December 12, 2017
By: Jon McDonald
With the rise of e-commerce and the development of self-driving vehicles, both retail and transportation are fundamentally changing. The University of California Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) is continuously monitoring those changes with a focus on how the retail industry relies on transportation. The TSRC team researches solutions to help industries, policymakers, investors, and innovators address inefficiencies in their operations and promote sustainability. By researching emerging technologies, the research center is able to offer insights into how transportation affects consumer shopping behavior and merchandise delivery.
Even when Adam Cohen buys socks, he’s studying how the retail and transportation industries affect one another. He’s also looking for improvements that promote efficiency and sustainability.
Adam is a research associate with the University of California Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Research Center, and he talked to us about his recent experience buying six pairs of socks online. In the old days, buying six pairs of socks meant one trip to the mall.
Today, online ordering means convenience, but not necessarily efficiency. Adam was able to buy six pairs of socks in one online order, but each pair shipped from a different warehouse and was delivered in a separate UPS package.
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