TRANSPORT LOGISTICS SYSTEMS AND METHODS

1 . An integrated logistics system for managing the shipments of goods by at least one of a plurality of carriers, said system comprising:

a purchasing module evaluating proposals for respective shipments of goods and awarding contracts for the shipments said one or more carriers;

an optimization module analyzing the proposals and informing the purchasing module if an opportunity exists for at least some of the shipments to be consolidated, in which case at least one contract awarded by the purchasing module is for a consolidated group of the shipments;

a contract administration module maintaining information relating to the status of proposals received and contracts awarded by the purchasing module;

a scheduling module scheduling shipments according to the awarded contracts;

a shipment management module tracking the status of shipments awarded by the purchasing module and scheduled by said scheduling module; and

a financial module authorizing payments according to the status of shipments tracked by the shipment management module.

2 . An integrated logistics system according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of carriers includes ship owners and the logistics system includes a tanker planning module.

3 . A method of arranging for the shipment of goods by at least one of a plurality of carriers, said method comprising:

maintaining carrier information relating to each one of said plurality of carriers in a centralized logistics system;

receiving a proposal for the shipment of goods supplied from a shipper, said proposal including shipping information relating to the shipment of the goods and transaction information relating to the contract terms for the shipment;

evaluating the proposal to select a carrier from among said plurality of carriers; and

creating an electronic abstract of a contract between the shipper and the selected carrier for the shipment of goods identified in the proposal.

4 . A method of arranging for the shipment of goods as recited in claim 3 , further comprising creating an electronic abstract of the response received from the selected carrier and confirming selection of the selected carrier with the shipper using the electronic abstract of the response.

5 . A method of arranging for the shipment of goods as recited in claim 3 , wherein the carrier information includes qualification information for each one of the plurality of carriers.

6 . A method of arranging for the shipment of goods as recited in claim 5 , wherein the qualification information indicates the ability of the plurality of carriers to ship different categories of goods.

7 . A method of arranging for the shipment of goods as recited in claim 6 , wherein the different categories of goods include chemicals.

8 . A method of arranging for the shipment of goods as recited in claim 3 , further comprising sending an electronic abstract of the proposal to the potential carriers; evaluating responses to the electronic abstract received from the potential carriers, said responses including shipping information supplied by the carrier relating to the shipment of the goods of transaction information relating to the contract terms for the shipment;

selecting one of the potential carriers for the on the basis of the responses to the electronic abstract and the carrier information maintained in said centralized logistics system.

9 . A method of arranging for the shipment of goods from an origin to a destination, said method comprising:

retrieving routing information for a plurality of different transport modes;

retrieving carrier information relating to each one of a plurality of different carriers for each one of said plurality of different transport modes;

determining a routing for the shipment of goods from said origin to said destination based on said retrieved routing information; and

scheduling, via a computer network, the shipment of goods from said origin to said destination based on said carrier information.

10 . A method according to claim 8 , wherein the scheduled shipment of goods from said origin to said destination is scheduled to use at least two different transport modes.

11 . A method according to claim 9 , wherein the scheduled shipment of goods is arranged using a third party logistics system.

12 . A method according to claim 8 , wherein one of said plurality of different transport modes comprises truck transport.

13 . A method according to claim 11 , wherein said carrier information includes information relating to bulk truck carriers, truckload carriers, and less than truckload carriers.

14 . A method according to claim 11 , wherein said shipment is scheduled using information unique to truck transport.

15 . A method according to claim 9 , wherein one of said plurality of different transport modes comprises rail transport.

16 . A method according to claim 14 , wherein said shipment is scheduled using information which is unique to rail transport.

17 . A method according to claim 9 , wherein one of said plurality of different transport modes comprises containership transport.

18 . A method according to claim 16 , wherein said shipment is scheduled using information which is unique to containership transport.

19 . A method according to claim 9 , wherein one of said plurality of different transport modes comprises bulk tanker transport.

20 . A method according to claim 18 , wherein said shipment is scheduled using information which is unique to bulk tanker transport.

21 . A method according to claim 9 , wherein one of said plurality of different transport modes comprises air freight.

22 . A method according to claim 21 , wherein said shipment is scheduled using information which is unique to air freight.