Systems and methods of reserving space attended delivery/pickup locations
AssigneeUnited Parcel Service of America, Inc.
InventorsDaniel Lievens, Vincent Dethier, Luc Pirenne
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for enabling users to reserve space at attended delivery/pickup locations to at least substantially guarantee that the attended delivery/pickup locations will have capacity to receive parcels requested to be delivered to them. In various embodiments, the system is configured to substantially automatically reserve space in response to receiving a request to delivery one or more parcels to a particular attended delivery/pickup location. In other embodiments, the system is configured to enable users to reserve space at attended delivery/pickup locations.
Claims20
A computer-implemented method of delivering a parcel to an attended delivery/pickup location, said method comprising:
- providing, by at least one processor, a selection of one or more attended delivery/pickup locations to a user;
- receiving, by at least one processor, a request from said user to deliver a parcel to a particular one of said one or more attended delivery/pickup locations;
- in response to receiving said request, substantially automatically reserving space, by at least one processor, for said parcel at said particular one of said one or more attended delivery/pickup locations;
- and
- facilitating, by at least one processor, delivery of said parcel from an origin location to said particular one of said one or more attended delivery/pickup locations.
A computer system comprising at least one processor, wherein said computer system is configured for:
- receiving a first request from a user to deliver one or more parcels to an attended delivery/pickup location;
- at least partially in response to receiving said first request, enabling said user to reserve space for said one or more parcels at said attended delivery/pickup location;
- receiving, from said user, a second request to reserve said space for said one or more parcels;
- at least partially in response to receiving said second request, reserving said space;
- and
- at least partially in response to receiving said first request and said second request, facilitating delivery of said one or more parcels to said attended delivery pickup/location.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions for:
- (a) receiving, from a first user, a first request to deliver one or more parcels to an attended delivery/pickup location;
- (b) determining, based at least in part on said request, an availability of said attended delivery/pickup location to take delivery of said one or more parcels;
- (c) at least partially in response to determining that said attended delivery/pickup location has availability to take delivery of said one or more parcels, enabling a second user to reserve space at said attended delivery/pickup location for said one or more parcels;
- (d) receiving, from said second user, a second request to reserve said space;
- (e) at least partially in response to receiving said second request, reserving said space at said attended delivery/pickup location;
- and
- (f) facilitating delivery of said one or more parcels to said attended delivery/pickup location.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.