordering system 100, a link 602 to
the railway
price quotation/ordering module is provided. The merchant entity's "home" site
may
also include a link entitled "view previous price quotes" which provide
customers with
the ability to view previously accepted quotes listed by such things as
"quotes by
customer", "quotes by account" and "quotes by contact".
In the non-limiting example of implementation shown in Figure 4, in order to
request a
price quote for a railway transportation service, the customer 122 selects the
"price
quote and ordering" button 602 from the merchant entity's "home" site 600.
This is
done through an input device such as a pointing device, keyboard, touch
sensitive
15 surface, speech recognition unit or other suitable input device. Once
selected, the
"home" site module 600 facilitates the communication of this choice to the
merchant
entity 104. The "home" site module itself includes the necessary routing
information to
direct the choice selected by customer 122 to the merchant computing system
120 over
network 106.
Select Origin Location, Destination Location and Commodity (Step 3000)
After selecting the "price quote and ordering" link 602 from the merchant
entity's
"home" site 600, a "railway transportation ordering" page is launched at
customer
computing unit 112. The "railway transportation ordering" page is implemented
by
program clement 218 (shown in Figure 2b) at the merchant computing system 120.
The
program clement 218 generates control messages to the customer computing unit
112 to
cause the customer computing unit 112 to display information in the form of
"railway
transportation ordering" page to the customer. In a specific example of
implementation
the control messages are fITTP messages. The "railway transportation ordering"
page
automatically launches to aid customer 122 in filling out the customer
modifiable data
õ
CA 02418258 2014-10-01
31
fields located on the "railway transportation ordering" page, thereby
prompting the user to
enter information regarding a desired rail transportation service. In a
specific example of
implementation, the "railway transportation ordering" page is configured to
provide step-by-
step instructions. In a non-limiting example of implementation, the "railway
transportation
ordering" page is a graphical user interface implementing a form that is
modifiable by the
customer and which is suitable to be displayed on the screen of the customer
computer unit
112 by browser program element 210. Shown in Figure 7, is a non-limiting
example of the
"railway transportation ordering" page 700. In a non-limiting example of
implementation, the
customer 122 fills out the customer-modifiable data fields in order to enter
information about
a rail transportation service for the shipment of goods, such as a desired
origin location,
destination location, commodity type and commodity weight. The shipment of
goods can be
transported by one or more railcars.
As can be seen in Figure 7, there are a set 702 of customer modifiable data
fields for the
origin location, a set 704 of customer modifiable data fields for the
destination location, and a
set 706 of customer modifiable data fields for the commodity. Optionally,
although not shown
in Figure 7, the graphical user interface can include customer modifiable data
fields relating to
customer account information and preferred dates of transportation. Some of
these
information fields may be omitted and other information fields added in
alternative
embodiments.
It will be readily apparent that there are numerous ways for the user to
provide the
information regarding the origin location, the destination location, and the
commodity. The
user can enter the information about the desired rail transportation service
into the computer
modifiable data fields through an input device selected from the group
consisting of keyboard,
pointing device, touch sensitive surface and speech recognition unit.
In a first non-limiting example of implementation, in order to specify the
origin location and
the destination location of transportation, the customer can enter the name of
the
CA 02418258 2003-01-31
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32
country, city and street address. These are shown as customer modifiable data
fields
708, 710, 712 and 714 on Figure 7.
Alternatively, in a second non-limiting example of implementation, the
customer may
enter a zip code, shown as data fields 716 and 718 in Figure 7 (the zip code
can be of
any number of digits such as the Canadian 6 digit zip code, the U.S. 5 digit
zip code or
any other type of zip code).
In a third non-limiting example of implementation, the customer may enter a
standard
to point location code (SPLC), data fields 720 and 722, or a freight station
accounting
code (FSAC).
Optionally, the customer modifiable fields depicted in figure 7 may be
enabled/disabled
on the basis of the information already entered by the user. For instance, if
the user
specifies the origin location with an SPLC, then the city, country and zip
field may be
automatically disabled by the user interface. Similarly, if the user specifies
the origin
location with the city, country or with the zip code, the SPLC may also be
automatically
disabled. The same type of feature may be provided by the user interface for
the
destination location and for the commodity information.
It is within the scope of the invention for the merchant entity 104 to be able
to provide
an intermodal transportation service based on the origin location and
destination
location entered by the customer. For example, if the customer enters a zip
code to
specify the origin location and there is no train station within the region
covered by that
zip code, then the merchant entity can use another form of transportation,
such as a
truck, to transport the commodity from the customer's origin location to the
closest train
station. Similarly, the customer may specify the desired destination location
with a zip
code that covers a region that does not include a train station. In these
situations the
merchant entity will provide an alternate form of transportation from the
origin location
to the closest train station and from the terminal train station to the
desired destination
location. As such, the merchant entity is able to provide a door-to-door
transportation
CA 02418258 2014-10-01
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service to the customer.
The merchant entity 104 is able to calculate the distance to the closest train
station based on
the zip code, or other origin location information provided by the customer.
Although not shown in Figure 7, in a fourth non-limiting example of
implementation, the
customer may simply select the desired origin location and destination
location from a pull-
down list of possible locations. Such a list may include a list of the
origin/destination
locations available for the railway transportation service.
Although not shown in Figure 7, in a fifth non-limiting example of
implementation, the
graphical user interface may include an interactive map allowing the customer
to select a
desired location of origin and destination by activating the selections
through an input device
such as a pointing device, keyboard, touch sensitive surface, speech
recognition unit or other
suitable input device. In this alternative implementation, the interactive map
depicts a
plurality of locations at which origin and destination location are depicted
and associated to
links allowing selection by the user.
Other suitable embodiments for selecting origin and destination locations
through a user
interface are possible in alternative implementations.
The desired commodity, as well as the weight or volume of the commodity to be
transported,
may also be specified in various ways. The type of commodity can be selected
from the set
consisting of, but not limited to, liquids, solids, logs, granular, grain
type, commodity type,
explosives, and hazardous materials. As a non-limiting example, the commodity
may be
specified by entering into data fields 724 and 726 the commodity's common
written name and
the weight of the commodity can be entered using well known units of measure
(UOM), such
as pounds, kilograms or cubic inches. Alternatively, the user may specify the
commodity by
entering the commodity's seven digit STCC code (standard transportation
commodity
classification) or a subset of the commodity's seven digit STCC into data
field 728. It will be
apparent that although this specific implementation describes the
transportation of a
CA 02418258 2014-10-01
34
commodity, any good suitable for rail transportation may be specified in
alternative
implementations.
It is within the scope of the invention for the graphical user interface of
the "railway
transportation ordering" page 700 to be configured such as to be customer
specific, thereby
including specific information regarding the customer currently accessing the
page. For
example, if it is known from the customer profile that customer 122 only
transports wheat and
wood, then in the commodity selection area 706, only the choice of wheat and
corn will be
available to the customer. Alternatively, if it is known from the customer
profile that
customer 122 usually transports wheat from Montreal to Dallas, then default
values for the
customer modifiable fields may be set accordingly such as to reduce the time
required for the
user to enter the information. In the specific example shown in Figure 7, the
origin location
702, the destination location 704, and the commodity 706 are set respectively
to "Montreal",
"Dallas" and "Wheat".
Once the necessary information has been entered into the "railway
transportation ordering"
page 700, the information entered into the customer modifiable data fields is
submitted to the
merchant entity 104. This may be accomplished through an input device such as
a pointing
device, keyboard, touch sensitive surface, speech recognition unit or other
suitable input
device. In the specific example shown in Figure 7, the customer submits the
information
entered into the graphical user interface by selecting the "submit" button 730
with a pointer
device. The "railway transportation ordering" page 700 includes routing
information to direct
the information entered by customer 122 to the merchant entity 104. As such,
the customer
computing unit 112 is operative to communicate with the merchant entity 104.
It should be
noted that the price quote computed later on can be based at least in part on
the information
supplied by the customer at the "railway transportation ordering" page 700
about the rail
transportation service desired.
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Select a Route (Step 4000)
Upon receipt of the customer's desired origin location and destination
location, the
program element 218 of the merchant computing system 120 is responsive to the
5 desired origin location and destination location and accesses routing
database 224
(figure 2B), As explained above, the routing database 224 stores a list of
segments in
the form of },origin junction, destination junction} pairs for railway routes.
The
processor 2 12 applies a route determination algorithm implemented by program
element
218 to the information stored in the routing database 224 with respect to the
customer's
TO desired origin location and destination location. The route determination
algorithm
determines a series of combinations of segments that can be joined so as to
form a route
between the origin location and the destination location. Identifying a
combination of
segments between an origin location and a destination location based on
predefined
segments may be done using any suitable method.
In accordance with a variant of the invention, a segment may be traveled by a
carrier
other than a train such as for example a truck, a boat, airplane or any other
suitable
vehicle. For example, if the transportation service desired by the customer
requires a
truck to transport goods from the specific origin location to a train station
in the area,
then the journey by truck to the train station can be considered a first
segment, and the
journey by train can include one or more additional segments. In addition, the
final
segment can be a journey by truck from a termination train station to the
specific
destination location specified by the customer. All segments of the route
include
respective origin location and destination locations and in general, the
destination of the
first segment coincides with the origin of the second segment, the destination
of the
second segment coincides with the origin of the third segment and so on.
In this variant, the customer enters into the "railway transportation
ordering" page an
origin location, which is information conveying a characteristic of the first
segment of
the transportation route. As a specific example, the zip code entered by the
customer
identifying an origin location is a characteristic of the first segment of the
route. It
should be understood that other information conveying an origin location of
the first
CA 02418258 2014-10-01
36
segment are included within the scope of the invention, such as country, city,
and street
address. The user may also enter at the "railway transportation ordering" page
information
conveying a characteristic of the second segment of the journey, such as
origin location of the
second segment. As a specific example, the zip code or other origin location
identifier entered
by the customer to identify the origin location of the first segment can also
convey the origin
location of the second segment. For example, with the origin location of first
segment, the
program element 218 at the merchant entity 104 can identify the closest train
station to the
origin location and as such identify the origin location of the second
segment. In this case, the
train station is the origin location of the second segment. It is to be
appreciated that although
in this example the information conveying an origin location of the second
segment is derived
from the information conveying the origin location of the first segment, it is
within the scope
of the invention for the customer to provide information conveying the origin
location of the
second segment separately from that of the first segment. In addition, the
customer may enter
information identifying the destination of one or all of the segments
contained within the
route. The customer enters information conveying one or more characteristic of
the first
segment and the second segment through an input device selected in the group
consisting of
keyboard, pointing device, touch sensitive surface and speech recognition
unit.
Generally, two or more routes are derived for a given origin location and a
destination
location requested by a customer. However, it will be readily appreciated that
for certain
origin locations and destination locations only one existing route between an
origin location
and a destination location will exist amongst the segments in the route
database 224 and such
cases remain within the scope of the invention. It is to be appreciated that
the series of
combinations of segments forming routes between the origin location and the
destination
location need not be an exhausted list of all possible routes between the
origin location and
the destination location but may be a subset thereof without. The invention is
not limited to
the manner in which the subset of routes from the list of possible routes is
determined.
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3 7
An example of interaction between customer 122 and merchant entity 104 will
better
illustrate the above. On the "railway transportation ordering" page 700,
customer 122
selects Montreal as the origin location and Dallas as the destination
location. The
merchant entity 104 receives the selected origin location (Montreal) and the
destination
location (Dallas) and applies the algorithm to the information stored in the
routing
database 224 to derive possible routes between Montreal and Dallas. From the
routing
database 224, shown in table 2 above, there arc at least two routes possible
between
Montreal and Dallas, namely:
Route 1
Montreal to Buffalo using merchant 1 followed by
Buffalo to Baltimore using merchant I followed by
Baltimore to St Louis using merchant 2 followed by
St Louis to Dallas using merchant 2.
Is
Route 2
Montreal to Buffalo using merchant I followed by
Buffalo to Memphis using merchant 3 followed by
Memphis to Dallas using merchant 3.
Figure 8 illustrates a graphical representation of these two routes on a
geographical
map. The series of routes between the origin location and the destination
location is
displayed in the form of paths drawn on the graphical representation of a
geographical
map.
Program element 218 is operative for interfacing with a database, such as
routing
database 224, that maps information identifying route segments and identifying
the
respective merchant railway carriers that own the route segments in order to
generate a
series of routes having segments owned by a certain owner.
In a specific example of implementation, the algorithm deriving the list of
routes from
. .
CA 02418258 2003-01-31
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the origin location to the destination location is biased on the basis of the
ownership of
the segments of the routes. For example, the algorithm deriving the list of
routes from
the origin location to the destination location can make use of the ownership
of the
segments in the routing database 224 to bias the list of routes to favor
railway routes
-- having segments belonging to the merchant entity 104.
For example, in cases where the merchant entity 104 can transport a commodity
from
the specified origin location to the specified destination location without
the use of
railway routes having segments belonging to a railway carrier other than the
merchant
entity 104, the routes that use the rail segments belonging to the merchant
entity 104
are provided to the customer for selection. For example, when the origin is
Montreal
and the destination is Vancouver, and there are seven (7) different routes
that can be
taken between Montreal and Vancouver and two (2) of the routes require only
railway
segments belonging to the merchant entity, and the remaining five (5) routes
require the
IS -- use of rail segments belonging to a railway carrier other than the
merchant entity, then
only the two routes that use railway segments belonging to the merchant entity
arc
displayed to the customer. In another example, the routes that use railway
routes having
at least one segment belonging to the merchant entity 104 are provided to the
customer
for selection. In such implementations., the rules lbr the selection of the
routes for
-- inclusion in the series of routes presented to the customer are based on a
pre-determined
segment owner, namely the merchant entity. Alternatively, the user may desire
to have
the algorithm determine a list of routes based on a merchant railroad carrier
other than
the merchant entity, that is selected by the user.
-- It is to be appreciated that heuristics rules for biasing the selection of
the routes for
inclusion in the series of routes for presentation to the customer entity 102
may also
bias the selection toward rail segments belonging to railway carriers other
than the
merchant entity. For instance, the selection may be biased toward railway
carrier with
which the merchant entity has some strategic alliances. As such, routes that
include rail
segments belonging to railway carriers having strategic relationships with the
merchant
entity 104 are given a preferential treatment over routes that include rail
segments
.õ
CA 02418258 2003-01-31
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39
belonging to railway carriers not having strategic relationships with the
merchant entity
104. As such, the series of routes presented to the customer is a subset of a
set of all
possible routes between the origin of the shipment of goods and the
destination of the
shipment of goods.
Once program element 218 has derived a list of routes between the origin
location and
the destination location, the list of routes is transmitted over network 106
to customer
computing unit 112 on a "route display" page that is downloaded by computing
unit
112. The "route display" page automatically launches at computing unit 112 to
display
on the screen of the customer computing unit 112 the list of derived routes.
The "route
display" page is implemented by program element 218 from the merchant
computing
system 120 and automatically launches to aid customer 122.
Shown in Figure 9 is a non-limiting example of the "route display" page 900
launched
s at the customer computing unit 112. As can be seen, the series of routes
is displayed in
the form of a table, with each route presented as a row, showing each junction
in the
route as well as the merchant railroad carrier used for transportation. It is
within the
scope oldie invention for the "route display" page 900 to indicate the
distance between
each junction and the total distance for each route. It should be noted that
the route is
divided into segments, each segment being the trip between two junctions.
Customer 122 may select a desired route from the list of routes displayed
through an
input device such as a pointing device, keyboard, touch sensitive surface,
speech
recognition unit or other suitable input device. In the specific example shown
in Figure
9, the customer selects and submits the choice of route simply by selecting
either the
"route I" button 902 or the "route 2" button 904. Alternatively, the customer
selects and
submits the choice of route simply by selecting the route on the graphical
representation
of the geographical map 906.
Optionally, the user interface provides an option allowing the user to request
the
merchant system to effect the route selection on the basis of a certain
criteria such as
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cost, distance and time.
The "route display" page 900 includes routing information to direct the route
selection
of customer 122 to the merchant entity 104.
5
Based on the customer's choice of route, the merchant computing system 120 is
able to
determine the distance (miles or km or other unit of distance) between the
chosen origin
location and the chosen destination location.
to Equipment Selection (Step 5000)
In a specific example of implementation, after the customer has selected a
route from
the list of routes provided by the merchant entity 104, an "equipment
selection" page
1001 is automatically launched at customer computing unit 112. "Equipment
selection"
15 page 1001 is implemented by program element 218 of merchant computing
system 120
and is transmitted to the customer computing unit 112 over network 106. A non-
limiting
example of the "equipment selection" page 1001 is shown in Figure 10. The
"Equipment selection" page 1001 in accordance with this non-limiting example
of
implementation is in the form of a graphical user interface displayed on the
screen of
20 the customer computing unit 112. As can be seen, the "equipment selection"
page
1001 includes customer-modifiable data fields 1002 relating to the equipment
selection
and, optionally, customer-modifiable data fields 1004 relating to chargeable
services.
The customer-modifiable data fields 1002 enable the user to select the type of
railcar to
transport the desired commodity from the origin location to the destination
location.
25 The customer-modifiable data fields 1004 enable the user to select the
desired services.
It will be apparent that certain chargeable services will be automatically
selected by the
merchant system on the basis of the commodities being transported and on the
basis of
the type of equipment being used.
30 The customer modifiable data fields 1002 and 1004 may be comprised of
text boxes that
allow the customer to type in the desired choices or, alternatively, and as
shown in
õ.
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41
Figure 10, the customer-modifiable data fields are dropdown selection boxes
1006 that
include choices of equipment and chargeable services available to the user.
Other
suitable formats of customer modifiable data fields are also within the scope
of the
present invention. The choice of railcar to be used includes, but is not
limited to, a
gondola ear, a tanker car, a flatbed car, a boxcar, a central beam car for
logs, a grain car,
a railcar for hazardous materials a refrigerated a hopper car and a covered
hopper car
amongst others.
The customer is enabled to enter information at the customer computing unit
112 about
i 0 the ownership of at least one rail car that will be used for
transporting the shipment of
goods. Specifically, the customer is enabled to select the desired ownership
of the
railcars for the transportation service.
In a first non-limiting example of implementation, customer-modifiable data
fields 1002
identify a list of railcars associated to respective owners. The user selects
the railcar
type jointly with the railcar owner by editing the customer-modifiable data
fields 1002.
In a second non-limiting example of implementation, for each selected railcar
type, the
user is permitted to select a railcar owner from a list of railcar owners
having the
selected railcar type. This may he effected by providing an additional
customer-
modifiable data field (not shown in figure 10) to enable the user to select a
railcar owner
from a list of railcar owners. Optionally, entries in the list of equipment
owners may be
enabled/disabled on the basis of the railcar already selected by the user in
field 1002.
For instance, if a flatbed railcar is selected and only carrier 1 and carrier
3 own flatbed
railcars, then only carrier 1 and carrier 3 will be enabled such that the
customer may
only select carrier I or carrier 3.
Advantageously, by allowing the customer to select the owner of the equipment,
the
customer can have the option to select equipment owned by the merchant entity
104, by
a railway carrier other than the merchant entity, or by the customer himself.
The
selection of equipment owner may result in reduced costs in the transportation
service.
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42
As a non-limiting feature of the electronic railway price quotation/ordering
system 100,
the merchant computing system 120 includes, as part of program element 218, a
product
configurator program element to customize the "equipment selection" page based
on the
selections previously made by the customer. For example, the product
configurator
program element is able to form a basic pool of railcars and is further able
to implement
a filter for filtering the basic pool of railcars based on one or more
filtering criteria to
produce a filtered pool of railcars. 'ale filtering criteria can be such
things as type of
railcar, type of commodity or goods, route chosen, ownership of the railcars
etc... In
addition, the filtering criteria can be extracted from the customer database
222, or any
in of the other databases disclosed above. The program element 218 is able
to deliver the
filtered pool of railcars to the customer's computing unit 112, and the
customer is able
to select at the computer unit 112 one or more railcars from the filtered pool
of railcars.
As will be described further on in the specification, the price quote for the
transportation service selected by the customer will be based at least in part
on one or
IS more characteristics of the railcars selected by the customer.
In a specific implementation, the product configurator program element
provides a set
of filter modules including an equipment type filter module, a route filter
module and an
equipment ownership filter module amongst others.
The equipment type filter module processes a list of available equipment types
on the
basis of the commodity selected by the customer on the "railway transportation
ordering" page 700 (shown in figure 7) in order to release a list of equipment
types
suitable for transporting the selected commodities. The suitable equipment
types are
25 presented for selection in customer modifiable field 1002. For example,
if a customer
has indicated on the "railway transportation ordering" page that the commodity
to be
transported is a petroleum based product, the equipment type filter module
conditions
the "equipment selection" page such that the customer-modifiable data fields
only
provide the user with the ability to select equipment (railcars) that can
transport a
30 petroleum based product. As such, the choice of a flat bed railcar, or a
hopper will not
be made available to the customer.
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43
The route filter module of the product corifigurator processes a list of
available
equipment types on the basis of the route selected by the user on the "route
display"
page 900 (shown in figure 9) in order to release a list of equipment types
suitable to be
transported on all the segments of the selected route. This is particularly
advantageous
when certain segments of the route are not rated to support certain types of
railcars, or
support railcars weighing more than a certain amount. The suitable equipment
types are
presented for selection in customer modifiable field 1002.
in The equipment ownership filter module of the product configurator
processes a list of
available equipment types on the basis of the owner of the equipment. In a
first non-
limiting example, the list of equipment is conditioned on the basis of the
owners of the
segments of the route selected by the user on the "route display" page 900.
For
example, if the user selects a route that includes segments owned by two
different
railway carriers, it is within the scope of the invention for the customer to
be able to
chose to use either of the first carrier's equipment, or the second carrier's
equipment.
This is particularly advantageous when the railway carrier provides a
discounted rate
when a customer uses a rail segment and equipment owned by that railway
carrier.
In a second non-limiting example, the list of equipment is conditioned on the
basis of
the customer profile associated with the customer. For example, the equipment
ownership filter module is operative to process the equipment database 223 to
identify
equipment associated to the customer presently using the railway price
quotation/ordering system 100. Where suitable equipment owned by the customer
has
been identified by searching the equipment database 226, or the customer
database 222,
to extract information regarding equipment owned by the customer, the
equipment
ownership filter module releases a list of equipment owned by that customer
causing the
equipment presented in the dropdown selection box 1006 to include the
equipment
owned by the customer. The dropdown box 1006 may optionally include equipment
owned by others. In such a case, an ordered list of equipment may be presented
with the
equipment owned by the customer preceding equipment owned by other customers.
. .
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44
This is particularly advantageous when the customer owns equipment and is able
to
obtain a discounted rate for the railway transportation service when using
his/her own
equipment.
In a third non-limiting example, the list of equipment is conditioned on the
basis of the
equipment owned by the merchant entity 104. For example, the equipment
ownership
filter module is operative to process the equipment database 226 to identify
equipment
associated the merchant entity 104. Where suitable equipment owned by the
merchant
entity 104 has been identified, the equipment ownership filter module releases
a list of
to equipment owned by the merchant entity 104 causing the equipment presented
in the
dropdown selection box 1006 to include the equipment owned by the merchant
entity
104. The dropdown box 1006 may optionally include equipment owned by others.
In
such a case, an ordered list of equipment may be presented with the equipment
owned
by the merchant entity preceding equipment owned by other railway carriers.
This is
particularly advantageous when the merchant entity owns equipment and it is
desired
that the merchant entity's equipment be favored over that of other railway
carriers when
using railway price quotation/ordering system 100.
The above described filter modules arc used in combination to provide the user
with a
list of suitable equipment types for the transportation service. For example,
the
equipment type filter module is first applied to the list of all possible
railcars to
eliminate railcars that are unsuitable to carry the commodity selected by the
user which
results in a first subset of equipment. The first subset of equipment is then
processed by
the equipment ownership filter module to order the first subset of equipment
such that
equipment owned by the merchant entity is displayed to the user preceding
equipment
owned by other railway carriers.
As described above, the "equipment selection" page 1001 optionally includes
data fields
that enable the user to select customized chargeable services 1004 in addition
to the
standard default chargeable services associated with any given railway
transportation
service. As a non-limiting example of implementation, and as shown in Figure
10, the
õ
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customer modifiable data field is a drop down box 1008 listing chargeable
services available to
the customer 122. Chargeable services include such items as handling goods,
mounting and
dismounting of containers, loading, unloading, customs inspection, demurrage
and the like. A
list of chargeable services is described in U.S. Patent 6,061,667, issued on
May 9,2000 to
5 Danford-Klein et al.. If the "equipment selection" page 1001 does not
include data fields
enabling the customer to select chargeable services, or if the customer does
not wish to select any
additional chargeable services, the merchant computing unit 120 will generate
a price quote
based on the use of default chargeable services. The default chargeable
services are based at
least in part on the commodity being transported and on the type of railcar
used for the
10 transportation service. For example, if the commodity being transported
is petroleum and a tanker
car is used, then chargeable services associated to the cleaning of the tanker
car will be applicable
to the transportation service.
Once the customer has indicated the desired equipment and chargeable services
in the customer
15 modifiable data fields, the information is submitted to the merchant entity
104. The "equipment
selection" page 1001 facilitates the communication between customer 122 and
merchant entity
104. The "equipment selection" page includes the necessary routing information
to direct the
information over the network 106 to the merchant computing system 120. The
customer submits
the information entered into the "equipment selection" page to the merchant
entity 104 over
20 network 106 through an input device such as a pointing device, keyboard,
touch sensitive surface,
speech recognition unit or other suitable input device. In the specific
example shown in Figure
10, the customer selects the "submit" button 1010 located at the base of the
"equipment
selection" page in order to submit the entered information to the merchant
entity 104.
25 Computation of Price Quote (Step 6000)
The information obtained from the user through the "railway transportation
ordering" page 700,
the "route display" page 900 and the "equipment selection" page 1001 is
CA 02418258 2003-01-31
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46
received and processed by the merchant computing system 120 to generate a
price quote
for the transportation service selected by the customer.
in a non-limiting implementation, with reference to figure 2b, program element
218 of
the merchant computing system 120 includes a pricing engine module operative
to
calculate a price quote for the transportation service selected by the
customer. The
pricing engine module uses data elements included within the customer database
222,
the routing database 224, the equipment database 226, the commodity database
228 and
a series of pricing equations (see equations 1-6 below) in order to calculate
a price quote
to for the services selected by the customer.
The processor 212 of the merchant computing system 120 accesses the databases
described above in order to access data elements to be used in the pricing
equations.
IS It is within the scope of the invention for the pricing engine module to
compute a price
for the transportation of goods based on a route having at a first segment,
and a second
segment, wherein the goods are transported on the first segment by a mode of
transportation other than a train, and the goods are transported on the second
segment
by a train. The pricing engine module computes the price of the goods on the
route
20 based at least in part on the basis of characteristics of the first
segment entered by the
customer and characteristics of the second segment entered by the user.
Characteristics
of the first segment and second segment of the routes can be entered by the
user in the
"railway transportation ordering" page, the "route display" page, and the
"equipment
selection" page. For example, based at least in part on the information
entered by the
25 customer about the origin of the first segment, and information
identifying the location
of the train station, the merchant entity 104 can determine that
transportation by
trucking will be required. Trucking charges for the first segment can be based
on the
information about origin and destination entered by the customer. Based on
this
information, the price engine module can assess the distance between the two
locations
30 and can compute the trucking charges based on the assessed distance.
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47
The computation of the price will be described with reference to figure 11 of
the
drawings. At step 1100, the pricing engine module receives the information
obtained
from the user including commodity type, commodity weight, railcar type and
selected
route. At step 1102, the pricing engine processes the commodity type,
commodity
weight and railcar type to derive the number railcars required for
transporting the
commodity. To calculate the number of railcars required to transport the
commodity
specified by the customer, the pricing engine makes use of total weight of the
commodity and the commodity type specified by the user through the "railway
transportation ordering" page 700 as well as the weight carrying capacity of
the railcar
in selected by the user. In order to obtain the weight carrying capacity of
the railcar
selected by the user, the pricing engine accesses the equipment database 226
to locate
the entry that corresponds to the railcar selected by the user. The pricing
engine then
computes the number of railcars required. Mathematically, the number of
railcars
required may be expressed as follows:
Equation 1
total weight of commodity
# railcars required =
capacity of selected railcar
The number of railcars required is rounded up to the nearest whole number.
Once the pricing engine has calculated the number of railcars required, the
line haul
price for each segment of the route is calculated at step 1104.
The price of the railway service is based at least in part on the type of
commodity or
goods being transported. As such, the pricing engine searches commodity
database 228
for an entry corresponding to the STCC of the commodity specified by the
customer.
Once the corresponding entry is found, the associated cost per distance data
element
(STCC $/mile) is extracted. Following this, the pricing engine searches
equipment
database 226 to locate the railcar selected by the user and extracts an
associated
ownership factor associated to the selected railcar. As such, the cost of the
shipment of
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goods is based at least in part on the ownership of the railcars selected by
the customer.
As shown in table 3, the ownership factor is a function oldie railcar and of
the customer
making the request. Table 3 is reproduced below for the reader's convenience.
Table 3: Equipment database
Equipment Carrying Ownership Ownership Chargeable Cost
Capacity Factor services per
mile
Flatbed 2 tons Merchant Entity 1 for all Cleaning
15.95
Unloading
Flatbed 1.5 tons Customer 2 .5 for Cleaning 15.95
"Customer 2" Unloading
1 for everyone
else
Flatbed 2 tons Railway Carrier 2 ¨ 0.8 for Cleaning 15.95
"Customer I" Unloading
1.5 for everyone
else
Tanker 5 tons Merchant Entity 1 Cleaning 20.00
Unloading
Tanker 3 tons Customer I .5 for Cleaning 20.00
"Customer I" Unloading
1 for everyone
else
Boxcar 2 tons Merchant Entity 1 Cleaning 5.95
, Unloading
Boxcar 3.5 tons Customer 3 .75 for Cleaning 5.95
"Customer 3" Unloading
1 for everyone
else
Hopper 6 tons Merchant Entity I Cleaning 17.99
Unloading
to
Once the corresponding equipment factor has been identified, for each segment
of the
route, the pricing engine searches the routing database 224 to identify the
owner of the
CA 02418258 2014-10-01
49
segment and the distance associated to the segment. The pricing engine then
computes the
base line-haul price for each segment. The calculation of the base line haul
price for a given
segment can be expressed mathematically as follows:
Equation 2
Base Line haul pricesegment = (stccs,d,,,mic, * distance segment )
+ (stccS/ weight * weight * equipment ownership factor)
where stccsidIstance is the cost per distance data element associated to the
commodity being
transported, distanceõgn,õt is the length of the current segment, stccsAveight
is the cost per unit
weight associated to the commodity being transported, weight is the weight of
the commodity
being transported in the current railcar and "equipment ownership factor" is
the ownership
factor associated to the railcar used to transport the commodity. The above
computation
allows providing a price for the transportation of a commodity that is
conditioned on the
ownership of the equipment used to transport the commodity. In addition the
above
computation allows providing a price for the transportation of a commodity
that is conditioned
on the route selected by the user. In light of the above, it will be readily
apparent to the person
skilled in the art that other suitable equations for computing a Base Line-
haul price for a
segment may also be used in alternative embodiments.
Although the equipment ownership factor has been shown to be a separate factor
in equation
2, it is within the scope of the invention for the ownership factor to be
incorporated within
either one, or both, of the stcc$/distance and stccsAveight factors. It should
also be appreciated that
the factors used in the equations, such as St0C$/clistance and stccsiweight do
not have to be fixed
values and can instead be functions of such variables as distance and weight.
In a non-limiting
example of implementation, the stccsid,stance factor used in equation 2 can be
a certain value for
a predetermined distance, such as 5001cm, and can then drop by an incremental
amount for
each additional 100 km traveled. It is within the scope of the invention for
all the factors used
in the equations described herein to be a function of other factors. Such
variations in the
CA 02418258 2014-10-01
factors used in the equations disclosed herein will be apparent to those
skilled in the art.
Alternatively, the base line haul price may be a flat rate for transportation
of a railcar over the
segment.
5
Optionally, where an ownership factor is associated to the segment, the Line
Haul Pricesegment
is conditioned in the basis of the segment ownership factor identified in the
routing database
224. Mathematically, this may be expressed as follows:
10 Equation 3
Line Haul Pricesegment = Base line-haul pricesegment X segment ownershi
-Pfaetor
The above computation allows providing a price for the transportation of a
commodity that is
15 conditioned on the ownership of the segment of the route used to
transport the commodity. In
light of the above, it will be readily apparent to the person skilled in the
art that other suitable
equations for computing a Base Line-haul price for a segment may also be used
in alternative
embodiments.
20 On the basis of the above, a line-haul price for each segment is
calculated.
Following this, at step 1106, the pricing engine calculates the price of
transporting one railcar
carrying the desired commodities from the origin location to the destination
location specified
by the customer. In a non-limiting example, the price per railcar is expressed
as the sum of
25 the line haul rate and chargeable services charged. The calculation of
the price of transporting
one railcar from the origin location to the destination location specified by
the user can be
expressed mathematically as follows:
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Equation 4
Pricesilcar I[(line haul pricemeram segment
)*Blicoelf origin *BUcoeir destination Silk] +
If line haul prieeNoN
inerc.lant segment] 1.[chargeable services]
Where 1:[chargeable services] is the sum of the prices for chargeable services
(default
and user selected), the BUori,;õspik. and the BUDõtiõõ,;m..c represent a
charge levied for
the origin and destination SPEC:7's. In a non-limiting implementation, the
chargeable
service price may be obtained by a rate lookup in a table of prices for
chargeable
services. The table of prices is stored in the data segment 220 of memory unit
216
(shown in figure 2b). The rate of a chargeable service may be a function of a
number of
parameters including the type of chargeable service, the commodity being
transported,
the location of the chargeable service to be rendered, the customer profile
and the
equipment (railcar) being used. Mathematically, this may be expressed as
follows:
Equation 5
Chargeable service rate = Rate Price [Service,
Commodity,
Locations*,
Customer-cc:id,
Equipment]
Once the price per railcar has been calculated (equation 4) and the number of
railcars
required to transport the quantity of commodity has been calculated (equation
1), at step
1108 the price quote for the transportation service selected by the customer
can be
obtained by multiplying the price per car by the number of cars.
Mathematically, this
can be expressed as follows:
Equation 6
price quote - Prieesimikar * number of railcars required
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52
The pricing engine then releases the computed price quote.
Marketing Options and Adjustment of Price Quote (Step 7000)
Once an initial price quote has been calculated by the pricing engine, the
initial price
quote is processed by a marketing engine implemented by program element 218.
The
marketing engine allows modifying the price generated by the pricing engine on
the
basis of various criteria including, but not limited to, the customer's
profile and a
particular marketing campaign. Alternatively, the marketing engine may process
the
to transportation service quote request prior to the computation of an
initial price quote. in
such a case, a promotional price quote may be generated directly on the basis
of the
transportation service quote request parameters and the computation of an
initial price
quote may be omitted.
In a first non-limiting example, the initial price quote is adjusted by the
marketing
engine on the basis of the customer profile associated to the customer. As
previously
described, registered customers of the merchant entity are associated to
customer
profiles which include data elements indicative of discount rates to which the
associated
customer is eligible. The marketing engine is operative to interact with
customer
database 222 to identify an entry in the customer database 222 associated to
the
customer using the price quotation/ordering system 100, in order to extract a
discount
data element associated to the customer. For example, if the customer is a
registered
customer, the marketing engine accesses the customer database 222 and
determines if
the customer is eligible for a discount. lithe customer who submitted the
transportation
service quote request is associated to a certain discount rate based on, for
example, the
fact that the merchant entity has decided that that specific customer is a
valued
customer, then the initial price quote determined by the pricing engine is
adjusted based
on the discount rate associated to that customer. Mathematically this may be
expressed
as follows:
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Equation 7
price quote ¨ initial price quote * (1-discount rate)
It is to be appreciated that the discount may be expressed in terms of
absolute dollar
amount or absolute dollar amount per car. Mathematically this may be expressed
as
follows:
Equation 8
price quote = initial price quote - discount
It is within the scope of the invention for different discount rates to he
associated to
different customers. For example, the profile of customer 1 within the
customer
database 222, may indicate that customer 1 is eligible for a 10% discount rate
on all
quotes, while the profile of customer 2 may indicate that customer 2 is
eligible for a
20% discount rate on all quotes. Alternatively, different discount rates may
be assigned
to a same customer dependent upon the commodities being transported, the type
of
railcar being used, the date of the transportation service, the origin or
transportation, the
destination of transportation, the distance of transportation or any other
suitable criteria
such as time data. The time data can include a time of day, a week, a month or
a time of
year such as a season. As such, the discount data element is associated to a
plurality of
discount eligibility criteria, such as specific customer, and service
requested by the
customer. For example, the profile of customer I may indicate that customer I
is
eligible for a 10"A discount on all quotes relating to the transportation of
wheat and no
discount for the transportation of any other commodity. In another example,
the profile
of customer I may indicate that customer 1 is eligible for a 10% discount on
all quotes
where a flatbed car is used and 15% where a refrigerated railcar is used and
no discount
for any other equipment type.
In a second non-limiting implementation, the initial price quote is adjusted
by the
marketing engine on the basis of a particular marketing campaign for which the
railway
transportation service selected by the customer qualifies. In this
specific
implementation, the data segment 220 of memory unit 216 (shown in figure 2B)
further
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5.4
includes a database of promotional events 229including a plurality of entries,
each entry
in the database of promotional events being associated to a certain
promotional event.
Entries in the database of promotional events can include such things as
origin
locations, destination locations, distances, types of equipment, type of
commodity and
time data amongst others. The time data can include a time of day, a week, a
month or a.
time of year such as a season. A season can be a calendar season such as
spring,
summer, fall and winter, or alternatively a season can be any period of the
calendar year
defined by the merchant entity. For example, the merchant entity may define
the period
between November and February as a "high traffic" season. The entries in the
database
of promotional events are modifiable by account manager at the merchant entity
104
such as to allow the promotional events to be easily modified. Each entry
includes a
plurality of fields including the criteria required for a customer to be
eligible for the
promotional events as well as the applicable discount. A non-limiting example
of
implementation of a database of promotional events was shown in Table 5, which
is
reproduced herein below for the reader's convenience:
Table 5: Database of Promotional Events
Discount Eligibility Discount Data Element
Criterion
1. Use of refrigerated cars 10%
2. In January
I. Origin of the 100$ / car
transportation in
California
1. Use of flatbed cars 5%
2. Destination of the
transportation in
California
1. Use of flatbed cars 200$/car
2. In February
I. Transportation of 75%
petroleum products
2. February
3. Distance over 500km
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The database of promotional events maps information identifying one or more
discount
eligibility criteria to a promotional event, which in the example shown in
table 5 is a
discount data element. A marketing engine is operative to interact with the
database of
promotional events to identify one or more promotional events for which the
customer,
5 or the transportation service selected by the customer, qualities. In a non-
limiting
example, if the customer qualities for a discounted price under one marketing
promotion, the initial price quote is adjusted according to the discount rate
or discount
amount described in the marketing promotion to produce a promotional price
quotation.
As can be seen, the database of promotional events can include entries with
multiple
10 discount eligibility criteria. For example, in order to be eligible for a
discount or 10%,
the discount eligibility criteria of "use of refrigerated cars", as well as
"transportation
within the month of January" must be satisfied. In addition, if the customer
qualifies for
a discounted price under two or more marketing promotions, the initial price
quote is
adjusted according to the discount rate or discount amount that is the most
15 advantageous to the customer. In an alternative implementation, if the
customer
qualities for a discounted price under two or more marketing promotions, the
initial
price quote is adjusted according to all the applicable marketing promotions.
In other
word, this allows promotional events to be combined.
20 For example, the database of promotional events indicates that the
merchant entity 104
is offering a discount wherein during the month of February a 25% discount is
applied
to the transportation of petroleum products that are being transported over
500Iun. If
the railway transportation service requested by the customer satisfies these
criteria, the
railway transportation service is eligible for this discount and the initial
price quote
25 generated by the pricing engine will be adjusted accordingly to generate
a promotional
price quotation.
As can be seen from equations 7 and 8 above, the price quote is computed at
least in
part on the basis of a discount data element derived from either a marketing
campaign, a
30 customer profile, or a combination of the two.
CA 02418258 2014-10-01
56
Although it has been disclosed above (equations 7 and 8) that an initial price
quote is
modified on the basis of a discount data element to determine a discounted
price for a
shipment of goods, it should be expressly understood that the discount rate
may be
incorporated into any of the above equations such that the initial price quote
calculated is
indicative of a discounted rate without having to be modified. For example, it
is within the
scope of the invention for the merchant entity 104, upon establishing that the
customer is
eligible for a discounted rate, to modify each factor within the above
described equations such
that the initial price computed is indicative of a discounted rate and it is
not necessary to
adjust the initial price quote.
The marketing engine is also operative to identify in the database of
promotional events,
promotional events for which the customer, based of the current provided set
of parameters
characterizing the requested transportation service, is not currently eligible
but would be
eligible if at least one of the criteria of the transportation service was
modified. For example,
the customer requests a transportation service for the month of the February
to transport
merchandise using refrigerated cars from Dallas to Montreal. None of the sets
of criteria in
the database of promotional events are satisfied, however all the criteria for
the first entry in
the database of promotional events, except for the month criteria, are
satisfied. The marketing
engine is operative to identify that if the customer would modify the
transportation date to fall
within the month of January rather than February on his transportation service
request, then a
10% discount would be applicable to the rate.
More specifically, the marketing engine implemented by program element 218 is
operative to
search the database of promotional events 229 to identify promotional events
for which the
user would be eligible if at least one parameter identifying the
transportation service request
was altered. It will be appreciated that the database of promotional events
229 could be
searched prior to the calculation of the initial price quote or prior to the
adjustment of the
initial price quote in alternative embodiments.
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Optionally, the merchant computing system 120 is adapted to display at the
customer
computing unit an advertisement for the promotional event advising the user of
the
promotional event and asking the user whether he wishes to modify his request
for
transportation service in order to benefit from the promotion. As a non-
limiting example
of implementation, the advertisement could be in the form of text on the
existing
webpage at the client computing unit, or alternatively could be in the form of
a pop up
'iiidow.
Advantageously, by identifying potential promotional events, the merchant
entity can
in advertise upcoming marketing campaigns to customers and provide improved
customer
service.
A first variant of the database of promotional events is shown on Figure 12.
In a non-
limiting example of implementation, as shown on Figure 12, the database of
promotional events 229 includes M entries 1210,m, in varying from I to M. Each
entry
1210,m in the database of promotional events 229 maps information identifying
a
discount eligibility criterion 1212,m and an altered eligibility criterion
1214,m to a
discount data element 1216,m. The reader skilled in the art will appreciate
that the
database of promotional events can also include entries indicative or more
than one
altered eligibility criterion. Each altered eligibility criterion 1214,m
represents a certain
value of a parameter specifying a given characteristic of a transportation
service, the
parameter being any information that the customer may provide at steps 3000,
4000 and
5000 (shown in figure 3) to specify the required transportation service. The
certain
value of the parameter is determined by the merchant entity 104 as being a
value which,
when provided by the customer, would cause the program element 218 to provide
to the
customer information regarding the promotional event associated with a certain
discount eligibility criterion 1212,r and a certain discount data element
1216,r. A
simplified specific non-limiting example of the database of promotional events
in
accordance with this implementation was shown in figure 6 above and is
reproduced
below for the reader's convenience:
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Table 6: Database of Promotional Events
Discount Eligibility Altered eligibility Discount Data
Element
Criteria criteria
1. Use of refrigerated
2.In December 10%
cars 2. In February
2. In January
I. Origin of the 100$ / car
transportation in
California
1. Use of gondola cars 1
. Use of flatbed cars 5%
2. Destination of the
transportation in
California
I. Use of flatbed cars 2. In December 200S/car
2. In February 2. In January
1, Transportation of 2. In March 25%
petroleum products
2. In February
3. Distance over 500km
I. In January 1.1n December 2 Free tickets
to a hockey
game
In the context of the very specific example given above, the merchant entity
104 may
inform a customer requesting a transportation service to be performed on
February 4,
2002 that if the customer modified the transportation date to fall sometime in
January
2002, the customer would benefit from a 10% rebate on the costs associated
with the
transportation service.
The marketing engine 1200 is operative for identifying an entry 1210,r in the
database
to of promotional events 229 matching the altered eligibility criterion
1214,r such as to
locate a certain promotional event. To that effect the marketing engine 1200
is adapted
to search the database of promotional events 229 for entries 1210,m including
an altered
eligibility criterion 12 14 matching the value of the parameter.
In the context of the very specific example given above, the parameters "In
February";
"refrigerated cars"; "from Dallas" and "to Montreal". The
marketing engine 1200
, .
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searches the database of promotional events 229 to find an entry for which the
parameters are a match to a combination of the discount eligibility criteria
1212.n and
the altered discount eligibility criteria 1214.n.
A second variant of the database of promotional events is shown on Figure 13.
In this
second variant, marketing engine 1300 makes use of a set of rules 227 to alter
at least
one parameter in the set of parameters provided by the user to produce at
least one
altered parameter. The at least one altered parameter is derived from the
parameters
provided by the customer at steps 3000, 4000 and 5000.
The marketing engine 1300 perform a function similar to the marketing engine
1200 in
that it searches the database of promotional events 229 for information
related to
promotional events for which the user would be eligible if at least one
parameter
identifying the transportation service was altered. In the second variant, the
database of
promotional events 229 maps information identifying discount eligibility
criteria
1212,m to discount data elements 1216,m. The marketing engine 1300 is then
operative
for identifying at least one entry 1210,r in the database of promotional
events 229
associated to a certain discount eligibility criterion 1212,r and to a certain
discount data
= element 1216,r, wherein the altered parameter satisfies the certain discount
eligibility
criterion 1212,r. Accordingly, the rules 1350,n in the set of rules 227 are
provided, for
example by the merchant entity 104, to direct the marketing engine 1300 to
produce
altered parameters corresponding to promotional events for which promotional
information should be provided to the customer. The rules are therefore
directed to
identifying promotional events from which the user could benefit if a
parameter
specifying the transportation service was altered.
hi the context of the very specific example given above, the merchant entity
may wish
to inform a customer requesting a transportation service to be performed
during a
certain month, say February or December, that there is a promotional event
that would
apply in the previous (or subsequent) month, say January. In that case, the
set of rules
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227 includes a certain rule 1350,s directed to producing an altered parameter
indicative
of a transportation month incremented or decremented by one month. If the
customer
has entered at step 3000 a desired transportation month of February 2002, the
marketing
engine 1300 uses the certain rule 1350,s to produce two altered parameters
indicative of
5 a transportation month of January, 2002 and March 2002 and searches the
database of
promotional events 229 for an entry 1210,m for which the discount eligibility
criterion
1212,m is indicative of the either March 2002 or January 2002.
If one or more promotional event are located in the database of promotional
events, the
t 0 marketing engine 1200 or 1300 can use the certain discount data
elements in order to
compute one or more promotional price quotations. The promotional price
quotations
reflect the price that would be charged to the user for the transportation
service if at
least one parameter identifying the transportation service were altered. In
specific
examples of implementation, the promotional price quotations are computed
using
15 methods similar to those presented herein above with respect to the initial
price quote
adjustment. As such, equations 7 and 8 are used to compute the promotional
prices with
the discount rate or the discount being replaced by the certain discount data
element.
In a first example, once the initial price quote has been adjusted based on
customer
20 profile, or on the basis of a particular marketing campaign, if eligible
for either, the
initial price quote and the adjusted price quote (if applicable) are
transmitted over the
computer network 106 to be displayed on the screen of the customer computing
unit
112. The price quote may he transmitted to the customer computing unit 112 for
display via the graphical user interface which is implemented by program
element 218
25 from the merchant computing system 120 and automatically launches to aid
customer
122. Alternatively, the price may he transmitted to the customer computing
unit 112 via
e-mail, snail-mail or any other suitable manner implemented by program element
218.
Where the parameters provided by the user satisfied all the discount
eligibility criteria
and a promotional event was located, the merchant computing system 120
forwards the
30 promotional price quotation to the customer's computing unit, which
displays the price
quotations to the customer through a graphical user interface. Optionally, the
merchant
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computing system 120 forwards the initial price quotation, the promotional
price
quotation and the promotional event to the customer's computing unit, which
displays
this information to the customer through a graphical user interface such as to
allow the
user to view the discount. The promotional price quotation is transmitted to
the user
computing unit for display as the final price quotation.
In a second example where a promotional event for which the user may be
eligible if at
least one parameter specifying the transportation service was altered, and
optionally the
one or more promotional price quotation(s), was located at the customer
computing unit
112 and also displayed on the "price display" page. More specifically, where a
promotional event was located where the discount eligibility criteria would be
satisfied
by the parameters provided by the user if at least one parameter was altered,
the
merchant computing system 120 forwards a message indicating the candidate
promotional event, the initial price quote and the promotional price quotation
to the
IS customer computing unit. The customer computing unit displays the above
information
to the customer through a graphical user interface.
In a first non-limiting implementation, the user is enabled through the user
interface to
modify at least one parameter describing the transportation service in order
to benefit
from the promotional event. If the user selected the initial price quote, the
initial price
quote is displayed to the user as the final price quotation. If the user
chooses to modify
a parameter such as to benefit from the promotional event, the promotional
price
quotation is forwarded to the customer computing unit for display to the user
as the
-final price quotation. The user interface allows the user to alter the
parameters
identifying characteristics or the transportation service. In a non-limiting
implementation, the "price display" page includes a set of data elements
associated to
modification functions which may he selected by the user through a pointing
device,
touch sensitive screen, keyboard, voice recognition unit or other suitable
input device.
The modification functions allow the user to modify the information entered at
steps
3000, 4000 and 5000 and to request a new price quote.
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In a second alternative non-limiting implementation, the customer is enabled
to select the
initial price quotation or to accept one of the one or more promotional price
quotations. If the
initial price quotation is selected, the initial price quote is forwarded to
the customer
computing unit for display to the user as the final price quotation. If a
promotional price
quotation is selected, the parameters identifying the transportation service
are automatically
altered by the merchant computing system 120 to satisfy the certain discount
eligibility
criterion associated with the accepted promotional price quote. The
promotional price
quotation is then is forwarded to the customer computing unit for display to
the user as the
final price quotation.
The initial price quote and the final price quote (if applicable) are
transmitted over the
computer network 106 to be displayed on the screen of the customer computing
unit 112. The
price may be transmitted to the customer computing unit 112 for display via
the graphical user
interface which is implemented by program element 218 from the merchant
computing system
120 and automatically launches to aid customer 122. Alternatively, the price
may be
transmitted to the customer computing unit 112 via e-mail, snail-mail or any
other suitable
manner implemented by program element 218.
Display Price Quote (Step 8000) and Accept, Reject or Save Price Quote (Step
9000)
The final price quote is received at the customer computing unit 112 and is
displayed on a
"price display" page that is preferably in the form of a graphical user
interface, and the
customer can accept or rejects the final quote. Each quote is typically
associated to a certain
validity period after which the quote is no longer active. A typical validity
period has a
duration of 2 weeks, however, shorter or lengthier validity periods may be
used in alternative
implementations.
In a non-limiting example of implementation, when applicable, both the initial
price quote and
the final price quote are displayed to the user in order to allow the latter
to view the savings.
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In another non-limiting example of implementation, when applicable, the price
quote is
displayed along side advertising for upcoming promotions offered by the
merchant
entity 104. The advertising may be indicative of the promotional events
identified at
step 7000 or may be indicative of other promotional events.
The "price display" page allows the user to accept, reject or save the final
price quote
provided by the merchant entity 104. In a non-limiting implementation, the
"price
display" page includes a set of button elements associated to "accept",
"reject" or
t 0 "save" functions which may be selected by the user through a pointing
device, touch
sensitive screen, keyboard, voice recognition unit or other suitable input
device.
If the final price quote is rejected, the customer's railway transportation
order is deleted
from the merchant computing system 120. The customer may submit through the
I 5 network a reason for the rejection. This may be done through email, or
through writing
a message in a pop-up text box that appears when the customer rejects the
quote. The
"price display" page includes the necessary routing information to direct the
message
hack to the merchant entity 104. The customer may also choose to provide the
merchant
entity 104 with the reasons for the rejection through alternate means such as
by
20 telephone or fax.
If the final price quote is accepted, then the order for the railway
transportation service
relating to that final price quote is submitted to the merchant entity 104 and
is stored in
the memory 206 of the merchant computing system 120. In addition, the
information
25 related to the final price quote is added to a list of quotes that have
been previously
accepted by that specific customer in the customer profile at the merchant
computing
system 120. The "price display" page includes the necessary routing
information to
direct the accepted price quote to the merchant entity 104.
30 Finally, the customer may choose to save the quote, and optionally
infbmiation
indicative of the promotional event, and delay responding to the quote until a
later time.
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In this case, the merchant computing system 120 stores in its memory 206, in
connection with the specific customer, the information related to the price
quote and the
railway transportation service to which the price quote corresponds. The time
delay
after which the price quote is no longer valid is also stored. The -price
display" page
includes the necessary routing information to direct the save message back to
the
merchant entity 104. Active quotes associated to given customers are stored on
a
computer readable storage medium at the customer-computing unit 112 or at the
merchant computing system 120 and can be retrieved by the customer through the
computer network 106. A graphical user interface is also provided to allow a
customer
to view the active quotes.
Although the detailed description describes extensively a system for
requesting a price
quote for shipping goods by rail via a web based interface, other embodiments
are
possible. For example, user interfaces for gathering information relating to
railway
transportation services desired by a customer may be sent to the customer via
electronic
mail. Likewise, a list of potential routes between a chosen origin and
destination
location, a price quote, a promotional price quote and information indicative
of a
promotional event may also be submitted via electronic mail.
Although the above described specific examples of implementation describe a
railway
price quotation/ordering system 100 where the computations of the price quotes
are
effected at the merchant computing system 120, embodiments of the invention
where
the price quote is computed at the customer computing unit 112 remain within
the scope
of the invention. In such an embodiment, a program element implementing the
pricing
engine and the marketing engine, including any required database information
is sent
from the merchant computing system to the customer computing unit and launched
at
the customer computing unit 112. It will also be apparent that a program
element
"promotional event search engine" as well as the database of promotional
events may
also be implemented at the customer computing unit 112, or downloaded at
customer
computing unit 112 From the merchant computing system 120. In such a variant,
the
program element implementing the search engine derives a list of one or more
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promotional events to which the user would he eligible if a parameter was
altered
without requiring interaction with the merchant computing system 120.
En addition, although the above described specific examples of implementation
describe
5 the railway price quotation/ordering system 100 in a client-server
arrangement, an
application suitable for operating on a general purpose stand-alone digital
computer also
remains within the scope of the invention. In such an embodiment, the program
element 210 and the data 220 described in connection with the merchant
computer
system 120 are implemented on a standalone computer which may also include a
U) program element implementation a user interface for allowing the user to
view the price
quotation information.
Although various embodiments have been illustrated, this was for the purpose
of
describing, but not limiting, the invention. Various modifications will become
apparent
15 to those skilled in the art and arc within the scope of this invention,
which is defined
more particularly by the attached claims.
