What steps do goods have to go through to arrive in customers’ hands after leaving factories? How does their cost increase step after step? High transportation cost have been long complained about by people， be it the exorbitant tolls in He’nan province， or the super length high way fees in Guangdong province. Recently， vegetable prices reduced quite low in production sites. T e purchase prices of some vegetables in fi eld are around fi ve to six fen. However， their prices at food market in towns and supermarkets remain more than two yuan. Why is the price so high?Market prices of vegetables are as much as 20 times of prices in production sites.According to some research by Beijing Logistics Association， it’s very difficult to transport vegetables into towns; carried from wholesale market to supermarkets， their prices quadruple.Currently squashes sell at one iao per kilogram at production sites in Shandong. Reporters fi nd that the same kind of squashes sells at two yuan per kilogram in several community green grocer’s shops in Beijing， rising by 19 times.How do vegetable prices grow up so high? Transported from Shanxi to Xinfadi， an agricultural products wholesale market outside the Fourth Ring of Beijing， the wholesale price of squashes， the original price of which s one jiao per kilogram at production site， rises to fi ve jiao per kilogram， with tucking fees and Xinfadi market cost added. A green grocer told reporters that they can make one or two hundred yuan per truck; sometimes they even run the business with a loss.Although the Shandong greengrocer knows that squashes sell at two yuan per kilogram in town， he can only do business at Xinfadi， because his truck was not allowed to drive into town.As in a relay race， some other greengrocers transported vegetables from Xinfadi outside the Southern Fourth Ring to Yuegezhuang Vegetable Market inside Western Fourth Ring. T e price now increases 30 per cent to seven jiao per kilogram， with truckage and booth rent added， although the distance between the two markets is not long.Ms. Yang， who was selling vegetables in the community， said it is really difficult to transport vegetables into town; every time she was so apprehensive and had to be extremely cautious; there are so many steps to go through that vegetables are damaged a lot along the way. Besides grocers also have to calculate booth rent， cleaning fees， water electricity fees etc， which cost them more than 2，000 yuan， to set vegetable prices.An investigation by Beijing Logistics Association shows that the trucking cost to transport vegetables from wholesale market to retail market， the last kilometer， is at least 2.5 times of he trucking cost to transport vegetables from Shouguang Shandong province to Beijing. T e Vice Secretary General Xiao Hesen told reporters that wholesale prices are two， even three times of purchasing prices at production sites; however， prices skyrocket during the process from wholesale market to supermarkets. Take cabbage for example. T e purchasing price at production sites is 0.8 jiao per kilogram; price grows to three jiao at Xinfadi Wholesale Market and further to 1.6 yuan kilogram in supermarkets. T at is to say price quadruples during the process from wholesale to supermarket and the fi nal retail price is as much as 20 times of that in production sites.Driving is hard， so is parking. Logistics vehicles all around the city.Logistics companies are troubled with the problems of blocked roads， prohibited trucks and rare parking space during the last kilometer to get into the city.Vegetable prices rise a lot because of the current challenges facing logistics. What about the transportation of other commodities?At 8:00 am in a warehouse on the Eastern Fifth Ring Road， delivery personnel were assorting and loading clothes， shoes， and socks sent from all parts of the country， which would be then transported to several markets in downtown areas of Beijing. Mr. Kou， a truck driver， was told to deliver goods to Zhongguancun.According to rules set by Beijing government， a truck needs freight pass to enter the Fourth Ring Road， which Mr. Kou didn’t get for his truck. Li Chun， another truck driver， was to deliver goods to six shopping malls in Wangfujing. Although the truck of Li Chun has freight pass， it cannot be driven into the Fourth Ring Road during two time periods: 7:00-9:00 am and 4:00-8:00 pm.Mr. Kou chose to drive around the Fifth Ring Road. He told the reporter， it would be nearer to go along the Fourth Ring Road， but he was afraid of traffi c police. T e fi nes he paid one year would be as much as more than 1，000 yuan.At 9:00 am， cars， large or small， delivering goods into the city were running on the roads. Li Chun was blocked in Wangfujing business area. He said the roads are most blocked on Mondays， Wednesdays and Fridays. Often the congestion would last for two hours.Around 10:00 am Mr. Kou and Li Chun both arrived at their respective destinations to unload. However， they run into the same problem: there was no place to park the car. Although there was an underground parking lot， however there was also a limitation on the height of the car: no more than 1.8 meters. T ere’s no way to drive a two-meter or three-meter height truck in. In case of traffi c police fines， Li Chun dared not walk away from the car.By 1:00 pm， three hours to the limitation time， Mr. Kou still had six markets to go to， while Li Chun had four. Both started to worry that they couldn’t fi nish the fast. If so they have to wait in the city till 8:00 to go back. In this way， parking fee only would cost about 100 yuan. If they deliver for six markets one day， they will lose money instead of making any after paying 100 yuan for fuel expenses.Yun Mian， the Director of Operations of Delide Logistics Ltd.， told reporters that Wangfujing and Zhongguancun where Li Chun and Mr. Kou went are two shopping districts with large freight volumes and most limitations on trucks. Logistics companies in Beijing have long been troubled by the problem of how to deliver goods into these areas. Logistics companies are troubled with the problems of blocked roads， prohibited trucks and rare parking space during the last kilometer to get into the city.Some data released by China Federation of Logistics Purchasing(CFLP) shows that expenses on logistics took a proportion of 18 per cent or so of the Domestic Gross Product(GDP)， twice that of developed countries. High logistics cost is a major cause of the exorbitant prices of goods. Trucks are hard to drive because of traffi c jam and limitation on the vehicles; besides， it’s difficult to find parking places for trucks. Roads are blocked by logistics vehicles， which pushes up commodity prices at last. Sources say that 90 per cent of the time for a commodity to reach a customer is spent on storage， transportation， packaging， distribution etc， resulted from low effi cient logistics businesses and resulting in high commodity prices.
