Patent ID: 7249087

Claim:
A freight transportation marketplace system accessible to users over a network, comprising: an account management system that assigns roles from a group of roles including a buyer role and a seller role to the users and wherein the account management system defines buyer accounts and seller accounts for at least some of the users; a buy/sell system for the creation of a tender agreement between at least two users; an order fulfillment system, wherein the order fulfillment system enables fulfillment of the tender agreement and includes an exception management system; and an action defining system that defines possible user actions, possible user information and consequences of the possible user actions; a user interface that permits communication over the network among the marketplace and the users; and wherein the seller's account includes a seller's rules tariff, the tender agreement is for a shipment and was consummated by a first party and a second party and the exception management system comprises the means for, the marketplace: allowing the first party to make a request for a change; determining if the shipment has been loaded; determining if the first party has the role of buyer; determining if the change is compatible with the seller's rules tariffs; if the shipment has been loaded and the first party does not have the role of buyer, or if the shipment has been loaded and the first party does have the role of buyer and the change is not compatible with the seller's rules tariff, or if the shipment has not been loaded, determining whether the second party accepts the change; if the second party accepts the change, amending the tender agreement to reflect the change; if the second party does not accept the change, determining whether the first party is willing to amend the request for a change; if the first party is not willing to amend the request for a change determining whether the first party wishes to revoke the tender agreement; if the first party wishes to revoke the tender agreement, revoking the tender agreement; if the first party is willing to amend the request for a change, allowing the first party to amend the request for a change, thus creating an amended request for a change, and to make the amended request for a change; if the shipment has been loaded, the first party is the buyer, and the change request is compatible with the seller's rules tariff, allowing the seller to make a good faith attempt to accommodate the change request.