Patent Issued for Automated management of a shipping system (USPTO 11295266): United States Fire Insurance Company

2022 APR 21 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- United States Fire Insurance Company (Morristown, New Jersey, United States) has been issued patent number 11295266, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Bredahl, Thomas C. (Darien, CT, US), Gauthier, Matthew (Pingree Grove, IL, US), Kuriakose, Thomas (Glen Allen, VA, US), Pedalino, Luigi (Cedar Knolls, NJ, US), Roth, Jeffrey Norman (Mountain Lakes, NJ, US), Russo, Kenneth (Iselin, NJ, US).

This patent was filed on November 13, 2020 and was published online on April 5, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote:

“The shipping industry has been disrupted by for-hire commercial common carriers that can work independently, such as by using a shipping system that matches for-hire carriers (referred to as carriers) to loads, each load needing to be shipped per a request of a shipper. Shipping systems can include, for example, freight brokers, freight forwarders, systems employing third-party logistics, etc.

“A carrier typically needs two types of insurance coverage for transporting loads. First, the carrier needs primary commercial insurance coverage to comply with compulsory requirements mandated by motor vehicle laws of the respective states in the United States. Second, the carrier needs excess liability insurance coverage that provides an additional limit of liability above the limit of liability provided by the carrier’s primary commercial insurance coverage. The excess liability insurance coverage serves two main purposes for the carrier. First, in the event legal action is taken against them because of losses arising out of an automobile accident, the excess liability insurance coverage protects the carrier’s assets by providing legal representation and financial ability to satisfy claims and judgments, at least up to the excess liability insurance coverage policy limit. Second, the excess liability insurance coverage satisfies contractual insurance requirements imposed by a shipper of the goods that the carrier is hauling.

“The excess liability insurance marketplace reacted to market and regulatory changes by either withdrawing from the excess liability insurance coverage market or increasing annual premium rates and reducing insurance capacity. For-hire carriers were faced with the options of purchasing lower limits of liability at a greater cost or not purchasing excess insurance coverage at all. Following a delay, the primary liability insurance marketplace followed suit. The combined increased cost of purchasing annual policies for both types of insurance was prohibitive in many cases, impacting for-hire carriers of all fleet sizes, with a disproportional impact on smaller fleet carriers.

“With an increase in online consumerism and on-demand delivery services, freight demands have been greatly increasing in the U.S., bringing an increased need for freight carriers. At the same time, the number of trucks or available trucking capacity to move such freight has had a tendency to shrink due, in part, to a diminishing labor pool of truckers, escalating operational costs, and ever more stringent safety regulations around trucker hours of service and use of electronic logs. Despite the Federal Motor Safety Administration not increasing the liability insurance minimums for motor carriers since 1985, more and more shippers and third party logistics companies have found required liability limits to be inadequate and have decided to impose higher liability limit requirements. A shipper may require a higher excess liability limit for a particular load. Furthermore, each state can have different regulations governing required excess liability limits. Some carriers, particular smaller fleet carriers, may be unable to purchase annual policies that meet the required excess liability limits, impeding those carriers from executing trips for which excess liability limit requirements are increased.

“Shipping systems are now available that include, for example, cloud-based services, freight brokers, third-party logistics, and freight forwarders. Shipping systems can match loads that shippers need to have shipped to carriers that can execute the shipping. A match can be assigned by a shipping system very quickly. On the other hand, the process of obtaining annual excess liability insurance is a slow process that is disjointed from the matching process.

“A carrier can be executing a trip to transport a load across a number of states. If the carrier does not have annual excess liability limit that meets the requirements of one of those states, the carrier has two choices-the carrier can either stop and purchase an annual policy of excess liability coverage to meet the state’s required limit, or circumvent the state. A load can include perishable goods, or delivery of the load can be time sensitive. Any delay caused by circumvention or waiting for business hours to purchase an annual policy can cause damage to the goods or foil the purpose of a trip.

“Some trips involve greater risk than others do. Annual provision of excess liability coverage does not account for variation in risk of the various trips as they occur. At best, excess liability coverage limits and the associated terms are determined by applying a statistical operation to a history of trips, with updates to the excess liability coverage performed at long intervals, namely yearly.

“Some truckers of some carriers and carriers themselves incur greater risk than others. Annual provision of excess liability coverage does not account for recent trucker behavior. Even if telematics data were to be used to track trucker behavior and/or carrier condition for the purpose of determination of excess liability coverage limits and associated terms, there would be a lag in the time of occurrence of an event reflected in the tracked data and an adjustment to the excess liability coverage limits and associated terms. Due to human nature, the lag in time can negate an incentive to change driving or vehicle maintenance behavior.

“Conventional methods and systems for providing shipping systems that match carriers to loads have generally been considered satisfactory for their intended purpose. Also, conventional methods and systems for tracking trucker behavior and/or carrier condition and provision of annual excess liability coverage has been considered satisfactory for their intended purpose. However, there is still a need in the art to provide a shipping system that can coordinate matching carriers to loads and management of excess liability coverage. There is also a need in the art to apply data obtained by telematics more effectively with respect to determination of excess liability coverage limits and associated terms.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The purpose and advantages of the below described illustrated embodiments will be set forth in and apparent from the description that follows. Additional advantages of the illustrated embodiments will be realized and attained by the devices, systems and methods particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof, as well as from the appended drawings.

“To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the illustrated embodiments, in one aspect, disclosed is a manager system includes for automatically managing a shipping system, the manager system includes a memory configured to store a plurality of programmable instructions and a processing device in communication with the memory. The programmable instructions, when executed by the processing device, cause the processing device to receive trip information for a plurality of trips requested by at least one shipper and receive get-load requests associated with a plurality of carriers to participate in an assignment process to be assigned to a trip of the plurality of trips for executing the trip. The trip information includes an excess liability (EL) trip requirement for the trip and a source/destination location pair for transport of the load. Each get-load request identifies its associated carrier and indicates an amount of original EL already associated with the carrier. The programmable instructions, when executed by the processing device, further cause the processing device to tentatively assign a carrier identified by one of the get-load requests to a trip of the plurality of trips, in response to the tentative assignment, determine whether the EL requirement for the trip is satisfied by the amount of original EL indicated for the carrier, and in response to a determination that the EL requirement for the trip is not satisfied, submit an EL trip request. The EL trip request includes identification of the carrier, trip information for the trip, and requests immediate digital provision of EL trip coverage for the carrier in association with the trip that satisfies the trip’s EL trip requirement. The programmable instructions, when executed by the processing device, further cause the processing device to only assign the carrier to the trip after receiving confirmation that the EL trip coverage can be immediately and digitally obtained, and, in response to failure to receive the confirmation that the EL trip coverage can immediately and digitally be obtained, block the get-load request associated with the carrier from participating in an assignment process to be assigned to the trip and/or other equivalent trips of the plurality of trips.

“In one or more embodiments, the programmable instructions when executed by the processing device, can further cause the processing device to obtain the confirmation that the EL trip coverage can immediately and digitally be obtained.

“In one or more embodiments, the programmable instructions when executed by the processing device, further can cause the processing device to receive identification of a regulatory certification associated with the carrier and identification of a bill of lading associated with the trip, wherein the confirmation that the EL trip coverage can immediately and digitally be obtained is based on receipt of the regulatory certificate and the EL trip coverage is based on the bill of lading.

“In one or more embodiments, the confirmation that the EL trip coverage can immediately and digitally be obtained can be based on first terms for obtaining the EL trip coverage, wherein the programmable instructions when executed by the processing device further cause the processing device to receive a second confirmation that EL trip coverage can immediately and digitally be obtained in association with the carrier and a second trip based on second terms that were adjusted relative to the first terms as a function of actual or predicted trip execution data about execution of the trip, wherein the second trip is one of the trip causing the trip, a future trip, or a previous trip.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A manager system for automatically managing a shipping system, the manager system comprising: a memory configured to store a plurality of programmable instructions; and a processing device in communication with the memory, wherein the programmable instructions when executed by the processing device, cause the processing device to: receive via computer network communication trip information for a plurality of trips requested by at least one shipper, the trip information indicating an excess liability (EL) trip requirement for the trip and a source/destination location pair for transport of the load; receive via computer network communication get-load requests associated with a plurality of carriers to participate in an assignment process to be assigned to a trip of the plurality of trips for executing the trip, wherein each get-load request identifies its associated carrier and indicates an amount of original EL already associated with the carrier; tentatively assign by an assignment process a carrier identified by one of the get-load requests to a trip of the plurality of trips; in response to the tentative assignment, determine whether the EL requirement for the trip is satisfied by the amount of original EL indicated for the carrier; in response to a determination that the EL requirement for the trip is not satisfied, submit via computer network communication an EL trip request, the EL trip request including identification of the carrier, including the trip information for the trip, and requesting immediate digital provision of EL trip coverage for the carrier in association with the trip that satisfies the trip’s EL trip requirement; receive via computer network communication a confirmation signal, if provided, that indicates the EL trip coverage is to be immediately and digitally be obtained; responsive to receipt or non-receipt of the confirmation signal: only assign by the assignment process the carrier to the trip after receiving the confirmation signal; and in response to failure to receive the confirmation signal, block the get-load request associated with the carrier from participating in the assignment process and/or a second assignment process to be assigned to other equivalent trips of the plurality of trips.

“2. The manager system of claim 1, wherein the programmable instructions when executed by the processing device, further cause the processing device to receive via computer network communication identification of a regulatory certification associated with the carrier and identification of a bill of lading associated with the trip, wherein receipt of the confirmation signal is based on receipt of the regulatory certificate and the EL trip coverage is based on the bill of lading.

“3. The manager system of claim 1, wherein the confirmation signal includes first terms for obtaining the EL trip coverage, wherein the programmable instructions when executed by the processing device further cause the processing device to receive via computer network communication a second confirmation signal indicating that EL trip coverage is to be immediately and digitally be obtained in association with the carrier and a second trip, wherein the second confirmation signal includes second terms that were adjusted relative to the first terms as a function of actual or predicted trip execution data about execution of the trip, wherein the second trip is one of the trip causing the trip, a future trip, or a previous trip, and wherein the programmable instructions, when executed by the processing device, further cause the processing device to use the second terms to adjust a priority score associated with the carrier for use by the assignment process for assigning the carrier to the second trip.

“4. The manager system of claim 3, wherein the actual or predicted trip execution data is received via computer network communication and includes telemetric data, comparison results of the logged or streamed telemetric data relative to traffic rules or laws, geolocation of a predicted or actual route of the trip, indications of driving behavior, and/or weather data describing predicted or actual weather associated with the trip.

“5. The manager of system of claim 3, wherein the programmable instructions when executed by the processing device, further cause the processing device to receive via computer network communication notification of the second terms before, future trip.

“6. A trip excess liability (EL) server, the trip EL server comprising: a memory configured to store a plurality of programmable instructions; and a processing device in communication with the memory, wherein the programmable instructions when executed by the processing device, cause the processing device to: receive via computer network communication an EL trip request from a manager system of a shipping system, wherein the EL trip request is triggered in response to receipt of a get-load request from a carrier tentatively assigned by an assignment process to a trip by the manager system, the get-load request requesting assignment to a plurality of trips, the EL request including identification of the carrier and including trip information for the trip, wherein the trip information indicates an EL trip requirement for the trip and a source/destination location pair for transport of the load, the EL trip request requesting immediate digital provision of EL trip coverage for the carrier in association with the trip that satisfies the trip’s EL trip requirement; determine first terms of the EL trip coverage based on the trip information in view of an amount of original EL already associated with the carrier; and control the assignment process for assigning the carrier to the trip by providing via computer network communication or not providing a confirmation signal to the manager system, wherein the confirmation signal indicates the determined EL trip coverage is to be immediately and digitally provided for the trip in accordance with the first terms, wherein the carrier is assigned to the trip by the assignment process in response to provision of the confirmation signal, and the get-load request is blocked from participating in the assignment process and/or a second assignment process to be assigned to other equivalent trips of the plurality of trips in response to non-provision of the confirmation signal.

“7. The EL server of claim 6, wherein provision of the confirmation signal is dependent on receiving via computer network communication identification of a regulatory certificate associated with the carrier and identification of a bill of lading and the EL trip coverage is based on the bill of lading.

“8. The EL server of claim 6, wherein the programmable instructions when executed by the processing device, further cause the processing device to: receive via computer network communication actual or predicted trip execution data about execution of the trip; adjust second terms relative to the first terms as a function of the trip execution data; include the second terms with a second confirmation signal that indicates the determined EL trip coverage is to be immediately and digitally provided for a second trip, the second trip being the trip, a past trip or a future trip; and provide via computer network communication, in association with the second trip, the second confirmation signal to the manager system, wherein the second terms cause adjustment of a priority score that is associated with the carrier for use by the assignment process for assigning the carrier to the second trip.

“9. The EL server of claim 8, wherein the actual or predicted execution data is received via computer network communication and includes logged or streamed telemetric data, comparison results of the logged or streamed telemetric data relative to traffic rules or laws, geolocation of a predicted or actual route of the trip, indications of driving behavior, and/or weather data describing predicted or actual weather associated with the trip.

“10. The EL server of claim 8, wherein the programmable instructions when executed by the processing device, further cause the processing device to transmit notification via computer network communication of the second terms before, during, or after the future trip.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Bredahl, Thomas C. Automated management of a shipping system. U.S. Patent Number 11295266, filed November 13, 2020, and published online on April 5, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11295266.PN.&OS=PN/11295266RS=PN/11295266

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