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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.
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
90% of international trade with 50,000 merchant ships worldwide. 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.
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