Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e

12. Distribution Customer
    Service and Logistics

Text © The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

Distribution Customer Service and Logistics 345

An important advantage of using planes is that the cost of packing, unpacking,

and preparing the goods for sale may be reduced or eliminated. Planes may help a

firm reduce inventory costs by eliminating outlying warehouses. Valuable by-

products of airfreight’s speed are less spoilage, theft, and damage. Although the

transportingcost of air shipments may be higher, the totalcost of distribution may

be lower. As more firms realize this, airfreight firms—like DHL Worldwide Express,

FedEx, Airborne, and Emery Air Freight—have enjoyed rapid growth.

These firms play an especially important role in the growth of international busi-

ness. While the bulk of international cargo moves on ships, the speed of airfreight

opens up global markets for many businesses that previously had only domestic

opportunities. For example, DHL Worldwide Express offers 24-hour delivery service

from Tokyo to Los Angeles, New York to Rome, and London to Chicago. For a firm

whose products are valuable relative to their weight and size, the cost of air deliv-

eries may seem trivial when compared to the sales potential of competing in new

markets.^19

Products often move by several different modes and carriers during their journey.

This is especially common for international shipments. Japanese firms—like Sony—

ship stereos to the United States, Canada, and Europe by boat. When they arrive

at the dock, they are loaded on trains and sent across the country. Then the units

are delivered to a wholesaler by truck or rail.

Loading and unloading goods several times used to be a real problem. Parts of a

shipment would become separated, damaged, or even stolen. And handling the

goods—perhaps many times—raised costs and slowed delivery. Many of these prob-

lems are reduced with containerization—grouping individual items into an

economical shipping quantity and sealing them in protective containers for transit

to the final destination. This protects the products and simplifies handling during

shipping. Some containers are as large as truck bodies.

Piggyback servicemeans loading truck trailers—or flatbed trailers carrying con-

tainers—on railcars to provide both speed and flexibility. Railroads now pick up

truck trailers at the producer’s location, load them onto specially designed rail flat-

cars, and haul them as close to the customer as rail lines run. The trailers are then

hooked up to a truck tractor and delivered to the buyer’s door. Similar services are

offered on ocean-going ships—allowing door-to-door service between cities around

the world.

To better coordinate the flow of products between modes, transportation com-

panies like CSX offer customers a complete choice of different transportation modes.

Then CSX, not the customer, figures out the best and lowest-cost way to shift and

share transporting functions between the modes.^20

Marketing managers must be sensitive to the environmental effects of trans-

portation decisions. Some say trucks cause air pollution in already crowded cities.

People who live near airports suffer the consequences of noise pollution. A dam-

aged pipeline can spew thousands of gallons of oil before it can be repaired. The

Exxon Valdezoil spill in Alaska is a dramatic example of the kind of environmen-

tal disaster that can happen when a transportation accident occurs.

Many firms are taking steps to reduce these problems. For example, Conoco,

a subsidiary of Du Pont, is building ships with double hulls to reduce the risk of

leaks. Some trucking and railroad firms establish elaborate safety procedures for

dealing with toxic cargo. Today, the public expectscompanies to manufacture,

transport, sell, and dispose of products in an environmentally sound manner. If

companies are environmentally unsafe, consumers will show their dissatisfaction

through their market choices. However, these environmental efforts increase the

cost of distribution.^21

But airplanes may cut

the total cost of

distribution

Put it in a container—

and move between

modes easily

Piggyback—a ride on

two or more modes

Transportation choices

affect environmental

costs too