Intermodal
What is intermodal shipping?
Intermodal shipping moves freight in a single container over at least two modes (truck, rail, ocean) without the goods themselves being touched between them: the container is lifted, the freight inside stays sealed. It trades speed for cost on long lanes, because rail carries the box far cheaper per mile than a truck does.
When it wins
- Long distances where rail's per-mile cost beats fuel and driver hours.
- Dense, heavy freight that does not need a clock on it (bulk, packaged goods).
- Lanes with reliable ramp-to-ramp service and enough volume to plan around it.
When it does not
When transit time is promised to a customer in days, when the freight needs a controlled temperature that the drayage legs keep breaking, or when the volume is too thin to justify the fixed moves at each end. Intermodal's savings live in the linehaul; its costs live at the ramps, so a lane analysis that counts only the per-mile rate tells half the story.