E-Commerce: Implications for Supply Chain Productivity, Carrier Competitiveness, and Efficient Allocation of the External Costs of Transportation

This paper reviews the trends in market penetration of information technologies (IT) and electronic commerce (EC) in the United States. It maintains that IT and EC have fundamentally changed today's global transportation and distribution systems. Application of IT and Web-based transactions has significantly reduced supply chain costs and improved logistics efficiency. The longer- term implications of IT and EC for intermodal mode share, industry consolidation, and allocation of the external cost burden are also likely to be far-reaching. Industry competitiveness is changing as the diffusion of the new information networks creates new alliances, accelerates consolidations, and displaces some of the supply chain intermediaries. Intermodal mode share is likely to shift towards all-highway and air-highway modes as demand for time-definite deliveries grows. As freight volumes grow, congestion externalities and the environsocial costs of goods-movement are likely to mount. The gap between the full costs of expedited truck delivery and the charges paid by the users is likely to grow wider, partly reflecting the shift in the burden of funding urban highway projects downstream to state and local funding agencies. Research is needed in new decision-support systems and innovative solutions to strike an optimal balance between the tremendous benefits of the digital age and the growing social and environmental costs of a highway-centered freight transportation system.

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• Summary URL:
  http://volpedb.volpe.dot.gov/outside/owa/vntsc_outside.product_repository.display_item?p_doc_id=30312
• Authors:
  • Barami, Bahar
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 80th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington D.C.
  • Date: 2001-1-7 to 2001-1-11
• Date: 2001

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 17p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Competition; Decision support systems; Electronic commerce; Freight traffic; Information technology; Intermodal transportation; Logistics; Supply chain management
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Data and Information Technology; Freight Transportation; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01478999
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 01-3455
• Files: NTL, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Apr 22 2013 9:42AM