1. A method of analyzing transportation data, comprising the steps of: receiving, using a computer, a transportation data set including transportation data corresponding to at least one item, wherein the transportation data includes a plurality of transportation events each having a date and a time, and wherein the event symbols corresponding to each of the transportation events are placed in order of the time and the date at which each of the transportation events occurred; converting, using the computer, a portion of the transportation data into an event string, the event string including a plurality of event symbols corresponding to a plurality of transportation events, wherein each of the plurality of event symbols corresponds to a single alphanumeric character; selectively filtering, using the computer, the event string, according to a query, to produce a filtered event string; and reporting the transportation data associated with the filtered event string.