SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING A PRICE QUOTATION FOR A TRANSPORTATION SERVICE PROVIDING EQUIPMENT SELECTION CAPABILITY

摘要

A method and system for computing the price for shipping goods. The method includes causing a computer to deliver first information to a user prompting the user to enter at the computer information about a rail transportation service for shipment of goods by one or more railcars. Information about a basic pool of railcars is received and filtered based on one or more filtering criteria to produce a filtered pool of railcars. The computer is then caused to deliver second information to the user prompting the user to select at the computer one or more railcars among the filtered pool of railcars for the shipment of goods. A price for the shipment of the goods is then computed at least in part on the basis of the rail transportation service and the one or more characteristics of the railcars in the filtered pool of railcars selected by the user.

主权项

1. A method for a rail transportation company to obtain particulars from a customer about a desired shipment of goods and to perform the desired shipment of goods, said method comprising:
(a) performing an exchange of data between a server system and a remote customer client system over a data network, the exchange of data implementing a freight railcar type selection operation allowing a user at the customer client system to direct the rail transportation company via a graphical user interface to use for the desired shipment a freight railcar of a type selected by the user, the freight railcar type selection operation presenting the user via the graphical user interface at the customer client system with at least two freight railcar type options that the user can choose from, the at least two freight railcar type options including a first option which identifies a first type of freight railcar to be used for the desired shipment, and a second option which identifies a second type of freight railcar to be used for the desired shipment which is different from the first type of freight railcar; (b) performing the desired shipment by using a freight railcar of the type selected by the user among the freight railcar type options.