| CPC G06Q 10/06313 (2013.01) [G06Q 10/06314 (2013.01); G06Q 10/083 (2013.01); G06Q 30/0635 (2013.01)] | 17 Claims |
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1. A system to assess alternative vehicles for product delivery, comprising:
a delivery agent interface configured to:
operate on an electronic user device associated with a crowdsourced delivery agent, the electronic user device configured to provide cargo availability data corresponding to an available vehicular cargo space of a vehicle associated with the crowdsourced delivery agent; and
display at least a graphical icon or a visual indicator manipulatable by the crowdsourced delivery agent to indicate acceptance of a delivery opportunity presented by a control circuit, wherein the graphical icon or the visual indicator is displayed concurrently to electronic user devices associated with vehicles found suitable by the control circuit to facilitate a request for a quick delivery;
the control circuit communicatively coupled to a plurality of electronic user devices via a corresponding delivery agent interface executed by a corresponding electronic user device of the plurality of electronic user devices when in communication with the control circuit, the control circuit is configured to:
estimate delivery requirements for a purchased order, the estimated delivery requirements including a volume requirement and a geometric configuration determined by physical aspects of the purchased order;
receive cargo availability data stored in a vehicle database and representative of currently available vehicular cargo space of a plurality of vehicles associated with crowdsourced delivery agents, the cargo availability data corresponding to a time following receipt of the purchased order and at a time the crowdsourced delivery agent would pick up and load items of the purchased order for delivery, wherein the plurality of vehicles associated with the crowdsourced delivery agents are variously owned, rented, leased, and of varying makes, models, manufacturer supplied cargo space capacities, and amounts of occupied cargo space capacities;
compare the estimated delivery requirements with the cargo availability data of the plurality of vehicles associated with the crowdsourced delivery agents;
receive, from a sensor communicatively coupled to the control circuit, a location of each of the plurality of vehicles associated with the crowdsourced delivery agents;
evaluate the plurality of vehicles associated with the crowdsourced delivery agents to find one or more suitable vehicles of the plurality of vehicles associated with the crowdsourced delivery agents based on the comparison and at least one of the following: the location of each of the plurality of vehicles associated with the crowdsourced delivery agents, one or more customer preferences and availability of the plurality of vehicles associated with the crowdsourced delivery agents; and
present the delivery opportunity to the electronic user devices associated with the one or more suitable vehicles in response to the evaluation such that the electronic user devices separately display the delivery opportunity and instruct the crowdsourced delivery agents to indicate the acceptance to deliver at least a portion of the purchased order to a delivery location,
wherein the one or more customer preferences include at least one of cost preferences, vehicle preferences, delivery schedule preferences, willingness to split the purchased order into multiple deliveries, and environmental impact preferences,
wherein the purchased order comprises a list of each item purchased and the system further comprises a product database of product attributes and wherein the control circuit is further configured to estimate the delivery requirements by accessing the product database to determine at least one of: a weight, the volume requirement, and the geometric configuration of purchased items, and
wherein the delivery agent interface of the electronic user device associated with the crowdsourced delivery agent displays at least the graphical icon or the visual indicator manipulatable by the crowdsourced delivery agent to indicate the acceptance of the delivery opportunity presented by the control circuit, the crowdsourced delivery agent having a corresponding one of the one or more suitable vehicles and having been presented the delivery opportunity; and
cargo space sensors comprising an image capturing device configured to capture images of vehicular cargo space; and in evaluating the plurality of vehicles, the control circuit is further configured to evaluate the plurality of vehicles using the captured images of the vehicular cargo space.
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