Abstract: A planning engine for use in a planning system which is in turn used to plan shipment of a parcel of at least one item, the planning including routing and rating the shipment. The planning system, of which the planning engine is a component, includes a router for determining possible routes for the shipment (each route a carrier and a service), a rater for rating each possible route, a consolidator for attempting to consolidate a list of shipments, and a prorater for allocating costs of a consolidation among the consolidated shipments, and also has read and write access to a shipping database.

Abstract: A system for managing shipping parcels that includes a specially adapted set of load planning tables, or, from another aspect, a set of load planning tables for use with a system for managing shipping parcels. The system includes: a planning system for providing a rated route; and a shipping database for providing stored planning information and for providing a stored rated route for shipping the parcel.

Abstract: A router utility and corresponding method for routing a load of one or more shipments of parcels, for use in a system for managing shipping parcels that includes a shipping database and a planning engine that provides load information for the load indicating a load identifier. The router utility includes: an input module for providing the load identifier included in the load information, and an analyzer for providing a carrier and service list.