A METHOD AND SYSTEM OF ASSIGNING RATES BASED ON CLASS SERVICE AND DISCOUNT LEVEL

The invention is a method and system of assigning and updating rates withi n an electronic scale, wherein the rates are based upon class service and discount level. A set of classes of service available for a particular carrier is established. Each one of the classes comprises one or more discount levels. The classes are embedded into the memory of an electronic scale and a set of data comprising the classes is made available to the system. Updating of the data in the embedde d set of classes, is accomplished by defining the update data and the one or more discount levels which are available in each class. A system user limits the classes for which they want access and the carrier and/or service choices are encode d; the encoding determining a unique number that is indicative of the parameters selected by a system user for a particular system. The unique number comprises: a carrier token; a class token; and a set of discount level bytes representative of th e available discount within the class. The unique number is entered through a setup program embedded in the scale and triggers access to services represented by the class. The system uses the newly available data to supersede corresponding data in the embedded set of classes to create a set of new data. An alternative embodime ntof the present invention allows linking of the electronic scale with a data center via communication means such as InterNet access.