Inlandemptycontainer depotisthenodeof empty containerallocationnetwork, whichisvery importantfor a containertransportationcompany to reducecost and improveservicequality.
You deliver them to the church or school, where they will be boxed, dispatched to a depot, loaded into a container, trucked to a port, loaded onto a boat, shipped to Haiti, unloaded, sorted, and somehow distributed who knows how many weeks from now.
Home Depot already buys from 500 suppliers in China and is the second-largest container shipper from the country, after Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ).