Distributed-user shipping system

A method for controlling a user's access to a carrier's shipping services for delivery of a package, said carrier having a service area describing a plurality of access locations at which the carrier is willing to access the package to initiate shipping, said control method comprising:

• recording ship to information submitted by the user, said ship to information describing a destination location to which the package is to be delivered by the carrier;
• displaying a limited collection of the access locations to the user, said limited collection of access locations being associated with the user, said user being associated with fewer than all of the access locations within the carrier's service area;
• and
• recording ship from information describing one of the access locations selected by the user from the limited collection of access locations.

A method for controlling a user's access to a carrier's shipping services for delivery of a package, said carrier providing a plurality of different shipping service levels, said control method comprising:

• recording ship from information submitted by the user, said ship from information describing an access location from which the package is to be delivered by the carrier;
• recording ship to information submitted by the user, said ship to information describing a destination location to which the package is to be delivered by the carrier;
• recording a shipping service level selection by the user;
• and
• validating that the shipping service level selection is one of a limited collection of service levels associated with the user, said user being associated with fewer than all of the shipping service levels provided by the carrier.

A method for controlling a user's access to a carrier's shipping services for delivery of a package, said carrier providing a plurality of different shipping service levels, said control method comprising:

• recording ship from information submitted by the user, said ship from information describing an access location from which the package is to be delivered by the carrier;
• recording ship to information submitted by the user, said ship to information describing a destination location to which the package is to be delivered by the carrier;
• displaying a limited collection of the shipping service levels, said limited collection of service levels being associated with the user, said user being associated with fewer than all of the shipping service levels provided by the carrier;
• and
• recording a shipping service level selection by the user selected from the limited selection of shipping service levels.

A method of administering access by a user to a carrier's shipping services for delivery of a package wherein the user is a member of an organization having a plurality of locations, said administration method comprising:

• sending organization information to the carrier over a network, said organization information including an address of one of the locations and a shipping account number;
• validating the account number by confirming that the account number and address correspond to one of a list of valid account numbers and addresses;
• and
• adding the validated location to a collection of ship from locations accessible by the carrier and from which the user is permitted to ship the package, said collection of ship from locations describing fewer locations than a plurality of locations accessible by the carrier within a service area of the carrier.

A method of administering access to a carrier's shipping services for delivery of a package, said administration method comprising:

• establishing a plurality of user groups each including at least one user;
• creating a limited collection of the carrier's shipping services, said limited selection of shipping services including fewer shipping services than all of the shipping services offered by the carrier;
• associating the limited collection of the carrier's shipping services with the user group;
• and
• facilitating the user's access to the limited collection of shipping services by communicating shipping requests of the user to the carrier wherein each of the shipping requests contains one of the limited collection of shipping services selected by the user.

A system for controlling a user's access over a network to a carrier server for coordinating shipping services provided by the carrier for delivery of a package wherein the carrier has a service area including a plurality of access locations at which the carrier is willing to access the package to initiate shipping, said control system comprising:

• a ship to information system configured to record ship to information submitted by the user, said ship to information describing a destination location to which the package is to be delivered by the carrier;
• a ship from information system configured to limit a collection of access locations available to the user to fewer than all of the access locations within the carrier's service area, and said ship from information system further configured to record ship from information describing one of the access locations selected by the user from the limited collection of the access locations;
• and
• an order placement system configured to connect via the network to the carrier server and to transmit the ship from and ship to information to the carrier over the network, said ship from and ship to information facilitating delivery of the package from the selected access location to the destination location by the carrier.

A system for controlling a user's access to a carrier's shipping services for delivery of a package, said carrier providing a plurality of different shipping service levels, said control system comprising:

• a ship to information system configured to record ship to information submitted by the user, said ship to information describing a destination location to which the package is to be delivered by the carrier;
• a ship from information system configured to record ship from information submitted by the user, said ship from information describing an access location from which the package is to be delivered by the carrier;
• a service level system configured to limit a collection of service levels available to the user to fewer than all of the shipping service levels provided by the carrier and said service level system further configured to record the user's selection of a service level from the limited collection of service levels;
• and
• an order placement system configured to connect via the network to the carrier server and to transmit the ship from information, the ship to information and the service level selection to the carrier over the network, said ship from information, ship to information and service level selection facilitating delivery of the package from the access location to the destination location by the carrier.