Patent ID: 7385529

Claim:
A method for electronically assigning shipping assets to goods subject to transport orders, said shipping assets including a plurality of drivers, tractors and trailers from a plurality of carriers and said goods subject to a plurality of said transport orders from a plurality of shippers, comprising: maintaining a database with data representing respective shipping assets associated with corresponding carriers wherein a sub-plurality of drivers, tractors and trailers are not permanently associated with each other, each carrier of said plurality of carriers having at least one terminal from which respective shipping assets originate, and each carrier having a respective service region and a respective pricing schedule; electronically accepting a specific transport order for goods from one shipper of said plurality of shippers, said specific transport order having ship from origin and a ship to destination; electronically joining, for said specific transport order, a specific driver of said plurality of drivers and a specific tractor of said plurality of tractors, wherein said specific driver and tractor are associated with a specific carrier; repeating said electronic joining for other carriers; selecting a type of trailer able to transport said goods for said specific transport order; electronically selecting a sub-plurality of carriers based upon a plurality of search criteria including close proximity of trailer type to the ship origin, close proximity of the joined driver-tractor combination to the ship origin, carrier service region encompassing said ship destination, and pick-up and delivery date constraints; sorting and displaying by price or by historic performance rating said sub-plurality of carriers and respective pricing from said pricing schedule for each respective carrier in said sub-plurality of carriers; and in conjunction with an electronic communication with a selected carrier of said sub-plurality of carriers and said one shipper with said specific transport order, booking and electronically logging said selected carrier and the associated joined driver-tractor combination and a selected trailer to fill said transport order for said goods.