February 1, 1999

In the last few months, the business media has gone e-commerce crazy. The sudden crush of stories on the benefits of Internet-based commerce is rivaled only by the rush of reports on investors who are willing to buy the stock of any company with a name that ends in ‘ .com ‘.

But, just as investors are overlooking the fundamentals of investment evaluation when comes to Internet stocks, the business media is equally myopic when writing about the benefits of e-commerce and how it will affect various industries. There is no doubt that the transportation industry will play a significant role in the growth of sales driven by e-commerce. However, the resulting impact on carriers’ operation – and their bottom lines – will be mixed…