Patent ID: 7664651

Claim:
A shipping management computer system comprising at least one computer device that is programmed for: collecting from a second user, a request that a first user ship a particular parcel to a destination to be designated by the second user; according to the request by the second user, collecting, from the first user via a first set of interactive accesses to the shipping management computer system by a first computer device, a set of information corresponding to the request comprising: (A) parcel specifications for shipping the particular parcel to the destination to be designated by the second user, (B) an origin address associated with the first user from which the particular parcel would be shipped, and (C) shipping preferences for shipping the particular parcel to the second user; collecting, from the second user via a second set of interactive accesses to the shipping management computer system by a second computer device, a set of recipient information corresponding to the request comprising: (A) a destination address to which the particular parcel is to be shipped by the first user, (B) an identification of a carrier to be used in shipping the package to the destination address, and (C) a delivery service by which the carrier is to ship the package to the destination address; calculating a shipping rate corresponding to the request, according to the set of recipient information collected from the second user and according to the set of information collected from the first user, to be charged for having the carrier ship the particular parcel from the origin address to the destination address via the delivery service; and displaying the shipping rate to a display device selected from a group consisting of: (A) a first display device that is in communication with the first computer device, and (B) a second display device that is in communication with the second computer device, wherein said shipping rate is calculated according to: (1) the parcel specifications and the origin address input by the first user, and (2) the destination address, the selection of the carrier, and the selection of the delivery service input by the second user.