What is Intermodal Transportation & Why is it Important?

If you’re wondering what is intermodal transportation, you’re not alone. This is a term that logistics and 3PL professionals use to cover the transportation of a steel container filled with items using at least two transportation modes. For example, you use rail to bring products to a centralized hub and then transfer them for transport by truck, airplane, or barge.

In the transportation industry, you distinguish between intermodal and multimodal transportation. One approach requires more paperwork and planning.

With intermodal transportation, you are required to plan and contract movement for each step of the journey.

In contrast, multimodal transportation only uses one contract system, which streamlines the process since just one company handles the organizational tasks.

While the intermodal movement of goods often includes air transport, today we are covering three types of intermodal transportation: truck, rail, and barge:

In most cases, trucks are used at the beginning of the journey, such as from a factory. Shippers also often use trucks at the end of the transportation process to get items to customers.

Trains are a practical solution for the intermodal transportation of steel freight containers. You can move multiple containers at once across an entire continent at lower costs compared to trucks or airplanes.

Logistics companies, retailers, and manufacturing enterprises are the chief users of intermodal shipping.

Logistics businesses focus on coordinating the transportation of steel containers for other companies so they can focus more time and attention on their manufacturing, importing, or retailing concerns.

Manufacturers rely on intermodal transportation to move finished products to the nearest fulfillment center to serve their customers or to bring raw materials into their factories for processing.

Meanwhile, retailers depend on intermodal shipping so they can consolidate their items into single containers to improve their operational efficiency.

One of the major benefits of intermodal shipping is that it represents a much more cost-effective approach to moving items over long distances. Using a barge or a train for much of the journey reduces costs. You can also scale up how many items you transport because intermodal shipping works with individual containers or multiple containers quite efficiently. Your options are for 20-foot or 40-foot containers.

Logistics experts consider that it’s safer to use intermodal shipping because the steel containers resist tampering and theft, with container seals proving that they were not opened by anyone during transit.

A range of industries benefit greatly from using intermodal shipping to transport items from point A to point Z, as this form of optimized shipping is suitable for anything from agricultural products to mining, oil, and gas.

The electronics industry frequently uses intermodal shipping, as do the consumer goods and the food and beverage sectors. Construction, industrial, and manufacturing enterprises benefit from being able to switch seamlessly from rail to barge or truck.

To take full advantage of the benefits of intermodal shipping, here are the best practices for you and your team to follow to make the process go more smoothly:

It’s prudent to form partnerships with companies that have significant experience in intermodal shipping. You’ll be able to communicate more effectively with carriers, which is crucial for avoiding delays and ensuring smoother transitions at each point of transfer.

3PL professionals know that if you fail to plan ahead, you are essentially planning to fail.

Accordingly, you will want to take your time to thoroughly plan intermodal transportation activities. This involves knowing the key characteristics of your cargo, including its perishability and fragility, as well as its weight and size.

You should know, for example, that when budgeting for what you’ll pay for billable weight, you will not save money by putting heavy items inside a small box. Shippers use billable weight to calculate the volumetric weight of a package and then compare it to the actual weight.

What are your best options for sourcing products and determining the shipping destination? How do these factors affect the cost and time needed to transport items?

You’ll want to partner with a carrier with a reputation for reliability and maintaining compliance with safety standards.

You and your colleagues should develop contingency plans if something goes awry in your supply chain plans. For example, assess competitor carriers to work as backups, determine alternative routes, and consider other forms of transportation.

Another key factor for managing risk is to carry sufficient cargo insurance.

Above all, verify that your carriers enable clear and constant communication so you can react quickly to any problems that may arise.

To maximize efficiency and cost savings with intermodal transportation, it’s crucial to plan ahead and work with experienced logistics partners, by optimizing the movement of goods across multiple modes—whether truck, rail, or barge—you can improve supply chain reliability and reduce transportation costs.At B&C Logistics Group, we specialize in seamless, customized logistics solutions, including intermodal transportation. Our expertise ensures your shipments move efficiently from origin to destination, with careful planning, risk management, and real-time tracking. Contact B&C Logistics Group today to streamline your supply chain with trusted, expert logistics support.