Logistics system for automating tansportation of goods

Claim 1

A logistics management system to facilitate the process of shipping goods by a shipper having a predefined set of shipping requirements via a carrier having a predefined rate structure, comprising: a multitasking operating system environment for running a plurality of computer processes substantially simultaneously and having interprocess communication means for passing messages between said processes; a supervisory server running in said operating system environment for providing registration services to connect computer processes to said interprocess communication means; at least one rate server comprising one of said computer processes running in said operating system environment substantially simultaneously with said supervisory server for providing access to carrier rate structure data and for providing predefined data processing services using said carrier rate structure data in response to a predefined set of request messages, said predefined data processing services including providing response messages based at least in part on said carrier rate structure data; said rate server having registration means for communicating with said supervisory server to invoke said registration services and to establish a first connection to said interprocess communication means; at least one client process comprising one of said computer processes running in said operating system environment substantially simultaneously with said supervisory server and substantially simultaneously with said rate server, said client process having user interface means for collecting input information from a user about a desired operation and for providing output information; said client process having registration means for communicating with said supervisory server to invoke said registration services and to establish a second connection to said interprocess communication means; said client process further having preprogrammed set of rules reflective of said shipper's predefined set of shipping requirements and having processing means for using said preprogrammed set of rules and at least a portion of said input information to issue request messages to said rate server and to interpret response messages received from said rate server in providing said output information; said supervisory server, said rate server and said client process being interoperable through said interprocess communication means (a) to receive said input information from a user via the user interface of said client process, (b) to use said input information to issue a request message to said rate server via said interprocess communication means, (c) to process said issued request message and thereby cause a response message to be generated by said rate server, (d) to send said response message to said client process via said interprocess communication means, and (e) to provide said output information based on said response message.