Abstract: A shipping system having a server with an application programming interface that allows XML formatted data to be used with the shipping server, so as to facilitate the retrieval and presentation of shipping information to a user, is disclosed. The shipping system server is accessible to users via the Internet, wherein package rating and shipping information is obtained by one or more information request queries that can be made by the user using a client software program, such as, for example, a Web browser, and standard Internet protocol such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTTP). Responses to the queries are provided in a well defined XML format having beginning and ending tags, thereby allowing easy parsing of the information contained in the responses by the client software program for presentation to the user.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a platform independent rate data structure for representing a rate chart for a carrier manager system and a method of calculating a rate using the platform independent rate data structure and carrier rate calculation software of the carrier manager system. The rate data structure represents the rate chart, and comprises a header and a data area. The header contains information which describes the content of the rate data structure. The data area may comprise a collection of expressions and a collection of subtables. The expressions are mathematical formulas representing rates. The subtables are formats representing rate chart data. A rate chart may be represented by a combination of subtables and/or expressions in a rate data structure. The amount of space required to represent the rate chart is reduced by the rate data structure representation of the present invention. The rate data structure representation is also platform independent.