DISCRIMINATORY FREIGHT PRICING AND MARKET DEVELOPMENT

Customer location is a market‐limiting factor for the great majority of manufacturers. Under any full‐cost pricing system, companies are at their most competitive on their own doorstep and their appeal to the consumer diminishes as both the buyer's distance from the plant and the delivered price of products increase. For heavy industrial goods with a low value to weight ratio this is particularly true. The geography of actual and potential markets determines to a great extent the delivered price at which a firm is able to offer its products for sale and, as a consequence, the degree to which any particular market is exploitable.