Buying from the
comfort1st.com network of sites
The product along with
many other products are taken in a systematic
and highly efficient route to individual homes
via a light-duty delivery truck.
Figure 2 shows the
transportation chain diagram for the e-commerce
model. In the e-commerce model, the product begins
at a manufacturer and is delivered to a distributor
warehouse, again by heavy-duty truck1. While not
shown as a part of the transportation flow in
Figure 2, a customer shops for and buys a product
on the e-commerce company website. After receiving
information from the e-commerce company’s data
center that the product has been ordered and needs
to be shipped, the distributor warehouse
individually packages and sends the product to the
collecting and sorting distribution center via a
parcel service, either by airplane and truck
depending on the online consumer’s preferences for
delivery time. The product, along with other
products, is then taken to the individual homes via
a light-duty (we assume a 20,000 lb) delivery
truck.
The information above was
taken from the Carnegie Mellon study.