Patent ID: 6985871

Claim:
A computer-readable medium for scheduling delivery vehicle visits to a customer, said computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of: (1) receiving a single request from a user to schedule a periodic series of delivery vehicle visits to said customer, said periodic series of delivery vehicle visits comprising a first delivery vehicle visit to be made on a first day and two or more additional delivery vehicle visits to be made on subsequent days, each delivery vehicle visit within said periodic series to be made on a different day, but within a particular time window, wherein said particular time window is a discrete block of time having a specified start time and a specified end time; (2) allowing said user to specify a schedule for said periodic series of delivery vehicle visits; (3) determining whether to schedule said first delivery vehicle visit within said particular time window on said first day; (4) determining, for each respective one of said two or more additional delivery vehicle visits, whether to schedule said respective delivery vehicle visit within said particular time window on a particular respective one of said subsequent days; and (5) in response to a combination of: (a) said request, (b) a determination in Step (3) that said first delivery vehicle visit should be scheduled within said particular time window on said first day, and (c) a determination in Step (4) to schedule each respective one of said two or more additional delivery vehicle visits to be made within said particular time window on a particular respective one of said subsequent days; (a) scheduling said first delivery vehicle visit to be made within said particular time window on said first day; and (b) scheduling each of said respective additional delivery vehicle visits to be made within said particular time window on a particular respective one of said subsequent days; wherein, in response to determining not to schedule a particular one of said periodic series of delivery vehicle visits: identifying, and presenting to the user, two or more alternative time windows; and allowing said user to schedule said particular delivery vehicle visit to be made within a particular one of said two or more alternative time windows; and wherein said step of allowing said user to specify a schedule for said periodic series of delivery vehicle visits includes allowing said user to specify a certain number of delivery vehicle visits to be completed in said series, and a frequency with which said delivery vehicle visits are to occur.