Week Two Discussion 2 replies

Reply to the TWO students' discussion posts.

Contributions must display original thinking and good knowledge of the subject matter, including links and references to sources used to back up your arguments.

1. Your contribution must be a Substantial Contributions.  A Substantial Contribution is a posting that adds value to the conversation by providing relevant different views or a personal relevant experience.  A point of view from an authority on the subject is also a substantial contribution.

2. Postings such as:  I agree with Joe, ……… and  repeating what Joe has already said…are not substantial contributions and do not add value to the discussion. This person in simply using someone else's contribution, not her/his own. If you agree with someone, explain why and provide new information.

3. Provide links and references of resources used. Expert sources add credibility to your statements and provide new views on the subject.

4. This is a business course. Use professional business language. Provide facts and quantitative information such as figures (numbers), statistics, charts, graphs, to justify your arguments

Nimene Kofa

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eCommerce has significantly changed the transportation modal mix compared with the period before 2020. Before the pandemic, much of retail transportation was designed around moving larger shipments from manufacturers to distribution centers and then to brick-and-mortar stores. Truckload, rail, and ocean transportation were important because companies could consolidate large quantities of products before moving them through the supply chain. With the rapid growth of eCommerce, transportation has become more focused on smaller, more frequent shipments and faster delivery directly to customers.

The growth in eCommerce illustrates the magnitude of this change. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, eCommerce accounted for 10.7% of total U.S. retail sales in 2019 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2021). By 2025, that percentage had increased to 16.4%, with approximately $1.23 trillion in annual eCommerce sales (U.S. Census Bureau, 2026). This growth has increased the importance of parcel delivery, less-than-truckload transportation, local trucking, delivery vans, and expedited air transportation. Ocean and rail remain critical for moving large quantities over long distances, but eCommerce has placed greater pressure on the middle-mile and last-mile portions of the transportation system.

Amazon is a strong example of this transformation. Amazon operates an integrated transportation network in which products can initially move from manufacturers through  ship, aircraft, rail, or truck. In the middle mile, Amazon uses trucking, aviation, maritime transportation, and intermodal sea-and-rail transportation to move inventory among fulfillment centers, sort centers, and delivery stations. The final mile relies heavily on delivery vans, electric vehicles, and other local delivery solutions (Amazon, n.d.). This demonstrates how eCommerce has not replaced traditional transportation modes; instead, it has changed how the modes are integrated to satisfy much shorter customer delivery expectations.

In my view, the most important future transportation transformation is creating a  more intelligent and integrated multimodal network. Companies should be able to determine dynamically whether a shipment should move by truck, rail, air, ocean, or a combination based on cost, delivery requirements, capacity, emissions, and real-time disruptions. UPS, for example, identifies multimodal transportation strategies and network flexibility as increasingly important for managing disruptions and changing demand (UPS Supply Chain Solutions, 2026).

I also believe companies need to position inventory closer to customers instead of relying on expensive expedited transportation to overcome poor inventory placement. Amazon reported that locating inventory closer to customers helped it avoid approximately 127 million vehicle miles in 2025 while contributing to increased same-day and next-day deliveries (Amazon, 2026). This suggests that the future of eCommerce transportation is not simply about making trucks or aircraft move faster. It is about combining transportation technology, inventory positioning, data analytics, and multiple transportation modes into one coordinated system.

This connects with Novack et al. (2019), who explain that transportation creates both time and place utility within the supply chain. eCommerce has made these two forms of utility even more important because customers increasingly expect products to be available where they want them and within very short delivery windows. Therefore, the companies that succeed in the future will be those that integrate their transportation modes instead of managing each mode independently.

References

Amazon. (2026).  2025 Amazon sustainability report.

Amazon. (n.d.).  Transportation: Our approach to decarbonizing transportation.

Novack, R. A., Gibson, B. J., Suzuki, Y., & Coyle, J. J. (2019).  Transportation: A global supply chain perspective (9th ed.). Cengage Learning.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2021).  2019 E-Stats report: Measuring the electronic economy.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2026).  Quarterly retail e-commerce sales: Fourth quarter 2025.

UPS Supply Chain Solutions. (2026).  2026 supply chain outlook.

Jerald Henry

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Prior to 2020, retail supply chains would mostly ship to distribution centers and stores from manufacturers, and customers would go to stores to acquire the end product. This process was changed due to e-Commerce, where the last mile traveled by the consumer was replaced by the supply chain. These days, fulfillment centers send out many small parcels in various packages to scattered houses, delivering them to small customers via parcel carriers, gig couriers, pickup lockers, and curbside-collection networks. As a result, the frequency and complexity of road-based last-mile transport is increasing, and air-freight is being selected for priority transport. This trend has been further exacerbated by the pandemic, where consumers turned to online shopping and resulted in a greater strain on the last-mile capacity (Srinivas & Marathe, 2021).

Amazon shows how it is changing. It integrates with suppliers, fulfillment centers, sortation centers, delivery vans, third-party logistics providers, as well as pick-up points. This network does not limit its supply to stores, but can supply directly to the consumer who does not buy from a store. But the answer in the long-term is not simply delivery vans as these can exacerbate congestion and emissions if they are used to service a fragmented order.

The major transformation in the future is: integrated orchestration of low emission last mile with data enabling. In order to use all of these electric transportation solutions to the best effect, managers should integrate them into a single system such electric vans, cargo bikes, parcel lockers, pick-up points and dynamic route optimization. This would enable planning where each order would be matched by the optimal mode, dependent on distance, urgency, density and the capacity of the vehicles. It is not about delivering faster; it is delivering reliably with fewer vehicle miles, less emission and more asset utilization. Amazon and its logistics companies should publish demand and routing data with cities and carriers and facilitate more consolidated and electric deliveries. It is all here in one and can maintain the convenience of e-Commerce without the inefficiencies of a one package one door delivery.

 

Reference

Srinivas, S. S., & Marathe, R. R. (2021). Moving towards “mobile warehouse”: Last-mile logistics during COVID-19 and beyond.  Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 10, 100339.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2021.100339