US 11,829,936 B2 · Method, container, and transport vehicle for preparation and transportation of shipments of goods

Abstract

A method, a palletizing sleeve, and a hand truck are provided for preparing a plurality of shipments of goods and transporting each shipment to one of a plurality of delivery destinations. The method includes determining the goods for the shipment, virtually building an optimized stacking configuration of those goods, physically building the stack based on the optimized configuration, transporting the shipment to a pre-determined delivery destination, and unloading the shipment at the delivery destination. The palletizing sleeve includes a base and a vertical wall that cooperate to support and stabilize a stack of goods that make up a portion of the shipment. Standoffs on the sleeve base provide openings to accept forks from the hand truck so that the hand truck can engage the sleeve from underneath the base. A fork height adjustment system selectively adjusts the fork height relative to the bottom of the hand truck.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method for preparing shipments of goods and transporting the shipments to delivery destinations;

said method comprising:
determining an inventory of goods to be delivered to a delivery destination;
virtually building an optimized virtual build for the inventory of goods to be delivered on a palletizing sleeve, the optimized virtual build providing a stable arrangement of the inventory of goods based on the dimensions of the palletizing sleeve;
and
physically building a stack of the inventory of goods based on the optimized virtual build of the inventory of goods on a palletizing sleeve;
wherein the palletizing sleeve comprises a base having a plurality of sides defining a perimeter of the base, and comprises at least one vertical wall extending upwardly from at least one side of the base, and wherein the base comprises at least one side without an upwardly extending wall to define a side opening in the palletizing sleeve and the at least one vertical wall defines an upper opening in the transport sleeve that remains open for transporting the shipments to the delivery destinations.

3 more elements

A container for transporting goods, said container comprising:

a base portion having a plurality of sides defining a perimeter of the base, said base portion configured to support a plurality of goods thereon;
at least one vertical wall extending upwardly from at least one side of said base portion, said base portion comprising at least one side without an upwardly extending wall to define a side opening in said container and said at least one vertical wall defining an upper opening in the palletizing sleeve that remains open;
and
a vertical spacing element disposed at a lower portion of said base portion and configured to receive a fork of a hand truck between a portion of said base portion and a surface supporting said container;
said base portion and said vertical wall cooperate to support a plurality of goods stacked on said container and stabilize the stack of goods.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method, container, and transport vehicle for preparation and transportation of shipments of goods

Life of this patent

Method, container, and transport vehicle for preparation and transportation of shipments of goods

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20