sat suite question viewer
With the ongoing expansion of e-commerce, consumers are expecting faster and faster delivery of goods, but delivery companies continue to struggle with last-mile logistics (the final step in delivery to consumers) due to challenges such as complex and inefficient delivery routes. Innovations to mitigate these challenges have been emerging—the use of aerial drones, for example—but these innovations tend to engender their own complications (e.g., regulations on the use of drones in residential airspace), leading researchers to conclude that blank
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Explanation
Choice A is the best answer because it most logically completes the text’s discussion of consumer expectations and the struggles delivery companies face. The text states that while consumers expect ever-faster delivery of goods, delivery companies "continue to struggle with last-mile logistics." The text further explains that innovations aimed at addressing this challenge have a tendency to cause complications of their own. Because escalating consumer demands for speed are paired with persistent, complex delivery obstacles and new problems arising from attempted solutions, it logically follows that consumer expectations for delivery times may be exceeding what companies can feasibly provide.
Choice B is incorrect because the text doesn’t address the idea of delivery volumes at all and makes it clear that companies are already aware of and trying to address consumers’ expectations for delivery. Further, the challenge presented at the end of the text relates to new problems that tend to arise with solutions for logistical problems, not to a lack of understanding of what consumers want or how delivery volumes fluctuate. Choice C is incorrect. The text does suggest that rapid delivery is important for customer satisfaction and thus is a beneficial investment for companies, but that idea is already presented in the beginning of the text and doesn’t logically follow as a conclusion from the information about innovations companies are exploring to solve last-mile logistics problems; the idea that the potential solutions tend to introduce new issues points to the feasibility of meeting consumer expectations, not to the general fact that it would be beneficial to reduce delivery times. Choice D is incorrect because the text doesn’t suggest that there may be insufficient incentive for delivery companies to try to solve last-mile logistics problems—on the contrary, the text directly indicates that delivery companies are already actively pursuing innovations to try to address those problems, citing the example of the use of aerial drones, even though the innovations can introduce new complications.