Shipping

Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.

Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck. In Air and Sea shipments, ground transportation is often still required to take the product from its origin to the airport or seaport and then to its destination. Ground transportation is typically more affordable than air shipments, but more expensive than shipping by sea.[citation needed]

Shipment of freight by trucks, directly from the shipper to the destination, is known as a door to door shipment. Vans and trucks make deliveries to sea ports and air ports where freight is moved in bulk.

Much shipping is done aboard actual ships.[citation needed] An individual nation's fleet and the people that crew it are referred to its merchant navy or merchant marine. Merchant shipping is essential to the world economy, carrying the bulk of international trade. The term shipping in this context originated from the shipping trade of wind power ships, and has come to refer to the delivery of cargo and parcels of any size above the common mail of letters and postcards.