Shipping

Shipping is a very broad term. And a very ancient one. Long before cargo planes, long haul truckers and even trains, there were ships.  Countries had fleets that sailed the seas, transporting everything from slaves to grain to the king's jewels. If it had not been for ships, the Americas would have gone undiscovered by Europeans, as would have Australia and New Zealand.

To ship simply means to transport.  Almost everything is shipped. Usually when it is, it is called freight. Even if it is across the street or across the country, if it is packed up and toted, it is transported as freight. 

Hauling freight from one destination to another, costs money. The box costs money, as does the packing material to cushion the thing from getting broken in transit. For that matter, so does the tape and the labels that lets the shipper know where the package is headed.  Then there is the labor involved. The person who packs the item, then loads it for example. Next comes the one who does the transporting and the one who unloads and delivers it. All need to be paid.  The fuel used to get the package from one place to another, whether it is diesel, coal, jet fuel or hay for the horse, costs money as well, right? It all adds up to an extra expense above and beyond the cost of the item.

That is why you pay extra for what is called Shipping and handling. Yes, sometimes it does seem to be a bit expensive, but often times people opt to pay that extra amount for the convenience of something coming to them rather than taking the time and money to go and get it themselves. Also, it may be totally impractical to go and get it. The world's marketplace has shrunk to the size of a laptop.  People from all over the world are shopping around the clock in lands whose languages they will never learn and in places they will never personally visit. 

Shipping Service  companies will continue to grow as more and more people from all over the world shop over the Internet. Online shipping is now common place. People in Asia sell goods to people in New York. It needs to be shipped.  Then a person in Chicago sees that item online and purchases it. Again, you got it. It is shipped. They display it in their store and a lady thinks it will be perfect for her grandson in San Diego.  Off it goes, once more. Whatever this in demand item is, it has almost circumvented the globe in a matter of days.  And it happens all the time.

Now if that grandma is a procrastinator and her grandson's birthday is the day after tomorrow she can opt to pay more for either express shipping or overnight shipping. Suddenly the price to ship it goes from $9.95 to $35.95. Why is it more? Extra people need to be paid to make special arrangements to get it there. It will have to travel by plane rather than truck or train - that costs. The price of the time and travel is all figured out through a Shipping Calculator. There are many online that you can use, and most of the major delivery companies have one (along with smelling salts).