Geospatial Routing for Carrier Shipment Accuracy
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Solution Overview
Problem
The freight transportation industry relies on rudimentary route tables that lack detailed, location-specific information, leading to potential extra costs and inefficiencies due to the inability to accurately estimate shipping costs and services between specific origin and destination addresses, resulting in anti-competitive arrangements and suboptimal service offerings.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that utilize geospatial databases to define virtual service area polygons and route guide polygons, enabling the electronic processor to identify and differentiate between adjacent physical addresses, providing accurate and complete shipping options by determining available shipping services, including restrictions and tariffs, and presenting them to users for selection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If rudimentary route tables with basic carrier information are used, then the system complexity is low and ease of operation is maintained, but measurement precision of shipping costs and services deteriorates due to lack of detailed location-specific information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the geographic region into multiple service area polygons, each representing a specific terminal's service area. This segmentation allows detailed location-specific information to be organized and stored systematically, enabling accurate cost estimation for specific origin and destination addresses while maintaining manageable system complexity through structured data organization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from traditional terminal-to-terminal routing (one-dimensional) to address-specific routing by incorporating geospatial coordinates and service area polygons (adding spatial dimensions). This dimensional enhancement enables precise identification of origin and destination locations within service areas, significantly improving measurement precision of shipping costs without proportionally increasing system complexity.
2Measurement precision
If detailed location-specific information is collected and stored for all address locations, then measurement precision of shipping services improves, but loss of information distribution deteriorates as carriers are under no obligation to share this information with competitors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal geospatial database structure that can serve multiple carriers simultaneously. The service area polygons and routing information are designed to be carrier-agnostic, allowing each carrier to input their specific service areas and rates while benefiting from a common framework. This multi-functional system enables accurate information storage without forcing carriers to share proprietary data, as each carrier maintains their own information within the universal structure.
3Reliability
If price buffers are added to quotations for unfamiliar routes, then reliability of cost estimation improves by ensuring profitable delivery, but loss of energy increases due to absorbed extra costs that could have been avoided with accurate information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary determination of available shipping services and location-specific restrictions before generating cost quotations. By querying the geospatial database to identify service area polygons, route guide polygons with restrictions, and applicable tariffs in advance, the system eliminates the need for conservative price buffers. This preliminary action ensures reliable cost estimation without financial loss, as accurate information is obtained before pricing decisions are made.
4Ease of operation
If route tables lump together multiple destination address locations within postal codes, then device complexity is reduced and ease of operation is improved, but measurement precision deteriorates as specific restrictions and tariffs for individual addresses are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic querying system that adapts the level of detail based on the specific inquiry. When a user provides origin and destination addresses, the system dynamically queries the geospatial database to identify the specific service area polygons and route guide polygons applicable to those locations. This dynamic approach maintains ease of operation through simple user input while achieving high measurement precision by retrieving location-specific restrictions and tariffs only when needed.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system for determining available shipment options between origin and destination address locations includes defining a plurality of service area polygons as geospatial objects in a geospatial database that correspond to geographic service areas served by a carrier, building a plurality of route definitions that define the shipping services between each origin/destination pair of service area polygons, and defining a plurality of route guide polygons as geospatial objects in the geospatial database that further limit the available shipping services at predetermined locations within the service area polygons. The method also includes receiving a shipping request query that specifies the origin and destination address locations for the proposed shipment, converting the origin and destination address locations to origin and destination geospatial locations, and geospatially determining that the origin and destination geospatial locations fall within origin and destination geospatial service area polygon objects and within one or more geospatial route guide polygon objects. The method further includes eliminating routes with unavailable shipping services between the origin and destination address locations and offering routes with available shipping services for selection by the user.