Inland freight management

Abstract

An inland freight management module for managing inland moves of freight from a plurality of vendor supply locations to port includes a profile maintenance component, a load planning component, and a load routing and booking component. The profile maintenance component is adapted for maintaining an inland planning zone profile including information relating to a plurality of inland planning zones generated according to one or more customs districts. The load planning component is programmed for planning field consolidation of one or more container loads via a multi-stop route between the plurality of vendor supply locations, where the multi-stop route is generated within one of the plurality of inland planning zones.

1 . An inland freight management apparatus comprising:
 means for generating a customs-district-based zone;   means for identifying a plurality of partial load freight shipments to be received from a plurality of suppliers;   means for field consolidating a full container from the partial load freight shipments by generating at least one route between the plurality of suppliers and within the customs district-based zone;   means for centrally consolidating a full container from the partial load freight shipments by generating a plurality of consolidator routes from the suppliers to a consolidator; and   means for determining field consolidation efficiency by determining a percentage field consolidation based on a first number of the plurality of partial load freight shipments and a second number of field consolidated loads actually built.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the means for identifying a plurality of partial load freight shipments to be received from a plurality of suppliers includes an interactive menu. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , further comprising means for obtaining information relating to the field consolidation efficiency and means for displaying the information. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , wherein the obtaining means comprises means for comparing a cubic volume of candidate loads to the second number of field consolidated loads actually built. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 4 , further comprising means for calculating the cubic volume of the candidate loads. 
     
     
         6 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the means for determining field consolidation efficiency comprises means for determining threshold efficiency requirements and means for providing an alert if the threshold efficiency requirements are not met. 
     
     
         7 . A computer-implemented method of moving product from a plurality of product supply locations to a port of origin, the method comprising:
 generating via access to a computer database or computer network a plurality of planning zones based upon one or more customs districts;   identifying via the computer database or computer network a plurality of partial container load product shipments to be received from a plurality of product supply locations;   field consolidating a full container load from the partial container load product shipments by generating at least one multi-stop route within one of the plurality of planning zones;   centrally consolidating a full container load from the partial container load product shipments by generating a plurality of consolidator routes from the product supply locations to a consolidator; and   determining by a computer field consolidation efficiency by determining a percentage field consolidation based on a first number of the plurality of partial container load product shipments and a second number of field consolidated loads actually built.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein identifying a plurality of partial container load product shipments to be received from a plurality of product supply locations includes:
 filtering a list of product shipments to be received from product supply locations to the plurality of partial container load product shipments.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein field consolidating a full container load from the partial container load product shipments by generating at least one multi-stop route within one of the plurality of inland rating zones includes:
 providing a system user with planning information on an interactive menu;   filtering a list of product shipments to be received from product supply locations to a list of partial container load product shipments on the interactive menu;   filtering the list of partial container load product shipments by a selected planning zone on the interactive menu; and   building a multi-stop route by selecting at least two of the plurality of the partial container load product shipments filtered by the selected planning zone to build the full container load.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein determining field consolidation efficiency includes:
 comparing a total volume of partial container load product shipments to be received from a plurality of product supply locations with a volume of partial container load product shipments to be field consolidated.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising generating an alert if the field consolidation efficiency is below a predetermined minimum efficiency. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein field consolidation efficiency is determined prior to booking one or more inland product carriers for the multi-stop route and the consolidator routes and if the field consolidation efficiency is below a predetermined level, the method further comprises determining one or more different multi-stop routes for field consolidating the full container load from the partial container load product shipments. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the method is performed using a plurality of interactive menus, the method further comprising:
 presenting product shipment information to a system user using the plurality of interactive menus;   inputting product shipment selection criteria using the plurality of interactive menus; and   filtering the product shipment information according to the product shipment selection criteria.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising obtaining information relating to the field consolidation efficiency and displaying the information. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the obtaining step comprises comparing a cubic volume of candidate loads to the second number of field consolidated loads actually built. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising calculating the cubic volume of the candidate loads. 
     
     
         17 . A method of consolidating freight into container loads, the method comprising:
 generating by a computer via access to a computer database or computer network a plurality of inland planning zones based upon one or more customs districts;   identifying via the computer database or computer network a plurality of partial shipments to be received from a plurality of supply locations;   field consolidating a container load from the partial shipments by generating, by the computer, at least one multi-stop route within one of the plurality of inland planning zones and loading the partial shipments from the plurality of supply locations onto a truck to make the container load;   initially assigning the container load for shipment to one of a plurality of importation gateways; and   generating a gateway balancing recommendation for the container load by determining a gateway demand for each of the plurality of importation gateways, determining a handicapped gateway demand from the gateway demands for each of the plurality of importation gateways, and determining gateway capacity for each of the plurality of importation gateways.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising assigning a container shipment carrier to ship the container load and loading the full container load onto a ship of the container shipment carrier. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the container shipment carrier is assigned according to a minimum quantity commitment. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein determining the handicapped gateway demand comprises determining a handicapping level for each container based on a complexity of the container as compared to an average container complexity.