2. Complete the table using suitable forms:

Verb	Noun
to replace
to receive
	transportation
	distribution
to impact
	consolidation

3. Translate English words and phrases in column a using Russian words and phrases from column b:

A	B
consignee carrier freight forwarder shipper (consignor)	грузоотправитель, владелец груза грузополучатель перевозчик экспедитор

3. Observe the words and phrases from the text “Variables Affecting Choice of Supplier, Shipment Size and Mode in Freight Transportation”:

airfreight	авиагруз
carload	партия груза на вагон
cube	объем
deep-water vessel	глубоководное судно
diesel-towed barge	буксируемая баржа с дизельным топливом
freight carrier	грузовой перевозчик
full truckload (FTL)	полный груз грузового автомобиля
haulage	перевозка; буксировка
inland shipping	внутренне судоходство
less-than-truckload (LTL)	мелкая отправка
linehaul transportation	магистральная перевозка
payload	полезный груз; грузоподъемность
rail transportation	железнодорожная перевозка
road transportation	перевозка автомобильным транспортом
sea freight	груз по морю; морской фрахт
shelf life	срок хранения
intermodal shipment	перевозка с использованием разных видов транспорта одной компанией
tradeoff	альтернатива, выбор
transaction	экономическая операция
transport cost	стоимость перевозки

3. Read and translate the text:

Variables Affecting Choice of Supplier, Shipment Size and Mode in Freight Transportation

The freight transport industry is complex and intermodal as more than one mode may be used to transport a good during its origin-destination journey. Goods are shipped under a single contract, but transportation is performed by several different modes of transport. Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck.

Railroads: Since olden times, railroads have handled the largest number of ton-miles. Railways dominated the intercity¹ freight tonnage till World War II and in some cases of Europe, Asia and Africa they even connected the countries. This early superiority enabled railways to transport large shipments very economically.

Trucking: There are three types of carriers: parcel, full truckload (FTL), and less-than-truckload (LTL). FTL carriers typically carry fully or partially-loaded containers from a shipper to a single destination. LTL carriers collect freight from different shippers, consolidating the goods into containers for line-haul to a terminal. The freight may be further sorted or consolidated at the terminal for continued hauling. Shipment of freight directly from the shipper to the destination is known as a door to door shipment. In comparison to railroads, motor carriers have relatively small fixed investments in terminal facilities and operate on publicly maintained highways. Motor carriers are best suited to handle small shipments moving short distances.

Water transport: The main advantage of water transportation is the capacity to move extremely large shipments. Water transport employs 2 types of vessels, deep-water vessels, which are generally designed for oceans and seas and diesel-towed barges, which generally operate on rivers and canals, have considerably more flexibility. Water transport ranks between rail and motor carrier in the fixed cost aspect. The main disadvantage of water transport is the limited range of operation and speed. The capability to carry very high cargo at an extremely low variable cost places this mode of transport in demand when low freight rates are desired and speed of transit is a secondary consideration.

Air transport: Its major advantage being its speed, which is accompanied by high costs. A coast-to-coast shipment via air requires only a few hours contrast to days taken by other means of transportation.

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. Vans and trucks make deliveries to sea ports and air ports where freight is moved in bulk. Thus, truck plus rail, truck plus water, and rail plus water are common multimodal combinations. In case of multimodal transportation the carrier does not possess all the means of transport in practice; the carriage is often performed by sub-carriers.

The factors influencing a shipper's choice of transport mode are complex and highly interdependent. They involve tradeoffs between the cost of transportation and overall transit time and delivery reliability. Thus, the shipper is typically the receiver's "agent" in the process and it is his wishes that are honored in the size of shipment and the choice of mode.

Ordering is a costly process. Smaller shipment sizes typically carry high unit cost of transportation, and if the shipment size is smaller than a full vehicle load, the load must be picked up at the origin by the freight carrier and consolidated before shipment, then deconsolidated and delivered at the destination end. Most LTL carriers, parcel carriers and airfreight systems perform consolidation/deconsolidation of smaller shipments into full vehicle loads. These processes are also expensive, sometimes exceeding the cost of linehaul transportation.

The determinants of the choice of transport mode are:

1. Shipper/receiver attributes: High annual use of a product allows the receiver to order large replacement shipments and to take advantage of the low transport costs afforded by economies of scale in shipping associated with large shipment sizes. Excess inventory can be avoided by ordering product more frequently in smaller shipment sizes. Clearly, rail as a mode is uniquely capable of handling larger individual shipments than truck. The typical carload can handle shipment weights up to 200,000 pounds, or more, while a maximum single unit truckload payload is around 50,000 pounds.

2. Commodity attributes: The density of a product influences the choice of vehicle either by loading "heavy," in which case payload is important, or loading "light," in which case cube is more important. Shelf life influences choice of mode by placing a premium on transit time, where longer travel time leads to less time available on the grocer's shelf before the product spoils. Loss and damage may lead to a need for emergency shipments.

3. Transport attributes: These include availability of equipment, transit time, reliability, loss and damage experience.

The most important single issue in freight transport is how to achieve a better balance between road transportation, airfreight, rail transportation, sea freight and inland shipping (haulage) taking into account differences in cost, quality of service, safety and environmental impact, and the need to build additional infrastructure.

The emerging freight transport system trends demonstrate the importance and necessity of intermodal freight transport systems. In addition, new technologies, and organizational concepts, like City Logistics and third party logistics (3PL), have been introduced in order to cope effectively with the new freight transport demand requirements.

Electronic commerce: In business to consumer (B2C) transactions, the Internet provides new opportunities for managing demand, i.e. provision of services 24 hours a day and seven days a week forming real-time connections between corporations and their distributors, resellers, suppliers (B2B transactions).

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS): The development of identification technologies (Advanced Traveller Information Systems (ATIS), Automatic Vehicle Location/Identification (AVL)/AVI) systems with vehicle routing/scheduling software) facilitate further logistics information exchange and acquisition and allow the fast and accurate tracking and tracing of shipments leading to substantial benefits, i.e. a) time savings, b) increased level of service, c) better utilization of resources, and d) better supply chain integration. In addition the provision of real-time information increases flexibility and responsiveness.