Apparatus, systems and methods for applying billing options for multiple carriers for online, multi-carrier, multi-service parcel shipping management

A shipping management computer system, said shipping management computer system programmed to:

• identify, in response to a request by any particular user of a plurality of users, each carrier from a plurality of carriers that supports a particular billing option preference input by the particular requesting user for shipping a particular parcel, wherein each user accesses the computer system over a global communications network using a client computer device, each user client computer device having an individual electronic connection to the global communications network.

A shipping management computer system, said shipping management computer system programmed to:

• collect as a billing option preference for each particular user of a plurality of users a user input from the particular user of an identification of a billing option preference for parcels to be shipped by the particular user, wherein each user accesses the computer system over a global communications network using a client computer device, each user client computer having an individual electronic connection to the global communications network;
• and
• store in a database a record corresponding to each particular user, said record comprising an identifier for the particular user and the billing option preference for the particular user.

A method using a computer system for managing shipping of a plurality of parcels shipped by any one of a plurality of carriers, the method comprising:

• applying, in response to a request by any particular user of a plurality of users, a set of billing option rules for each of a plurality of carriers to a single billing option preference input by the particular requesting user, wherein each user accesses the computer system over a global communications network using a client computer device, each user client computer device having an individual electronic connection to the global communications network, and wherein the set of billing option rules for each carrier comprises at least one of:
• an indication of billing options acceptable to the carrier and a pricing rule for one or more billing options.

A method using a computer system for managing shipping of a plurality of parcels shipped by any one of a plurality of carriers, the method comprising:

• identifying, in response to a request by any particular user of a plurality of users, each carrier from a plurality of carriers that supports a particular billing option preference input by the particular requesting user for shipping a particular parcel, wherein each user accesses the computer system over a global communications network using a client computer device, each user client computer device having an individual electronic connection to the global communications network.

A method using a computer system for managing shipping of a plurality of parcels shipped by any one of a plurality of carriers, the method comprising:

• collecting as a billing option preference for each particular user of a plurality of users a user input from the particular user of an identification of a billing option preference for parcels to be shipped by the particular user, wherein each user accesses the computer system over a global communications network using a client computer device, each user client computer having an individual electronic connection to the global communications network;
• and
• storing in a database a record corresponding to each particular user, said record comprising an identifier for the particular user and the billing option preference for the particular user.

A computer program product embodying computer program instructions for execution by a computer system for managing shipping of a plurality of parcels shipped by any one of a plurality of carriers, the computer program product comprising:

• a set of program instructions for applying, in response to a request by any particular user of a plurality of users, a set of billing option rules for each of a plurality of carriers to a single billing option preference input by the particular requesting user, wherein each user accesses the computer system over a global communications network using a client computer device, each user client computer device having an individual electronic connection to the global communications network, and wherein the set of billing option rules for each carrier comprises at least one of:
• an indication of billing options acceptable to the carrier and a pricing rule for one or more billing options.

A computer program product embodying computer program instructions for execution by a computer system for managing shipping of a plurality of parcels shipped by any one of a plurality of carriers, the computer program product comprising:

• a set of program instructions for identifying, in response to a request by any particular user of a plurality of users, each carrier from a plurality of carriers that supports a particular billing option preference input by the particular requesting user for shipping a particular parcel, wherein each user accesses the computer system over a global communications network using a client computer device, each user client computer device having an individual electronic connection to the global communications network.

A computer program product embodying computer program instructions for execution by a computer system for managing shipping of a plurality of parcels shipped by any one of a plurality of carriers, the computer program product comprising:

• a set of program instructions for collecting as a billing option preference for each particular user of a plurality of users a user input from the particular user of an identification of a billing option preference for parcels to be shipped by the particular user, wherein each user accesses the computer system over a global communications network using a client computer device, each user client computer having an individual electronic connection to the global communications network;
• and
• a set of program instructions for storing in a database a record corresponding to each particular user, said record comprising an identifier for the particular user and the billing option preference for the particular user.